'A dateless lively heat': Happy Valentine's!

In keeping with today's theme of love, all things heart-shaped and amorous, I thought it might be fun to share a few early-modern (and, I admit, some eighteenth- and nineteenth-century ones) that reflect today's warm and fuzzy feeling. (And if that warm, fuzzy feeling is only provided by your furry slippers this year, then that's fine, too!)

All of the images are courtesy of Wellcome Images.

Cupid dissecting a heart (1665)

The treatment of a love-sick woman (representing the Netherlands) (1672)

Cupid armed with a bow and arrow flies through the window (18th century)

A woman with bulging eyes, expressing desire through her face (1770)

A woman, the physiognomy of whom expresses attention excited by desire (1792)

A bewildered doctor taking the pulse of a love-sick woman (1802)

A young woman in love clasps her hands against her heart (1830)

There will be another post coming up over the weekend on some 'Bellifying Receipts', so keep your eyes peeled!

© Jenna Townend 2014

FWSA Blog post

Recently, I had the pleasure of writing an article for the FWSA blog. Their theme for August's posts was groundbreaking women or feminists, and so I chose to write an article on Jane Sharp - the groundbreaking seventeenth-century midwife who wrote and published The Midwives Book.

If you didn't see the lovely tweets the the FWSA's Twitter account (@FWSAuk) posted about it, or simply would like to have a read of it, please click below and check it out!

http://fwsablog.org.uk/2013/08/23/mrs-jane-sharp-a-pioneering-midwife-discovered/

However, if nineteenth-century literature is more your thing, there is also a brilliant new post by Lynn Shepherd that has just been added entitled 'Was Mary Shelley a feminist?':

http://fwsablog.org.uk/2013/08/26/wasmaryshelleyafeminist/

Birth, babies and midwives

In light of the birth of the Royal baby on Monday and the newly breaking news that he will go by the name of George Alexander Louis, I thought that now is a particularly apt time to reflect on how our ideas, and indeed experiences, of birth have changed (or not, as the case may be!) over the centuries from the early-modern period.

Much medical and gynecological knowledge available in the seventeenth-century stemmed from translations of classical sources, including Galen and Hippocrates. In a culture dominated by male translations and reflections on these works, such as those of Nicholas Culpeper, Jane Sharp's achievement in The Midwives Book (1671) is perhaps one of the most remarkable in terms of helping our understanding of labour and birth in the seventeenth century. Though her treatise is an amalgamation of voices since she essentially cuts and pastes sections from other midwifery manuals and classical sources, her own voice and tone is often unmistakable.

Though midwives (thankfully?!) do not now 'annoint [their] hands with Oyl of Lillies, and the Womans Secrets' (p. 153) and instead favour latex gloves for internal examinations, much of what I have transcribed below certainly still has echoes with the modern practice of midwifery.

In Book IV of her text, Sharp sets out 'Rules for Women that are come to their Labour':

- 'When the Patient feels her Throws coming she should walk easily in her Chamber, and then again lye down, keep her self warm, rest her self and then stir again, till she feels the waters coming down and the womb to open; let her not lye long a bed, yet she may lye sometimes and sleep to strengthen her, and to abate pain' (p. 145).

- 'Take notice that all women do not keep the same posture in their delivery; some lye in their beds, being very weak, some sit in a stool or chair, or rest upon the side of the bed, held by other women that come to the Labor' (p. 153).

- 'The danger were much to force delivery, because when the woman hath laboured sore, if she rest not a while, she will not be able presently to endure it, her strength being spent before' (p. 156).

As we can see from these excerpts, though our medical knowledge surrounding labour and its complexities has of course changed dramatically, some of this most basic, yet credible, advice for a woman giving birth is really not so different to what mothers are told today.

Whilst here I have spoken about the intrapartum element of childbirth, if you are interested in what Sharp recommends for the postpartum care of new mothers, I would definitely recommend that you head over and have a read of Jennifer Evans's blog on this very subject! Take a look at it here: http://earlymodernmedicine.com/beyond-birth/

1. Jane Sharp, The Midwives Book, ed. by Elaine Hobby (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).
2. Frontispiece image taken from the electronic edition of The Midwives Book on EEBO.
3. An engraving of a pregnant woman on a birthing stool, surrounded by her midwife and gossips. Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1449803/

© Jenna Townend 2013

Review: 'This I Warn You in Love': Witness of Some Early Quaker Women

The world of female Quakers who lived, operated, and preached in the seventeenth century is still a relatively untilled field of early-modern research. A couple of weeks ago, I did a post on Dorothea Gotherson, and her firm belief in the necessity of female modesty and decorum. I was pointed to Gotherson's work from reading 'This I Warn You in Love': Witness of Some Quaker Women, a booklet that was written by two of my lecturers at Loughborough, Elaine Hobby and Catie Gill, and published this year by The Kindlers. The booklet was so insightful and thought provoking, that I thought I would give an overview of it here!

The booklet is set out with an introduction to the fundamental principles of Quaker women, and an account of the movement's progression during the seventeenth century. One of the most significant things that the introduction notes is that Quaker writers, and thus Quaker women, believed their relationship with God to be intensely personal, and that God was working with them. This is something that is explicitly present in several of the extracts transcribed in the booklet. Furthermore, the introduction explains the fact that Quakers had a great dislike of the strict formalities that had come to dominate religious worship. Quakers firmly believed that these practices had distanced Christians from the dedication seen in early Christianity, and were keen to encourage worshippers to re-engage with it. This, too, is shown to be a recurring theme throughout the excerpts in the booklet.

There are six excerpts in the booklet, focusing on the work of the following Quaker women: Sarah Blackborow, Margaret Abbott, Priscilla Cotton, Mary Cole, Katherine Evans, Sarah Cheevers, Dorothea Gotherson, Margaret Killin, Barbara Patison, Hester Biddle and Dorothy Waugh. As well as these prose extracts in the booklet, an audio recording of them is also included on a CD. Hearing these accounts being read aloud really brings them to life, and the words of these Quaker women take on a new resonance. 

Below I have picked out a couple of my favourite sections from the work of Sarah Blackborow and Margaret Abbott that highlight the potential for a highly personal relationship with God, and the dislike of highly-organised and formal worship or religion.

1) Sarah Blackborow, A Visit to the Spirit in Prison (1658):
'A love there is which doth not cease to the seed of God in you all; and therefore doth invite you everyone, priest and people, to return in to it, that into Wisdom's house you may come, where there is a feast provided of all things well refined'.

2) Margaret Abbott, A Testimony against the False Teachers of this Generation (1658):
'You shall be made anew by the power of the pure spirit of the Son of God. It will teach you to deny all ungodliness. You shall need go to no man to be taught. It will bring you out of all the ways of the world, fashions, customs and traditions...'

The tenacity, self-belief, and sheer determination of these radical women is remarkable, and I would urge anyone with an interest in religious writing to get hold of a copy of this booklet; it will certainly open your eyes to this fascinating world.

'Male and Female Quakers at their Assembly', French School, 17th century

Source: http://firstyear.barnard.edu/americas/puritans/images

© Jenna Townend 2013

Hardwick Hall: 'more glass than wall'

In light of the sudden spurt of summer over the last few days, I confess that I have rather been neglecting my reading and writing of blog posts. The combination of being at home in West Cornwall, blazing hot sunshine and beaches are not especially conducive to work!

I did, however, just want to share with you a few photos that I rediscovered on my iPhone this week. For my birthday in May, my parents came up to Loughborough for the weekend and one day we went over to Hardwick Hall. The house is truly one of the most magnificent things I have ever seen: the adage that it is 'more glass than wall' is certainly true! Of course, in the early-modern period, glass was extremely expensive, and so the amount of window glass on display at Hardwick functions as an external symbol of wealth, class, and social status. Along with the initials of Bess of Hardwick (E. S. - Elizabeth Shrewsbury) that are set atop the Hall's roof, its external facade is certainly something to behold, and this was clearly Bess's intention! There would have been no mistaking the wealth of the Hall's owner as visitors drew close to it. I think that there is something really exciting about being able to literally walk in the footsteps of those who lived and breathed in the period that you are researching, and if any of you have the opportunity to visit Hardwick Hall, I would highly recommend it. I would also recommend the restaurant's fine selection of cake, particularly if you happen to have a penchant for Guinness cake, or beetroot and chocolate cake (yes, really)!

The first two pictures are of the original Hardwick Hall, Bess's childhood home. Eventually, with her accumulated wealth, she returned to the site and re-built the Hall in the place where it stands today (see bottom picture).

© Jenna Townend 2013

Dorothea Gotherson: in search of demureness and decorum

A lot of people will have heard of several prominent Quaker preachers, such as George Fox, from the early days of the movement in the seventeenth-century. However, often relegated to the shadows of history (but thankfully enjoying a resurgence in popularity in recent years), are the Quaker women who were equally fundamental in the establishment of the Quaker movement in England, and further afield. One of these women was Dorothea Gotherson.

In this extract of To All that Are Unregenerated, Gotherson takes the female fashions of Charles II’s court to task, and criticises them for their ostentatiousness and vanity. For Quakers, the decorum and modesty required in an individual’s spiritual life should be visible in all aspects of their person, including their clothing and appearance. It is surely not surprising, therefore, that the court was Gotherson’s chosen target, given its infamy for indulgence.

The persona that Gotherson presents in this excerpt (and indeed for much of the rest of her work), is, I’m sure you’ll agree, absolutely marvellous. I think that it is a brilliant example of Quaker women as prophetesses.

‘And all ye Ladies of England, who walk with stretched-out necks, and wanton eyes, mincing as you go, and making a clattering with your feet, curling your hair, and painting and spotting your faces, wearing gorgeous array, and the like; why consider, when  you come to give an account for all things done in the body, where will you appear? For none of this adornes the Gospel; God works none of these works in you or for you; and one day you shall know you have not lived and moved in him, for he is the author of none of this: you shall not have so much time for sinning as you have had heretofore if you will not bow to the righteous law written in the heart, that which reproves in secret for these and all other sins, you shall fall and perish in them; for in the grave there is no repentance. Let no blinde guide or merchant of souls sell you any longer to work wickedness…’ (pp. 77-9). 

1. Dorothea Gotherson, To All That are Unregenerated a Call to Repentance (London: 1661), in EEBO.

An excellent introduction to the work of early Quaker women (including more of an insight into Dorothea Gotherson) can be found in 'This I Warn You In Love': Witness of Some Early Quaker Women, a short book written by Elaine Hobby and Catie Gill and published this year by The Kindlers.

© Jenna Townend 2013

John Baptista Porta and 'sports against women'

In my last post, I spoke a little bit about John Baptista Porta's 1658 work Natural Magick, and outlined some of his remedies for 'beautifying women' that are contained in the book's ninth chapter. Most interestingly, though, this chapter is concluded by half a page of suggestions for 'some sports against women', an idea which can surely be paraphrased as 'practical jokes'. Whilst some readers might read this as undermining their belief in the credibility of what Porta has outlined in the preceding pages, what struck me most was the very real sense of humour that comes across at the end of this chapter. Porta seems to acknowledge two things: firstly, beauty remedies are indeed useful and desirable for women, and, secondly, that these remedies also offer an opportunity for some, erm, tricks to be played at the expense of some of the vainer women in his readership. It should be said, though, that Pliny and Avicenna seem to be the root culprits for these jokes, rather than Porta himself.

Below I have transcribed my three favourite examples of these practical jokes. I do not, however, take any responsibility for providing any readers with ammunition to enact these tricks on siblings / flatmates / spouses! All of the following quotations are taken from the EEBO edition of the 1658 work, and are from p. 253.

'To make a woman full of red pimples.

Of a Stellio is made an ill Medicament: for when he is dead in Wine, all the Faces of those that drink of it, will be red-spotted Wherefore, they that would disfigure Whores, kill him in an Oyntment. The Remedy is, the yelk of an Egg, Honey and Glass. Pliny'.

'To make the Face green.

Avicenna saith, That the Decoction of Chamaeleon, put into a bath, will make him green-coloured that stays long in that bath; and then by degrees he will recover his former colour'.

'To make the Hair fall off the Head and Beard.

Touch any part of mans body with a matter white as milk, that the Salamander vomits up out of its mouth, and the Hairs will fall off; and what is touched is changed into the Leprosie. Pliny'.

The writers of Bride Wars could have done with access to Porta's text, too!

1. John Baptista Porta, Natural Magick (London: 1658), in EEBO.

2. Picture: Kate Hudson in Bride Wars, http://couturecouture.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/kate-hudson-from-bride-wars.jpg

© Jenna Townend 2013

John Baptista Porta and seventeenth-century beauty

So, beauty regimes and cosmetics are the pursuits of the modern era, right? Wrong. In fact, the routines that women undertake today to wear make-up, dye their hair and wax their legs are not a million miles away from those of our seventeenth-century sisters (and probably brothers, too!). In his 1658 work Natural Magick, John Baptista Porta set down 'the riches and delights of the Natural Sciences', including a chapter entitled 'Of Beautifying Women'. In it, he presents a plethora of what can only be described as beauty tips and techniques. They range in topics from the removal of unwanted hair, to how to make the face desirably white and soft. Granted we can not be sure how many of these recipes were used, and indeed how many women used them, but what we can be sure of is that the detail with which Porta relates these passages must mean that there was demand for literature of this type, especially since it is included in a work that also has chapters on 'the Production of new Plants' and 'Perfuming'.

Below I have transcribed three of my favourite excerpts from the work. Whilst I'm not entirely convinced by the effectiveness of all the recipes(!), I think they give a wonderful insight into a historic culture that, though obviously fascinating in its own right, is also so similar in its concerns to the beauty culture of our own age.

'To make the Hair yellow:

Draw Oyl from Honey by the Art of Distillation, as we shall shew: First, there will come forth a clear VVater, then a Saffron-colour, then a Gold-colour: use this to anoynt the Hair with a Spunge; but let it touch the Skin: for it will dye it Saffron-colour, and it is not easily washed off. This is the principal above others, because the Tincture will last many dayes: and it will dye Gray-Hairs, which few others will. Or make a Lye of Oak-Ashes, put in the quantity of a Bean of Rhubarb, as much Tobacco, a handful of Barley-Straw and Foeny-Graec, Shells of Oranges, the Raspings of Guaiacum, a good deal of wilde Saffron and Liquorish: put all these in an Earthen-pot, and boyl them, till the water sink three fingers: the Hairs will be washt excellently with this. Hold them in the Sun, then cast Brimstone on the Coals and fume the Hairs; and whilst it burns, receive the smoke with a little Tunnel at the bottom, and cover your Head all over with a cloth, that the smoke flie not away' (p. 234).

'That hair should never grow again:

In which business I have taken great pains; and tried many things that I found to be false; First, foment the part with hot water, and pull out the Hairs one by one with womens nippers: then dissolve Salt-Peter in water, and anoynt the holes where the Hairs grew. It will be better done with Oyl of Brimstone, or of Vitriol: and so they will never grow again; or if they do, after one yeer, they will be very soft: do then the same again, and the parts will be bare alwayes. So I have made womens Fore-heads longer, and have taken off Hair from parts hotter than the rest' (pp. 236-37).

'To dye the Eye-brows:

Take Labdanum, and heat it with Wine, and mingle Oyl of Myrtles with it, and make a very thick Oyntment: or infuse in Oyl the black Leaves of the Myrtle-Tree, with a double quantity of Galls bruised, and use that. I use this. Galls are fried in Oyl, and they are ground with a little Salt-Ammoniac; and then mingled with Vinegar, wherein the Pills of the Mulberry and Bramble have been boyled: with these anoynt the Eyebrows, and let it abide on all night; then wash it off with water' (p. 238).

1. John Baptista Porta, Natural Magick (London: 1658), in EEBO.

© Jenna Townend 2013

Monstrous births

Today I thought I would do a quick post on something that I have been doing a little bit of research on this week: monstrous births in the seventeenth century. In this post, I have brought together two different sources that I have come across: The Workes of that famous Chirugion Ambrose Parey (1649) and Jane Sharp's The Midwives Book: or the whole Art of Midwifry Discovered (1671). I think these texts make for a nice comparison on this topic, since the relevant section of Parey's work is focused upon largely anecdotal accounts of monstrous births, whereas Sharp's does not include any such figures or diagrams, and instead focuses solely upon explaining the causes of monstrous births through science rather than hearsay.

What I think this difference in approach reveals, albeit subtly, is that Sharp is far keener (unlike other places in Parey's text) to avoid lying the blame for a monstrous birth solely at the door of the mother. Instead, she assigns a portion of blame to the father and, perhaps most surprisingly, avoids accounting for the birth's occurrence solely by the means of astrology or religion. By early modern necessity, and to avoid what could be some extremely uncomfortable criticism, she does concede that 'we must not exclude the Divine vengeance' (see extract below) in accounting for a monstrous birth, but in the latter half of this sentence goes on to reveal her evident skepticism about relying upon it entirely as a way of explaining this natural phenomena. 

Below I have included several excerpts which I think best show this contrast in gendered approaches to monstrous births in Parey's and Sharp's texts. As ever, I have preserved the early modern spelling and capitalization of the two texts, both of which can be found on EEBO.

The Workes of that famous Chirugion Ambrose Parey (1649):

- ‘Dorothie an Italian had twentie children at two births; at the first nine, and at the second eleve, and that shee was so big, that shee was forced to bear up her bellie, which laie upon her knees, with a broad and large scarf tied about her neck, as you may see by this figure’ (p. 655).

- ‘In the year of our Lord 1570 … at Paris … these two infants were born, differing in sex, with that shape of bodie that you see here expressed in the figure’ (p. 652).

‘In the year 1530, there was a man to bee seen at Paris, out of whose bellie another, perfect in all his members except head, hanged forth as if it had been grafted there. The man was fortie years old, and hee carried the other implanted or growing out of him, in his arms, with such admiration to the beholders, that manie ran verie earnestly to see him’ (p. 650).

The Midwives Book: or the whole Art of Midwifry Discovered (1671):

‘Of the causes of Monstrous Conceptions’

- ‘What should be the causes of Monstrous Conceptions hath troubled many great Learned men. Alcabitius saith, if the Moon be in some Degrees when the child is conceived, it will be a Monster. Astrologers they seeke the cause in the stars, but Ministers refer it to the just judgements of God, they do not condemn the Parent or the Child in such cases, but take our blessed Saviours answer to his Disciples, who askt him, who sinned the Parent or the Child, that he was born blind? Our Saviour replyed, neither he nor his Parents, but that the Judgements of God might be made manifest in him. In all such cases, we must not exclude the Divine vengeance; yet all these errors of Nature as to the Instrumental causes are either from the material or efficient cause of procreation’ (p. 116).

- 'The matter is the seed, which may fail three several wayes, either when it is too much, and then the members are larger, or more than they should be, or too little, and then there will be some part or the whole too little, or else the seed of both sexes is ill mixed, as of men or women with beasts and certainly it is likely that no such creatures are born but by unnatural mixtures, yet God can punish the world with such grievous punishments, and that justly for our sins’ (pp. 116-17).

- 'But the efficient cause of Monsters, is either from the forming faculty in the Seed, or else the strength of imagination joined with it; add to these the menstrous blood and the disposition of the Matrix; sometimes the mother is frighted or conceives wonders, or longs strangely for things not to be had, and the child is markd accordingly by it’ (pp. 117-18).

1. Ambrose Parey, The Workes of that famous Chirugion Ambrose Parey (1649), in EEBO.

2. Jane Sharp, The Midwives Book: or the whole Art of Midwifry Discovered (1671), in EEBO.

© Jenna Townend 2013

Heroines and Housewives

Last year, my Head of Department - Professor Elaine Hobby - appeared alongside historian Lucy Worsley on the BBC4 documentary 'Heroines, Housewives and Harlots: A 17th Century History for Girls'. Once the programme had disappeared from BBC IPlayer, I searched high and low on YouTube for any snippets from it to watch again, but to no avail. Somehow (I suspect by way of a breadcrumb trail of different posts and people on Twitter), I have found it again - hurrah!

I'll be honest, when I first watched the programme, I had never heard of Hannah Woolley, and I suspect lots of other people hadn't either. What this brief clip from the programme does is give us a concise, but very thorough, insight into what it was that Hannah Woolley achieved. As Elaine says, in running a household of what was probably anywhere between 8 and 14 people (including her 6 children), Hannah was far from a quiet little housewife who only occupied her time with mundane and futile tasks. She was essentially running a small business, and evidently wanted to share her own methods and approaches with other women in a similar situation. Indeed, she was probably the first woman to earn a living from writing books on household management.

It was this example of the extraordinary success which stemmed from a woman's non-fiction writing which first grabbed me and made me want to pursue my interest in their writing, particularly on subjects such as household management and medicine. Below I have shared some of my favourite excerpts from several of Hannah Woolley's works for you to enjoy! In each transcription I have preserved the original spelling and capitalisation.

From The Accomplish’d ladies delight, in preserving, physick, beautifying, and cookery (1670):

'To make Mackroons:
Take almonds, blanch them, beat them in a Morter, with serced Sugar mingled therewith, with the white of Egg and Rosewater, then beat them altogether till they are as thick as Fritters, them drop it upon your waters, and bake it.' (A2r)

'To make Almond Milk:
Boyl French Barly, as you boyl it, cast away the water, till you see the water leave to change Colour; as you put in more fresh water, then put in a bundle of Strawberry leaves, and as much Cullumbine leaves, and boyl it a good while, then put in beaten Almonds and strain them, and then strain it with Sugar and Rosemary, them strew some Sugar about the dish, and send it to the Table.' (A4r)

'To make Pan-cakes:
Put eight Eggs to two quarts of Flower, casting by four whites, season it with Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Ginger, Cloves, Mace and Salt, then make it up into a strong Batter with Milk, beat it well together, and put in half a pint of Sack, make it so thin that it may run in your Pan how you please, put your pan on the Fire with a little Butter, or Suet, when it is very hot, take a Cloth and wipe it out, so make your Pan very clean, them put in your Batter, and run it very thin, supply it with little bits of Butter, and so toss it often, and bake it Crisp and brown.' (p. 147 – for some reason the signatures have stopped by this point!)

From The Compleat servant-maid (1670):

'How to Prevent the Tooth-ach:
Wash your mouth once a week in White-wine, in which Spurge hath been boyled, and you shall never be troubled with the Tooth-ach.' (p. 49).

'How to keep the Hair Clean, and Preserve it:
Take two handfuls of Rosemary, and boyl it softly in a quart of Spring water, till it comes to a pint, and let it be covered all the while, then strain it out and keep it, every morning when you comb your head, dip a Spunge in the water and rub your hair, and it will keep it clean and preserve it, for it is very good for the brain, and will dry up Rheum.' (p. 71)

'To make a Salve for the Lips:
Take two ounces of white Bees wax and slice it thin, then melt it over the fire, with two ounces or more of Sallet-Oyl, and a little white sugar candy, and when you see it is well incorporated, take it off the fire and let it stand till it be cold, then set the skillet on the fire again, till the bottom is warm and so turn it out, anoint your lips, or sore nose or sore nipples with this, and it will heal them.’ (p. 72)

1. Hannah Woolley, The Accomplish’d ladies delight, in preserving, physick, beautifying, and cooker (1670)
2. _____, The Compleat servant-maid (1670)

© Jenna Townend 2013