DOI article:
Beerbohm, Max: A defence of cosmetics
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20196#0081
By Max Beerbohm 75
ßut why does Psecas abäse herseif? She iscraving leave to powder
Sabina's hair with a fine new powder. It is made of the grated rind
of the cedar-tree, and a Gallic perfumer, whose stall is near the
Circus, gave it to her for a kiss. No lady in Rome knows of it.
And so, when four special slaves have piled up the head-dress, out
of a perforated box this glistening powder is showered. Into every
little brown ringlet it enters, tili Sabina's hair seems like a pile of
gold coins. Lest the breezes send it Aying, the girls lay the
powder with sprinkled attar. Soon Sabina will start for the
Temple of Cybele.
Ah ! Such are the lures of the toilet that none will for long
hold aloof from them. Cosmetics are not going to be a mere
prosaic remedy for age or plainness, but all ladies and all young girls
will come to love them. Does not a certain blithe Marquise,
whose lettres intimes from the Court of Louis Seize are less read
than their wit would merit, teil us how she was scandalised to see
" meme les toutes jeunes demoiselles emaillies comme ma tabatihe ? "
So it shall be with us. Surely the common prejudice against
painting the lily can but be based on mere ground of economy.
That which is already fair is complete, it may be urged—urged
implausibly, for there are not so many lovely things in this world
that we can afford not to know each one of them by heart.
There is only one white lily, and who that has ever seen—as I have
—a lily really well painted could grudge the artist so fair a ground
for his skill ? Scarcely do you believe through how many nice
metamorphoses a lily may be passed by him. In like manner, we
all know the young girl, with her simpleness, her goodness, her
wayward ignorance. And a very charming ideal for England
must she have been, and a very natural one, when a young girl
sat even on the throne. But no nation can keep its ideal for ever
and it needed none of Mr. Gilbert's delicate satire in " Utopia " to
remind
ßut why does Psecas abäse herseif? She iscraving leave to powder
Sabina's hair with a fine new powder. It is made of the grated rind
of the cedar-tree, and a Gallic perfumer, whose stall is near the
Circus, gave it to her for a kiss. No lady in Rome knows of it.
And so, when four special slaves have piled up the head-dress, out
of a perforated box this glistening powder is showered. Into every
little brown ringlet it enters, tili Sabina's hair seems like a pile of
gold coins. Lest the breezes send it Aying, the girls lay the
powder with sprinkled attar. Soon Sabina will start for the
Temple of Cybele.
Ah ! Such are the lures of the toilet that none will for long
hold aloof from them. Cosmetics are not going to be a mere
prosaic remedy for age or plainness, but all ladies and all young girls
will come to love them. Does not a certain blithe Marquise,
whose lettres intimes from the Court of Louis Seize are less read
than their wit would merit, teil us how she was scandalised to see
" meme les toutes jeunes demoiselles emaillies comme ma tabatihe ? "
So it shall be with us. Surely the common prejudice against
painting the lily can but be based on mere ground of economy.
That which is already fair is complete, it may be urged—urged
implausibly, for there are not so many lovely things in this world
that we can afford not to know each one of them by heart.
There is only one white lily, and who that has ever seen—as I have
—a lily really well painted could grudge the artist so fair a ground
for his skill ? Scarcely do you believe through how many nice
metamorphoses a lily may be passed by him. In like manner, we
all know the young girl, with her simpleness, her goodness, her
wayward ignorance. And a very charming ideal for England
must she have been, and a very natural one, when a young girl
sat even on the throne. But no nation can keep its ideal for ever
and it needed none of Mr. Gilbert's delicate satire in " Utopia " to
remind