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Courting took place at organized
functions such as dances, horse races and church. Dancing was an important
courting ritual among the wealthy. It was considered a good way to determine a
potential marriage partner’s physical soundness, as well as the state of their
teeth and breath. Dancing taught poise, grace and balance, especially important
to women who had to learn to remain in their “compass”, or the area of movement
allowed by their clothing. Balls often lasted three to four days and took all
day and most of the night.
Women, then as now, had ways of
making themselves more alluring. Among
the elite, cosmetics were commonly worn.
Almost everyone had a pock marked face due to the widespread scourge of
smallpox, but a handsomely pocked face was not considered unattractive, only an
excessively pocked one. Flour, white
lead, orrisroot and cornstarch were common bases to produce the esthetic of a
pure white face. Over these red rouge was used to highlight cheekbones, in a
manner that would be considered exaggerated by modern standards, but was most
effective in the dim light afforded by candles in the eighteenth century. Lip
color and rouge were made from crushed cochineal beetles. Cochineal was an
expensive imported commodity; country women substituted berry stains. Carbon
was used to highlight eye brows and lashes, which were groomed with fine combs. The key aspects of
the 18th century cosmetic look were a complexion somewhere between white and
pale, red cheeks, and red lips. The
ideal woman had a high forehead, plump rosy cheeks, pale skin, and small lips,
soft and red, with the lower lip being slightly larger thus creating a rosebud
effect. Although bathing one’s entire body was not a regular occurrence
in the eighteenth century, the daily washing of one’s face and hands was the norm in elite social circles.
An almanac essay entitled Love and Acquaintance with the Fair Sex
assures us that men were incapable of “resistance” against a woman’s, “attractive
charms of an enchanting outside in the sprightly bloom of happy nature; against
the graces of wit and politeness; against the lure of modesty and sweetness.” Of course some men felt uneasy about female
allurements which could account for the introduction of a bill before the
British Parliament in 1770 entitled, “An Act to Protect Men from Being Beguiled
into Marriage by False Adornments”. The proposed act read, “All women, of
whatever rank, age, profession or degree, whether virgins, maids or widows,
that shall, from and after such Act, impose upon, seduce or betray into
matrimony, any of His Majesty's subjects, by the use of scents, paints,
cosmetic washes, artificial teeth, false hair, Spanish wool, iron stays, hoops,
high-heeled shoes and bolstered hips, shall incur the penalty of the law in
force against witchcraft and like misdemeanours and that the marriage upon
conviction shall stand null and void.”
To the everlasting regret of some the Act did not become law.
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