A PAINTED FACE.
Roxburghe Ballads.
By the reign of James I. this ridiculous fashion had become common. All sorts of curious devices were made use of—spots, stars, crescents, and in one woodcut a coach and coachman with two horses and postilions appear upon the lady's forehead. The fashion continued for a long period; in fact, during the greater part of the Georgian era, when it had degenerated into mere spots or small patches. At the close of the eighteenth century it had entirely disappeared.[27]
"Wherfor, faire doughtres, takithe ensaumple, and holde it in your herte that ye put no thinge to poppe, painte, and fayre youre visages, the which is made after Goddes ymage, otherwise thanne your Creatoure and nature hath ordeined; and that ye plucke no browes, nother temples, nor forhed; and also that ye wasshe not the here of youre hede in none other thing but in lye and water" ("Advice of the Knight of La Tour Landry to his iij doughtres").
THE INVINCIBLE PRIDE OF WOMEN.
I have a Wife, the more's my care, who like a gaudy peacock goes,
In top-knots, patches, powder'd hair, besides she is the worst of shrows;
This fills my heart with grief and care to think I must this burden bear.
It is her forecast to contrive to rise about the hour of Noon,
And if she's trimm'd and rigg'd by five, why this I count is very soon;
Then goes she to a ball or play, to pass the pleasant night away.
And when she home returns again, conducted by a bully spark,
If that I in the least complain, she does my words and actions mark,
And does likewise my gullet tear, then roars like thunder in the air.
I never had a groat with her, most solemnly I here declare;
Yet she's as proud as Lucifer, and cannot study what to wear:
In sumptuous robes she still appears, while I am forc'd to hide my ears.