Tag: Elizabethan age

The Toxic Beauty: How Cosmetics Killed Her Highness Queen Elizabeth I

Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland

Introduction

Beauty has always been the greatest concern for women since ages. Women , all over the world did what not, to look pretty and presentable throughout the history of Human Civilization. And to address the need of looking flawlessly beautiful, the practice of using cosmetic or make-up came to the play. Women, sometimes, followed bizarre rituals to enhance their look, but sometimes, to their worst, the cosmetic turned out to be toxic and endangered their lives. To look beautiful it cost them a fatal price. Royalties and Elites were victims of the same death trap, including the Great Queen Elizabeth I.

Queen Elizabeth: The Beginning

Elizabeth I was the fifth and last monarch of the House of Tudor. She was born in the Palace of Placentia on 7 September 1533 and was died on 24 March 1603 at the age of 69. Her father was Henry VIII and her mother was Anne Boleyn who was her father’s second wife. On 17 November 1558, she became the Queen of England and Ireland and ruled it for 44 years until her death. She was also called the Virgin Queen and Good Queen Bess. Elizabeth was third in line to become the monarch and she was not even destined to be queen. She was behind her half younger brother Edward VI and half elder sister Mary I. As her father Henry VIII died, on 28 January 1547, her younger brother Edward VI became the monarch at age nine and ruled for six years, dying at the age of 15 because of tuberculosis. After, Mary I became queen and ruled for five years, dying at age 42 on 17 November 1558. Finally, Elizabeth was the last child of Henry VIII to rule England and became the Queen of England, ruling for 44 years.

The Scars in Her Beauty : What Led Her to Toxic Cosmetics

During her 20’s the Queen got infected with smallpox. Though the young queen survived smallpox but the disease left scars and blemishes on her skin and in order to hide those she started using the makeup more vigorously.

Portrait of the Queen

Bizarre Beauty Standards

The cosmetics that were worn by women in the time of Queen Elizabeth are drastically different from those we wear today. Not only were the materials they used very different but the look they were trying to achieve was very different as well. Standards of beauty change all the time. To understand the cosmetics worn by Elizabethan women, it’s important to understand the effect they were trying to achieve—that “ideal” beauty they wanted to imitate. The ideal Elizabethan female had bright wide-set eyes, snow white skin, rosy cheeks, red lips and fair hair. Pale skin was a sign of nobility, wealth and delicacy was sought after by many. In a time where sunscreen was unheard of, skin problems and pox was a common thing smooth, unblemished skin was a rarity. The pale skin women (and men) wanted was achieved by a number of ways. The most popular being Venetian Ceruse (also known as Spirits of Saturn), a mixture of white lead and vinegar. This white foundation was applied to the face, neck and bosom. Naturally, smearing lead all over one’s skin caused some serious skin damage not only did it make the skin look “grey and shrivelled” there was lead poisoning, hair loss and if used over an extended period of time could cause death. They lined their eyes with black kohl to make them look darker and belladonna eyedrops (used to dilate women’s pupils, an effect considered to be attractive and seductive). Fashion required eyebrows to be thin and arched which would create a high forehead it was considered to be a sign of aristocracy. Rouged cheeks and red lips were very popular. This was obtained with plants and animal dyes.

Her Majesty’ s Royal Makeup

She used ingredients like lead and vinegar in her makeup which is called — “Venetian ceruse“. It is said that she was the only monarch that always took a long time to get ready. She used multiple layers of lead and vinegar and applied a thick white mask to her face and neck. The white skin was not a part of racism but it depicted that a woman was of a higher class. she applied was from If you have seen a portrait of Queen Elizabeth you may have noticed that her lips are very red. The red colour cinnabar, a mercury. poisonous substance that contains She used to remove it with a mixture of elements like eggshells, alum, and mercury. Thus, this leads to another use of poison in her makeup. People at that time would say that her skin became soft after makeup re moval but basically, it was peeling one layer at a time. All these caused wrinkles, aging, and the deterioration of her health. And it is assumed by the historians, that continuous use of those deadly chemicals as Cosmetics, led to her death.

Cinematic Portrait of the Queen, played by actress Margot Robbie

Conclusion

The urge of looking beautiful , sometimes proves hard on women’s overall health. body and The obsession of being perfect, has killed many women, including such Royalties like Queen Elizabeth I. Even today, women are insure about their natural beauty and sometimes find it hard to accept body positivity. We should learn to feel confident in our skin first, and the glow then comes from within as our flaws make us Earthly and more humane.

How Literature is getting popularity due to the advent of Movies and Dramas

“Literature since the Medieval times have always been a mystery as well as a fascination for its audience”. As the decades change, their audience preference also changed. There was a whole decade which we all know as  a biggest blood-curdling historical events of all time, also famously known as “The Age before Queen Elizabeth, when war and slaughter  was the prominent reason and people lost their sanity due to   political catastrophes and the consequences occurred when there was a division between the religion and  science.”

When people lost their sanity, they abandoned literature and art which ultimately made the audience miserable and fragile. However, as the decade improved, we come to see that “Elizabethan Drama’s” has acted as a helping hand in the history of literature when people were gazing for a source of Entertainment.

Dramas are the mainstream or we can say as the generator of the exquisite source of entrainment since the 16th century which played an important role to make awareness among people about various social issues which happened during the era. Drama is one of those fabulous art forms which not only traveled a revolutionized journey from the 16th century to the 21st century but also have contributed a big number of Legendary works in the history of literature.

Dramas which are worldwide famous in the contemporary world are due to the main reason of fandom among the audience and in this process, the fandom not only goes to Drama but also to literature and movies.

Drama, Movies, and Literature – The Best Trio Ever!

Every era has its uniqueness and flair of creativity in any form of art. Likewise, whether it is Literature, Movies, Music, or drama, their secret to flourishing in the millennial generation is “Audience”. The audience has always been a great critic when it comes to Literature and Movies. Today we have Film and Literature which is established due to fandom among the audiences.

To get fame and acknowledgment from the audience is not an easy task, it has always been a striving job to be likable by all types of audiences. Yet Literature gained its popularity with the upper hand of Movies and dramas. Literature which was uncanny for many people is now becoming like their favorite cup of coffee which has the cream of fandom and fasciation towards literature.

Pop fiction – A New Version of Literature

A contemporary era where literature has grown acceptance due to the arrival of Movies and dramas is not only appreciated by their audiences but they are also a newer version of Preserving authentic Literature so that the fragrance of beautiful texts written by prominent writers won’t fade for the coming centuries.

Since it is an up-gradation, the technique of showcasing literature through the lens of the big screen of the cinematography industry is adaptable and modified. Pop Fiction is more merchandised and the writers craft their stories according to their audiences’ preferences.

The contemporary world is full of bustling lives where the audience expects entertainment to be relatable and which has a good quality of content. So cinematography industry had taken this opportunity as a responsibility towards their audience which proofs them their magnificent works by centering on literature.

Great stories come with a great plot!

Literature is famously known by all the audiences due to great movies and TV Series which either are adaptations or taken from real based stories from literature. When we say literature and movies the Millennial generation always mulls over about one great work but also gives a chill about going back to nostalgia! I guess we all know what it is? yes, it’s Harry Potter !  one of the prominent holiday Series which every child of the contemporary era never fails to reminisce about.

Whether it is plot structure, characters, or the setting, J.K Rowling’s works have been justified more cause of movie series made upon her famous works. Literature always provides us the imaginative descriptiveness of a piece of work and Cinematography provides an Illustrative of Visual and audio descriptions and together they have reached a high amount of success worldwide.

Similar to Harry Potter many classical works of literature are in the airy dreams among the audience cause of excellent movies turned from these works. Whether it is Louisa May Alcott’s “Little women” which talks about how women are striving in this society to acknowledge their identities by their forte and minds or whether it is Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” which talks about a dystopian where women are taken as an Object to played with, well we can never forget that holocaust literature which made us more emotional and sentimental when we watched the movie “Book Thief”.

Our childhood was like a sweet dream which was incomplete without those fairy tales of Cinderella and beauty and the beast which enlightened us with all the moral values.

Hence, there is no conclusion of how movies and literature are excellently mending with each other and providing us the finest edition of the whole thing. This not only keeps our literature preserved but also protected with increasing fandom with the young audiences.