Reading: Spectator
My reward reading has been all over the 17th C this week, so this evening’s foray was into Spectator. For the fun of it I looked up July 18th 1712, and the essay was the second of two parts, about men and women having civilized one another in their savage past: the men were coarse, bearded, didn’t pare their nails, and violent until their yearly visit to the females, and as for the females, until they started wishing to please their men on that single yearly visit, here is how they were raised in their ancient, Amazonian republic…
The girls of quality, from six to twelve years old, were put to public schools, where they learned to box and play at cudgels, with several other accomplishments of the same nature; so that nothing was more usual than to see a little miss returning home at night with a broken pate, or two or three teeth knocked out of her head. They were afterwards taught to ride the great horse, to shoot, dart or sling, and listed into several companies, in order to perfect themselves in military exercises. No woman was to be married until she had killed her man.
The ladies of fashion used to play with young lions instead of lap-dogs; and when they made any parties of diversion, instead of entertaining themselves at ombre or piquet, they would wrestle and pitch the bar for a whole afternoon together. There was never any such thing as a blush seen, or a sigh heard, in the commonwealth. The women never dressed but to look terrible; to which end they would sometimes, after a battle, paint their faces with the blood of their enemies. For this reason, likewise, the face which had the most scars was looked upon as the most beautiful. If they found lace, jewels, ribands, or any ornaments in silver or gold, among the booty which they had taken, they used to dress their horses with it, but never entertained a thought of wearing it themselves…
One finds an amazing amount of gender politics in Spectator, but then ever since women of all levels in society became literate they were busy redefining themselves, and their place in the world. France, not having had the Cromwellian upheaval midway through the previous century, got a head start, thus we have the salons and the delights of the ruelles.
Anyway, picking Spectator up and opening it anywhere can be so fascinating, the moreso since it seems that Addison and Steele did not write all the articles, but quite a few of them were actually penned by Mary Wortley Montagu.
The girls of quality, from six to twelve years old, were put to public schools, where they learned to box and play at cudgels, with several other accomplishments of the same nature; so that nothing was more usual than to see a little miss returning home at night with a broken pate, or two or three teeth knocked out of her head. They were afterwards taught to ride the great horse, to shoot, dart or sling, and listed into several companies, in order to perfect themselves in military exercises. No woman was to be married until she had killed her man.
The ladies of fashion used to play with young lions instead of lap-dogs; and when they made any parties of diversion, instead of entertaining themselves at ombre or piquet, they would wrestle and pitch the bar for a whole afternoon together. There was never any such thing as a blush seen, or a sigh heard, in the commonwealth. The women never dressed but to look terrible; to which end they would sometimes, after a battle, paint their faces with the blood of their enemies. For this reason, likewise, the face which had the most scars was looked upon as the most beautiful. If they found lace, jewels, ribands, or any ornaments in silver or gold, among the booty which they had taken, they used to dress their horses with it, but never entertained a thought of wearing it themselves…
One finds an amazing amount of gender politics in Spectator, but then ever since women of all levels in society became literate they were busy redefining themselves, and their place in the world. France, not having had the Cromwellian upheaval midway through the previous century, got a head start, thus we have the salons and the delights of the ruelles.
Anyway, picking Spectator up and opening it anywhere can be so fascinating, the moreso since it seems that Addison and Steele did not write all the articles, but quite a few of them were actually penned by Mary Wortley Montagu.