‘Such gaudy tulips raised from dung’: Cosmetics, Disease and Morality in Jonathan Swift's Dressing‐Room Poetry

Aske, Katherine

Abstract

While enabling women to embody fashionable trends and the idealised beauty of the period, cosmetics also offered a disguise, not only for ugly and ageing faces but for disease also. Taking examples from advertisements, cosmetic commentaries and Jonathan Swift's dressing-room poetry, this article demonstrates that, in the eighteenth century, cosmetics, fashion and disease are intimately linked to beauty and issues of morality by cultural factors.

Citation

Aske, K. (2017). ‘Such gaudy tulips raised from dung’: Cosmetics, Disease and Morality in Jonathan Swift's Dressing‐Room Poetry. Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 40(4), 503-517. https://doi.org/10.1111/1754-0208.12509

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 20, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Nov 7, 2017
• Publication Date: 2017-12
• Deposit Date: Jan 24, 2024
• Print ISSN: 1754-0194
• Electronic ISSN: 1754-0208
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 40
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 503-517
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1754-0208.12509
• Keywords: Jonathan Swift, advertisement, women, prostitution, beauty, cosmetics, fashion, body, morality, disease
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/3492118