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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A71042	A wonder of wonders, or, A metamorphosis of fair faces voluntarily transformed into foul visages or, an invective against black-spotted faces / by a well-willer to modest matrons and virgins Miso-Spilus, i. qui maculas odit ; published by R. Smith, gent.	Miso-Spilus.; Smith, R., gent.	1662 (1662)	Wing S4149; ESTC R26395	28,442	40

derive by ancient custom from our Ancestors But herein I must tell these Historians they are deceived in their application of the Painting and Tincture used by these warlike Nations of old unto their now painting and spotting of their Faces for the ancient Histories will tell them that the use which those Heathen Britains and Picts of whom Julius Caesar among others makes mention made of such painting and figuring of their Bodies was not out of any Pride or Wantonness to allure others to love or admire them as these our Mag-pies now do but rather to make them look more terrible in the Wars as Caesar conceived For the custome of the old Britains and Picts in those times was as Tacitus and venerable Bede observe that they made no difference of sex for the Soveraign command yea and they used to war under the conduct of women and this we may find to be so by the example of Buiduica Queen of the Iceni a noble British Lady of those times who like another Penthesilea furens dreaded not to encounter the valiant Romans with an Army of 230000. Britains having before slain of the Romans 70000. in the City of Verulam And these undaunted Viragoes are usually pictured as well as the men in their war-like habits who also used to paint themselves with the heads of Tygers Griffins and such other fierce Beasts as the men did to strike a terrour also into their enemies for to make themselves seem fair had been rather to encourage then affright them The Virgins also did onely paint themselves not for terrour but for pleasure with green herbs and pleasant flowers to adorn them not with black Spots to deform them Again say they this use or art of Spotting Patching of Faces is not generally taken up by all sorts of women only so is no Epidemical disease but is reserved onely for the better sort as of Ladies and Gentlewomen for distinction sake for we hold it unfitting say they that ever Kitchin-stuff wench or the like should presume to use such Fucus and Tincture as others of greater rank quality appropriate to themselves for if such mean people might be tolerated to use such fashions as their betters use there would then be no difference between any degrees of persons whatsoever But this argument is frivolous to excuse themselves and blown off with this other Maxime Omne animi vitium tanto conspectius in se crimen habet quanto major qui peccat habetur The greater that the person be His fault more clearly we may see But if this fashion of spotting and patching be comely and not too costly why is it more tolerable in a Gentlewoman then in a Kitchin-stuff wench I see no reason But albeit that this kind of black-spotting and patching of Faces he not commendable yet we must grant that in some sort it may prove availeable and advantageous unto them namely that when they have a desire to go unto any Brothel-houses or other infamous places these Anticks may with these disguised Faces and disfigured favours more freely and securely prostitute themselves and take their pleasure unknown and undiscovered desiring perhaps that their Names and Qualities might for their reputation though it be little be concealed And this priviledge also they may peradventure say jestingly that they may enjoy hereafter to wit that when their appearance shall be after their life ended in another world before their black Prince being conscious to themselves that he is to be their Soveraign whom they have chiefly obeyed in this world they may be taken for his Natural children they so much resembling him in their black hue and thereby to their comfort may be the more favoured as the Devils darlings If that be their expectation and reward in earnest or in jest and such it may be in good earnest they having little or no Religion I say no more but let them as they like it enjoy it I will not envy them this priviledge this happiness They may perhaps say also to me Now Sir you take your self by the nose Turpe est doctori cum culpa redarguit ipsum For why do you condemn us so much for spotting our faces with black when as you your self in this your own writing spot your white paper with black spots or letters and why may not we in like manner spot our white faces with black spots If it be ugly in us then by the same reason your writing is also ugly To this I answer the application makes the difference for If your spots to no worse use then ours were apply'd I know not why by any man your spots should be deny'd Moreover say they This spotting of Faces which you thus censure is not justified by our selves alone but we can produce the approbation thereof by great Scholars and learned Clerks For instance Lessius a learned Jesuit thus writeth thereof (a) Lessius de justitia jure l. 4. c. 4. Si Maritus jubeat ut uxor inter alias magis decora appareat sine peccato utatur If the husband saith he commands his wife to appear among other wives more comely this painting of the Face for that he speaks of may be used without sinne And (b) Pet. Alagora compend Manual Navar. c. 23. Num. 2 Petrus Alagora saith also Fingere majorem pulchritudinem ornatu fuco licet sit mendacium operis non est peccatum mortale To counterfeit a greater Beauty in adorning and painting the Face although it be a dissembling work yet it is no mortall sinne So these Jesuits But these testimonies will not justifie their doings for if the action be unlawful howsoever it may be countenanced in some sort by the approbation of some learned men it cannot be therefore absolutely justified especially when as others more learned then they shall be found to be of another opinion and therefore I think that if they desire the state of the Question to be decided by indifferent Judges they should make choice of such against whom no just exceptions can be taken who without partiality have delivered their opinions in this case such as are the ancient Orthodox Fathers of the Primitive Church and other learned Divines and sound Expositors of the Sacred Scriptures whose testimonies in this behalf I shall afterwards produce I say their solid judgements and determinations are rather to be relied upon then the private opinions of some few others who may perhaps not rightly apprehend the true state of the Case and therein be deceived But they perhaps will say that these testimonies of the ancient Fathers and other learned Writers against painted Faces concern their spotted Faces not at all for that the dislike which those learned men had of painted Faces was for that by painting their Faces all over they did not onely totally transfigure and hide their true Naturall complexions but by the ruddy and beautifull colours and tinctures did allure and intice young men to lewdness pretending

A WONDER of WONDERS OR A Metamorphosis of Fair FACES voluntarily transformed into foul VISAGES Or an Invective against Black-spotted Faces By a Well-willer to modest Matrons and Virgins MISO-SPILUS i. Qui maculas odit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euripid. Published by R. SMITH Gent. Non est ornamentum corporis quod corpus fucata specie adumbrat sed quod suo exornat munere quodque non in voluptatis lenocini● sed in virtutis doctrinae consistit obsequio H. Farnesius de sui cognitione Quaest 13. LONDON Printed by J. G. for Richard Royston Bookseller in Ivy-lane 1662. To the young Ladies and Gentlewomen of the Society of Black-spotted Faces newly taken into the Fellowship of the Company of Painter-Stainers Miso-Spilus wisheth more Wisdome and less Wilfulness Ladies and Gentlewomen IT was an old custome of Writers to dedicate their Works newly set forth to such persons as were likely to approve of the same but contrary to this rule I have dedicated this Tract to you from whom I expect no approbation nor acceptance of my pains for I conceive that the subject of the Discourse will not please your fancies it being averse to your manners and conditions which being faulty and blame-worthy in my opinion cannot endure reprehension but how can I forbear you who having naturally comely yea angelical complexions which God hath given you yet not content therewith out of your own fantastick humours make your selves resemble infernal Daemons and impudently presume to amend and correct Gods work which he thought most fit for you by your black-spotting your otherwise faire and well-favoured Visages with ugly black spots and loathsome patches or plaisters most proper to cover sores and scabs for which purpose they are usefull pretending thereby against common sense and reason to reduce your complexions to a better lustre then God gave them But see your errour VVhereas you suppose that by applying such spots and patches to your faces ye beautifie and adorn them ye indeed make them visibly deformed and abominable in the eyes of all beholders especially of the more judicious people and therewithall also you bring your good name and reputations yea your Religion also if you have any into suspicion levity breeding jealousie your defect of wisdome also herein is not inconsiderable The use of painting and adulterating of womens faces is no new thing and how much the older and more common so much the worse It hath been observed in former times by most of the religious and learned holy Fathers of the Primitive Church and by other learned and judicious Doctors and Clerks of later dayes against whom no just exception can be taken that to the scandal and reproach of Christians such painting and tincturing hath been publickly practised by women especially by such who were esteemed to have been lewd and of no good name or report and condemned not onely as a foolish and ridiculous custome but likewise as scandalous impious and profane not alone for the adulterating and counterfeiting of Gods Image in their visages but principally for the Pride Lasciviousness impudence and other Vices which usually accompany it All which I have essayed to make apparent unto you in this short Discourse for no advantage to my self but onely for your own good for your own fames and reputations And think not your selves exempted from the censure pronounced against painted Faces pretending a difference between painting and spotting which I leave to the judgement of your own Company of Painter-Stainers best skilled therein to determine for it will appear that ye are likewise concerned and included intentionally therein your conditions being both alike in most things concerning this dissembling Art If you are offended that here and there I brand you with some unp easing names and epithetes inferiour as you may take it to your qualities know ye that they are no other then such as are suitable and agreeable to some of your conditions wherein giving you but your own I do you no wrong for if you think it not much to your own shame to speckle your fair faces with foul spots you may as they say Lege talionis by the same Law allow me to speckle your foul manners with like marks neither can ye justly deem me a rayler as perhaps some of you may for telling you your faults so plainly but you being conscious to your selves that my aim herein in rebuking you is onely to reform your defects where need is may rather more truly say of him that does the like Non est rix uor potius probitatis amator He a rayler cannot be that lover is of honesty But Ladies I would not have you think that in this Discourse I do include the Ladies of Honour or of Noble rank in taxing them with those crimes I charge you withall for that I see no cause to censure them as Delinquents who by their noble birth and breeding are not of so degenerous a spirit as to undervalue their worths in dishonouring themselves by the foolish and phantastick use and application of such ignoble arts and fashions as do please you wherewith if I should have blemished them I should have us justly defamed them not knowing any one of them guilty thereof Neither doth my pen reflect upon any barbarous Nations that are not Christians who hold themselves not tied to Christian Principles nor yet upon the Spanish Italian or any other Forraign Christian Nation no not upon the Venetian Curtizans the most impudent Harlots of all other as I am informed for I have heard that among these Nations by long custome the foster-mother of Vices the art or craft of painting or tincturing of womens faces is ordinarily used without any sense of evil in it for peradventure they having never heard it censured as a crime nor having ever been taught or instructed otherwise might see nothing in it blamewo thy and so by long continuance may ignorantly take up and practice that fashion with impunity it being either not for bidden or connived thereat so that they may think it no offence to use that for which they were never reprehended and being not prohibited might be accounted lawfull howsoever the example of these strangers being all out of our lash cannot patronze your actions And whereas I have in this Tract produced principally the testimonies of the ancient Fathers of the Church to prove the unlawfulnesse of this use of painting of womens faces perhaps you give no credit to such testimonies because as some of you say those old Fathers alwayes poring on their books had no experience or knowledge of these youthful delights and so not competent judges thereupon ye presume to prefer your own erroneous opinions before their sound and solid reasons If so then the question will be whether ye filly and ignorant creatures in comparison to them in your own case or those religious and learned men so well experienced in religious affairs by their studies of long continuance your reasons being weighed

their faces which are all one but spotting the worse because of its greater deformity to be sinful or displeasing to God let them hear the judgement of the holy Fathers of the Primitive times and of other learned Doctors and Scholars in this point unto whom they must grant that more credit ought to be given then to their private fantastick humours or to any the abettors of them for against these learned and pious men no just exception can be taken I will first begin with Origen and so proceed Origen Tom. 2. Hom. 4. thus writeth Origen To. 2. homil 4. He was scholar to Clem. Alexand and lived Anno 226. They saith he that use this painting do injury to God whose workmanship they would seem to mend being discontented with it Doth the Law of God require or favour it Doth Reason uncorrupted teach it or have the Laws of any wise or understanding heads endured or enjoyned it No they that use these paintings of the face do them in contumeliam Creatoris to the reproach of their Creator So Origen Tertullian Tertul. de habitu muliebr c. 5. A. D. 203. another ancient Father of the Primitive Church thus writeth In illum delinquit quae cutem medicaminibus ungunt genas rubore maculant oculos fuligine collinunt displicet illis nimirum plastica dei in ipsis redarguunt reprehendunt artificem omnium reprehendunt enim cum emendant cum adjiciunt utique ab adversario artifice sumentes additamenta ista id est Diabolo c. Quod nascitur opus Dei est ergo quod fingitur Diaboli negotium est c. Hodie Deus vos tales videat quales tunc videbit c. Vbi Deus ibi pudicitia ibi gravitas adjutrix socia ejus Quo ergo pacto pudicitiam sine instrumento ejus id est sine gravitate tractabimus Quomodo autem gravitatem administrandae pudicitiae adhibemimus nisi in facie in cultu in totius hominis contemplatione severitas circumferetur They offend against him who anoint their skin with medicines who bespot their eye-lids with red and dawb their eyes with foot for the workmanship of God displeaseth them therein they reprove and find fault with the maker of all things for they find fault when they amend when they adde thereto taking such additions from the adversaryworkman that is the Devil c. That which is born is the work of God therefore that which is counterfeit is the businesse of the Devil c. Let God behold you on this day such as he then to wit at the Resurrection shall behold you c. Where God is there is Modesty there is Gravity her helper and associate After what manner shall we then use modesty without her instrument that is without Gravity and how shall we apply Gravity to Modesty unless Severity be observed in the face and in the attire and in regarding of the whole man Herein Tertullian doth intimate that look what Modesty and Gravity women here on earth have put on in the like shall they appear in their face and ornaments at the day of Judgement And moreover he makes a doubt whether the Angels will carry up into Heaven such a painted creature An cum cerussa purpurisso croco expictam Angeli in nubila sublevent obviam Christo Whether saith he the Angels will then carry up into the clouds one painted with white Lead red Cheek-varnish and Saffron to meet Christ or not So Tertullian Clemens Alexandrinus saith Clem. Alex. Paedagog l. 3. c. 2. A. D. 204. That as a salve applied doth by the very sight give cause to suspect that he that weares it is diseased so these false Dyes Tinctures and colours dawbed on womens faces do signifie that the soul is sick within Again as branded marks make known a Fugitive so beautiful colours disclose an Harlot and he that calls them Harlots who make vizards of their faces is not mistaken for they that take more delight in their faces then in their hearts set forth themselves to please others And is it not an absurd thing that Horses Birds and other living creatures should rise up from the green grass and meadowes and flie away rejoycing in their own natural ornament mains colours and plumes and that a woman as if she were inferiour to beasts should think her self deformed that she stands in need of externall saleable and counterfeit beauty c. So Clem. Alex. St. Cyprian S. Cyprian de habitu Virginis Anno 250. De habitu Virginis thus writeth Ornamentorum insignia lenocinia fucorū non gisi prostitutis impudicis foeminis congruit a● nullarum ferè praetiosior cultus est quàm quarum pudor vilis est The flags of attire the alluring provocations of painted faces belong to none but prostituted and shamelesse women but the attire of almost no women is more precious then of those whose bashfulnesse is set out meanly Again Qui se pingunt in hoc seculo aliter quam creavit Deus metuent ne cum dies resurrectionis venerit arufex creaturam suam non recognoscat They who paint themselves in this world otherwise then God made them let them beware that when the Resurrection shall come the Workmaster do not know his workmanship Again saith the same Father If some cunning Painter should set forth the countenance and shape of a woman and having ended his work another should take upon him as being more skilful to reform and mend it the first workman might justly seem to be injured and offended And dost thou think O woman to escape unpunished presuming with the like audacious rashness to offend God Doth Sincerity and Truth continue when those things that are sincere are polluted with counterfeit colours and those things which are true are changed into falshood with deceitful tricks The Lord saith Thou art not able to make one haire white or black Mat. 5.36 and thou to put down his saying wouldst thou be stronger By audacious endeavour and sacrilegious attempt thou colourest thy haires fearest not thou I prethee who art thus disguised lest the Workman that made thee should not acknowledge thee and lest he should say This is not my Work this is none of our Image Thou hast polluted thy skin with deceitful Art thou hast changed thy hair with a counterfeit colour thy face is falsified thy shape is defiled thy countenance is borrowed thou canst not see God having not the eyes that God hath made but which the Devil hath marr'd thou hast followed him thou hast imitated the red-shining and painted eyes of the Serpent being trimm'd up in thine enemies fashion thou art to burn also in like manner with him Ought not these things I prethee to be confidered of the servants of God are they not to be dreaded alwayes both day and night Thus St. Cyprian Lactantius speaking of these foolish paintings saith thus Lactantius de falsa sapientia cap. 29. A. C. 290.