Women, Beauty and Power in Early Modern England : A Feminist Literary History

Divided into three sections on cosmetics, clothes and hairstyling, this book explores how early modern women regarded beauty culture and in what ways skin, clothes and hair could be used to represent racial, class and gender identities, and to convey political, religious and philosophical ideals. In early modern England, beautiful women occupied a central cultural place. As subjects of poetry and painting by men, Sidney's Stella, Spenser's Elizabeth, and Shakespeare's Dark Lady are well known. We know much less about how early modern women regarded beauty culture. Divided into three sections, on cosmetics, clothes, and hairstyling, individual chapters focus on fiction by Aphra Behn, Mary Wroth, and Margaret Cavendish, advice by Elizabeth Jocelin, Queen Henrietta's Maria's masques and a printed volume of recipes, and manuscript writing--domestic recipe collections, account books, letters, and historical chronicles-by Margaret Spencer, Brilliana Harley, Anne Clifford, and others. Through beauty practices, women developed their knowledge of medicine and employed their understanding of the body's cultural meanings. Skin, clothes, and hair could be used to represent racial, class, and gender identities, to convey political, religious, and philosophical ideals, and to question how literature commonly represented women as objects of desire Cover......Page 1 List of Contents......Page 8 List of Illustrations......Page 10 Acknowledgements......Page 11 Introduction......Page 12 'Nature's Coin': The Traditions of Early Modern Beauty......Page 13 Beauty's Practices: A Feminist Literary History......Page 17 ‘The Poetry of Women'......Page 24 Part One: Cosmetics......Page 30 1 ‘The Beautifying Part of Physic': Women's Cosmetic Practices in Early Modern England......Page 32 The 'Choicest and Select'd Receps' of Women......Page 33 Mercury's Artists......Page 39 Conclusion......Page 46 2 'Soveraigne Receipts', Fair Beauty and Race in Stuart England......Page 49 Physic and the Queen's Amazonian Beauty in Salmacida Spolia......Page 51 The Politics of Beauty in The Queens Closet Opened......Page 58 Whiteness in Aphra Behn's The Wandring Beauty......Page 63 Conclusion......Page 71 Part Two: Clothes......Page 74 3 The Greatness in Good Clothes: Fashioning Subjectivity in Mary Wroth's Urania and Margaret Spencer's Account Book (BL Add. MS 62092)......Page 76 How Clothes Make the Woman......Page 79 A 'Princesse without a Country, cloathes, or servants' in the Urania......Page 81 Inwardness and Economics in Margaret Spencer's Account Book......Page 87 Conclusion......Page 95 4 What Not to Wear: Children's Clothes and the Maternal Advice of Elizabeth Jocelin and Brilliana, Lady Harley......Page 97 The Governance of Clothing......Page 98 Elizabeth Jocelin Against the 'Fashionists'......Page 106 Brilliana, Lady Harley, and the 'Garment of Holiness'......Page 114 Conclusion......Page 121 Part Three: Hair......Page 124 5 The Culture of the Head: Hair in Mary Wroth's Urania and Margaret Cavendish's 'Assaulted and Pursued Chastity'......Page 126 The Culture of Natural Hair......Page 127 'Compositions of the Hair' in the Urania......Page 135 Margaret Cavendish and Imperial Hair......Page 144 Conclusion......Page 154 6 An 'absolute Mistris of her Self': Anne Clifford and the Luxury of Hair......Page 155 Lady Anne Clifford's Inheritance of Beauty......Page 159 'Mistris of her Self': The Baldness of the Baroness of Westmorland......Page 171 Conclusion......Page 189 Notes......Page 191 Index......Page 231 Divided Into Three Sections On Cosmetics, Clothes And Hairstyling, This Book Explores How Early Modern Women Regarded Beauty Culture And In What Waysskin, Clothes And Hair Could Be Used To Represent Racial, Class And Gender Identities, And To Convey Political, Religious And Philosophical Ideals-- Machine Generated Contents Note: -- Introduction -- Part One: Cosmetics -- 'the Beautifying Part Of Physic': Women's Cosmetic Practices In Early Modern England -- 'soveraigne Receipts,' Fair Beauty, And Race In Stuart England -- Part Two: Clothes -- The Greatness In Good Clothes: Fashioning Subjectivity In Mary Wroth's Urania And Margaret Spencer's Account Book -- What Not To Wear: Children's Clothes And The Maternal Advice Of Elizabeth Jocelin And Brilliana, Lady Harley -- Part Three: Hair -- The Culture Of The Head: Hair In Mary Wroth's Urania And Margaret Cavendish's 'assaulted And Pursued Chastity' -- An 'absolute Mistress Of Her Self': Anne Clifford And The Luxury Of Hair -- Conclusion -- Index. Edith Snook. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. "A masterful, eloquent, and convincing interpretation of the early modern culture of beauty which has vast implications for myriad areas of critical and historical interest beyond this topic alone."--Patricia Phillippy, Kingston University, UK