Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

17 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

FACE-PAINTING. |

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

FACE-PAINTING. | To the above we may attach the following on a correlative subject, from the same book:— Long as patching lasted, it was but a thing of the day compared'with the more reprehensible custom of painting—a custom common to all ages, and pretty nearlv all countries since Jezebel painted her face and tired her head and looked out at a window," as the avenging Jehu entered in at the gate. There is evidence of English women using paint as early as the the fourteenth century, and the practice seems to have been common when Shakespeare tried his 'prentice hand on the drama. And when bitter Philip Stubbs complains that his countrywomen are not contented with a face of Heaven's making, but must "adul- terate the Lord's workmanship" with far-fetched, dear. bought liquors, unguents, and cosmetics, the worthy Puritan only echoes Hamlet's reproach:—"I have heard of your paintings too, well enough. God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another." When Sir John Harrington declared he would rather salute a lady's glove than her lip or her cheek, he justified his seeming bad taste with the rhymes- If with my reason you would be acquainted, <! Your glove's perfumed, your lip and cheek are pair> Overbury describesa lady ofthe^en^fh her face in the glass eve^ morn^ and M t Qut stood byready to write ^red^ begt'Qr WQr^ pale t ere» wealth existed no respectable As long as the Con^ chetk but charlesll. had woman dare t Whitehall before the practice was n ej(jn,a'Xfe disgust of Evelyn and the discontent of pV1^ The latter vows he loathes Nelly Gwyn and ^JTKnipp (two of his especial favourites), and hates nis relative, pretty Mrs. Pierce, for putting red on their faces. Bulwer says:—" Sometimes they think they have too much colour, then they use art to make them pale and fair; now they have too little colour, then Spanish paper, red-leather, or other cosmeticaL- rubrics must be had." A little further on he accuses the gallants of beginning to vie patches and beauty spots, nay, painting, with the tender and fantastical ladies." Painting flourished under Anne. An unfortunate husband writes to the "Spectator" in 1711, asking if it be the law that a man marrying a woman, and finding her not to be the woman he intended to marry, can have a separation, and whether his case does not come within the meaning of the statute. Not to 2eep you in suspense," he says, as for my dear, never man was so enamoured as I was of her fair forehead, neck, and arms, as well as the bright jet of her hair; but, to my great astonishment, I find they were all the effect of art. Her skin ii so tarnished with this practice that when she first wakes in the morning she scarce seems young enough to be the mother of her whom I carried to bed the night before. I shall take the liberty to part with her by the first opportunity, unless her father will make her portion suitable to her real, not her assumed countenance." The'' Spectator" enters thereupon into a description of the Picts, as hejpalls the painted ladies. "The Picts, though never so beautiful, have dead, uninformed countenances. The muscles of a real face sometimes work with soft passions, sudden surprises, and are flushed with agreeable confusions, according as the object before them, or the ideas presented to them. affect their imaginations. But the Picts behold all things with the same air, whether they are joyful or sad; the same fixed insensibility appears on all occasions. A Pict, though she takes all the pains to invite the approach of lovers, is obliged to keep them at a certain distance a sigh in a languishing lover, if fetched too near, would dissolve a feature; and a kiss snatched by a forward one might transform the complexion of the mistress to the admirer. It is hard to speak of these false fair ones without saying something uncomplaisant, but I would only recommend them to consider how they like coming into a room newly painted they may assure themselves the near approach of a lady who uses this practice is much more offensive." If Walpole is to be believed, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu not only used the cheapest white paint she could get, but left it on her skin so long that it was obliged to be scraped off her. More than one belle of his time killed herself with painting, like beautiful Lady Coventry, whose husband used to chase her round the dinner-table, that he might remove the obnoxious colour with a napkin! Would that we could say that rouge, pearl-powder, and the whole tribe of cosmetics were strangers to the toilet-tables of our own day—a glance at the shop-window of a fashionable perfumer forbids us laying the flattering unction to our soul- that ladies no longer strive to With curious arts dim charms revive And triumph in the bloom of fifty-live. and tempts us, in the words of an old author, to exclaim:—" From beef without mustard, from a servant who overvalues himself, and from a woman who painteth herself, good Lord deliver us

A NEW MILITARY FOUNDER!

PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND THE…

[No title]

THE WRONGS OF THE STOMACH.

A CASE OF UNDYING REVENGE!…

FLOWERS IN PARIS!

THE CENTENARIANS OF 1863.

FACE-PATCHING AND PAINTING.

HOW A PRIEST SOLD HIS GOD…

MADNESS AND MURDER!

SKATING DANGERS

.EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN.

A PETTY TYRANT AND HIS TOMB.

A CONTRAST.

LONDON to be ECLIPSED by PARIS!

.llktllitrats §mml ftcius.