Bodies complexioned: Human variation and racism in early modern English culture, c. 1600-1750

281 Pages·2019·14.727 MB·English

by  Mark Dawson

Bodies
B
Bodies complexioned examines how bodily difference was o
understood by the people of early modern England.
d
complexioned
Using an array of sources – from sermons, polemics, and
i
newspapers to medical case-notes, almanacs, diaries, and e
drama – it traces people’s attitudes to somatic contrasts,
s
both among themselves and, as they ventured across the

Atlantic, among non-Europeans. c Human variation and racism
o
The book demonstrates that individuals’ distinctive
in early modern English culture,
m
features were thought to be innate, even as discrete
populations were believed to have fleshly characteristics in c. 1600–1750
p
common – whether similarities in skin-tone, facial profile,
l
hair colour, or demeanour. According to most scholarship,
e
bodies constituted from the same four elemental fluids
x
as Adam and Eve’s – the phlegmatic, sanguine, choleric,
and melancholic humours – were not the stuff of visceral i
o
inequality or racism. But this book contends that people
n
routinely judged others on sight according to the
ostensible balance, or complexion, of their humours. e
d
Complexions vouched for distinctions in social status,
physical cum moral fitness, national allegiance, and
religious affiliation. While ‘race’ had not assumed its
modern valence, and ‘racial’ ideologies were yet to
D
emerge, such typecasting nonetheless had profound,
A
lasting consequences. Belief in monogenesis and Christian
universalism notwithstanding, bodily prejudices inflected W
social stratification, domestic politics, sectarian division,
S
and international relations.
O
N
Mark S. Dawson is Lecturer in Early Modern History at the
Australian National University, Canberra
Cover image: Embroidered front cover for Bible and Book of
Common Prayer, printed by Robert Barker, London, 1607
(Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
ISBN 978-1-5261-3448-6
MARK S. DAWSON
9 781526 134486 >
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
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Bodies complexioned
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Bodies complexioned
Human variation and racism in early modern
English culture, c. 1600–1750
mark s. dawson
Manchester University Press
DAWSON 9781526134486 PRINT.indd 3 16/04/2019 11:04
Copyright © Mark S. Dawson 2019
The right of Mark S. Dawson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted
by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published by Manchester University Press
Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 5261 3448 6 hardback
First published 2019
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any
external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee
that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Typeset by
Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire
DAWSON 9781526134486 PRINT.indd 4 16/04/2019 11:04
J. V. Dawson née Gracia (2 March 1922–17 February 2012)
Much missed, cherished always
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Contents
List of figures and graphs viii
Acknowledgements x
Conventions and abbreviations xiii
Introduction 1
1 Contemplating Christian temperaments 15
2 Nativities established 54
3 Bodies emblazoned 92
4 Identifying the differently humoured 118
5 Distempered skin and the English abroad 156
6 National identities, foreign physiognomies, and the advent of
whiteness 199
Conclusion 230
Appendix: tables of graph data 241
Select bibliography 243
A methodological note 257
Index 261
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Figures and graphs
Figures
1 Embroidered front cover for Bible and Book of Common Prayer
The handiwork – to embellish a 1607 publication (STC 16332) –
remains unattributed. 64.101.1291, gift of Irwin Untermyer, 1964:
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public domain. 22
2 Embroidered front cover for Bible
Anne Cornwallis Leigh’s needlework for The Bible: that is, the Holy
Scriptures conteined in the Olde and Newe Testament (Amsterdam,
1639). PML 17197.1, purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1910: The
Morgan Library & Museum, New York. [www.themorgan.org/
bindings/103103] 23
3 Publius Lentulus’s letter
Anon., Publius Lentulus his report to the Senate of Rome concerning
Jesus Christ (?London, 1700?, Wing L1095D). BrSides By6 1680:
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. 31
4 James Nayler stigmatised
Ephraim Pagitt, Heresiography (London, 1662, Wing P182),
p. 244. 178- 665q: by permission of the Folger Shakespeare
Library. 49
5 Natal horoscope for Frescheville Holles (8 June 1642–28 May 1672)
John Gadbury, Collectio geniturarum (London, 1662, Wing G80),
p. 159. Nkk74 +662g: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library,
Yale University. 55
6 Interpretive schema for natal horoscope
John Gadbury, Genethlialogia (London, 1658, Wing G84), p. 36.
Nkk74 +662g: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale
University. 66
7 South American natives
Sir John Narbrough, ‘The land of Patagonia’ (detail), c.1670.
Maps K.Top. 124.84.8: © The British Library Board. [https://
imagesonline.bl.uk/] 180
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Figures and graphs ix
8 The Hollanders unmasked
The Dutch boare dissected, or a description of Hogg-Land (1665).
1868,0808.3278: © The Trustees of the British Museum. 210
9 Body ideal
Richard Saunders, Physiognomie and chiromancie, metoposcopie,
the symmetrical proportions and signal moles of the body, fully and
accurately handled; with their natural-predictive-significations
(London, 1653, Wing S754), p. 262. Krq7 +653s: Beinecke Rare
Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. 231
Graphs
1 Distribution of references to skin colour in London newspaper
advertisements, 1651–1700. Data compiled by author. 138
2 Distribution of references to skin colour in British newspaper
advertisements, 1701–50. Data compiled by author. 139
3 London advertisements with comment on skin, versus without,
1651–1750. Data compiled by author. 150
4 Distribution of references to skin colour in American
advertisements, 1701–50. Data compiled by author. 152
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