DOI article:
Beerbohm, Max: A defence of cosmetics
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20196#0082
j6 A Defence of Cosmetics
remind us that she had passed out of our ken with the rest of
the early Victorian era. What writer of plays, as Iately
asked some pressman, who had been told off to attend many first
nights and knew what he was talking about, ever dreams of
making the young girl the centre of his theme ? Rather he seeks
Inspiration from the tried and tired woman of the world, in all her
intricate maturity, whilst, by way of comic relief, he sends the
young girl flitting in and out with a tennis-racket, the poor
üSwXov ä/navpöv of her former seif. The season of the unsophis-
ticated is gone by, and the young girl's final extinction beneath the
rising tides of cosmetics will leave no gap in life and will rob art of
nothing.
" Tush," I can hear some damned flutterpate exclaim, " girlish-
ness and innocence are as strong and as permanent as womanhood
itself! Why, a few months past, the whole town went mad over
Miss Cissie Loftus ! Was not hers a success of girlish innocence
and the absence of rouge ? If such things as these be outmoded,
why was she so wildly populär?" Indeed, the triumph of that
clever girl, whose debut made London niceeven in August, is but
another witness to the truth of my contention. In a very
sophisticated time, simplicity has a new dulcedo. Hers was a
success of contrast. Accustomed to clever malaperts like Miss
Lloyd or Miss Reeve, whose experienced pouts and smiles under
the sun-bonnet are a standing burlesque of innocence and girlish-
ness, Demos was really delighted, for once and away, to see the
real presentment of these things upon his stage. Coming after all
those sly seriös, coming so young and mere with her pink frock
and straightly combed hair, Miss Cissie Loftus had the charm
which things of another period often do possess. Besides, just as
we adored her for the abrupt nod with which she was wont at
first to acknowledge the applause, so we were glad for her to come
upon
remind us that she had passed out of our ken with the rest of
the early Victorian era. What writer of plays, as Iately
asked some pressman, who had been told off to attend many first
nights and knew what he was talking about, ever dreams of
making the young girl the centre of his theme ? Rather he seeks
Inspiration from the tried and tired woman of the world, in all her
intricate maturity, whilst, by way of comic relief, he sends the
young girl flitting in and out with a tennis-racket, the poor
üSwXov ä/navpöv of her former seif. The season of the unsophis-
ticated is gone by, and the young girl's final extinction beneath the
rising tides of cosmetics will leave no gap in life and will rob art of
nothing.
" Tush," I can hear some damned flutterpate exclaim, " girlish-
ness and innocence are as strong and as permanent as womanhood
itself! Why, a few months past, the whole town went mad over
Miss Cissie Loftus ! Was not hers a success of girlish innocence
and the absence of rouge ? If such things as these be outmoded,
why was she so wildly populär?" Indeed, the triumph of that
clever girl, whose debut made London niceeven in August, is but
another witness to the truth of my contention. In a very
sophisticated time, simplicity has a new dulcedo. Hers was a
success of contrast. Accustomed to clever malaperts like Miss
Lloyd or Miss Reeve, whose experienced pouts and smiles under
the sun-bonnet are a standing burlesque of innocence and girlish-
ness, Demos was really delighted, for once and away, to see the
real presentment of these things upon his stage. Coming after all
those sly seriös, coming so young and mere with her pink frock
and straightly combed hair, Miss Cissie Loftus had the charm
which things of another period often do possess. Besides, just as
we adored her for the abrupt nod with which she was wont at
first to acknowledge the applause, so we were glad for her to come
upon