Modest or Unmannerly, Which Instrument Shall She Play? - DM Denton

Music was such an integral part of 17th century life and Hoydens and Firebrands are delighted to welcome DM Denton with a fascinating post on women and music in the seventeenth century. Diane is the author of two books set in the 17th century in which the central protagonists are musicians.  

A HOUSE NEAR LUCCOLI and its sequel TO A STRANGE SOMEWHERE FLED focuses on chance encounters, beautiful music and the paradox of genius through an imagined intimacy with one of the most legendary and undervalued figures of Italian Baroque music, Alessandro Stradella. 

In the 17th century a refined young woman might want and even be encouraged to cultivate her musical ability and prove some accomplishment through singing and accompanying herself instrumentally—as recreation not occupation, of course. Considering her need to impress a suitor, show her figure off in the best possible way, express the sweetest tones of her personality and gentle capability of her character, which instrument should she play?

Men seemed eager to offer their opinions, asserting their duty in pointing out the dangers of women acting more passionately than discreetly—of them doing anything, which, to quote Pietro Aretino, 15th-16th century Italian playwright, “opens the gates of their modesty.” Roger North (1651-1734), English biographer, lawyer, architect, and amateur musician, expressed his thoughts on the matter in his autobiography, Notes of Me: “This lets me in to speak a little of teaching on which much of this depends;  for men the viol, violin, and the thorough bass instruments organ harpsichord and double bass are proper; for women the spinnet or harpsichord, lute and guitar;  for voices both. I cannot but commend the double bass or standing viol for plain basses especially for accompanying voices because of its softness joined with such a force as helps the voice very much; and the harpsichord for ladies rather than the lute; one reason is it keeps their body in a better posture than the other, which tends to make them crooked.”

If playing the lute wasn’t advantageous to a lady’s appearance, then what were the consequences, not only to her posture but also her reputation, if she spread her legs for the viol? Thomas Middleton, Jacobean playwright, disapproved of women performing on such an “unmannerly instrument”.  French guitarist, lutenist, composer and theorist, François Campion, (aka Abbé Carbasus), cynical overall about women having musical ambitions, noted that “decency, modesty, and the hoopskirt fashion effectively prohibit the fair sex from playing the viol.” Evidently not, for play it they did, as shown by the engravings of Nicolas Bonnart.

Anyone who has seen the film Tous les Matins du Monde knows that the daughters of the great viol player Sainte-Columbe (1640-1700), were also accomplished on it. The biographer Titon tu Tillet (1677-1762) reported: “Sainte Colombe … gave concerts in his house, in which two of his daughters played, one the treble viol, the other the bass, and they formed with their father a three viol consort, which was a pleasure to listen to, even if it was made of rather ordinary symphonies and few chords.”

For the sake of decency, some women may have attempted to play the viol obliquely: per traverse, rather like riding a horse sidesaddle, more ladylike but not as physically viable. Despite its intention, it wasn’t a technique that gained popularity.

In disagreement with Roger North’s fluctuating opinion, artists Nicolas Arnoult and Abraham Bosse portrayed ladies of quality not only playing the harpsichord but also the lute.  John Essex, 17th—18th century English dancer, choreographer and author,  wrote that “The Harpsicord, Spinnet, Lute and Base Violin, are Instruments most agreeable to the Ladies: There are some others that really are unbecoming the Fair Sex; as the Flute, Violin and Hautboy [oboe]; the last of which is too Manlike, and would look indecent in a woman’s mouth; and the Flute is very improper, as taking away too much of the Juices, which are otherwise more necessarily employ’d, to promote the Appetite, and assist Digestion.” Probably more myth than fact was the criticism of a female playing the violin or flute because she would have to raise her arms and reveal her elbows.

Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer often used the theme of a woman practicing, performing on, sitting at or holding an instrument—guitar, virginal, harpsichord, lute, cittern, flute, trumpet—and gave us moments in time that implied collaboration, flirtatiousness even intimacy; and, conversely, duteousness, modesty, confinement even isolation. 

It seems Vermeer recognized that the allure of a female through her musical accomplishment could actually illuminate her virtue. The association between music-making and love-making was a respectable means to an end as long as it was correctly contained. On the other hand, naiveté, low resistance, high libido, adventurousness, or just chance and circumstance were more threatening to a woman’s reputation than the instrument she chose to play.

I’ll return to Roger North as he seems to admit music offers more that is positive than negative for all who partake of it, again from his Notes of Me: “And nothing of the unprofitable kind, can be so good as musick, who is a kind companion and admits all to her graces, either by men by themselves, or men, and women together, or the latter single, either with instruments and voices, or either alone, as the capacitys are, and fail not to entertain themselves, and their parents, and friends, with pleasures sensible to those that have found the sweets of them.” 

About DM (Diane) Denton: 

DM Denton, a native of Western New York, is an author and artist. She finds her voice in poetry and prose, in silence and retreat, in truth and imagination.  Through observation and study, inspired by music, art, nature and the contradictions of the creative spirit, she loves to wander into the past to discover stories of interest and meaning for the present, writing from her love of language and the belief that what is left unsaid is the most affecting of all. Her educational journey took her to the UK where she stayed for sixteen years. She returned to the US in 1990, to a rural area of Western New York State where she resides in a cozy log cabin with her mother and a multitude of cats. 

DM Denton has published two historical fictions: A House Near Luccoli and its sequel To A Strange Somewhere Fled, both released by All Things That Matter Press. For more information, please visit Diane’s blog, website, and Amazon author page for all her publications: 

RECONSTRUCTING THE THIRTY YEARS WAR - Laura Libricz

Judging by the images and the books that are popular today, can you imagine how someone 400 years from now will view our society? How will they reconstruct our day in age based on the records we leave behind? That is, if they can even access our information. What impressions will they have of our culture?

I take this into consideration as I research and write my 17^th century historical novels. I have a good idea of what the time period looked like from paintings like those from the Dutch Golden Age. Objects and artifacts that survived the passing of time help illustrate how people lived their daily lives. But what people thought, what they felt, can only be taken from the work of those who wrote down their experiences. Even then, we only get the point of view of individuals with a certain standing in the community. We are subject to see history based on their beliefs and more importantly, what they wanted the reader to believe.

So, as I reconstruct the Thirty Years War and the impact the war had on the Aisch Valley in Franconia, Germany, I choose sources that give me a more realistic version of the world I am recreating. These include local historical almanacs, autobiographical accounts that survived over the years and current research of the Early Modern Period. I’d like to tell you about my most important ones.

The Thirty Years War was considered The Great War by the Germans up until WWI. The devastation it left behind was up until that time unmatched. The population was reduced by a third, some believe by half. Great tracks of land were left untouched by the war but other areas were set back 100 years in their development. Some of the villages in my area died out completely for more than two generations. And a surprising number of events that transpired there were written down and collected.

Germans call them Heimatbücher; village historical almanacs, written by local residents, village officials and clergy. Many small communities have them. Full of church records, local weather chronicles, tax records, marriage, birth and death registers, maps and photographs, you’ll find one on almost every bookshelf in Germany. They recorded everything from the Hussiten Wars to the Little Ice Age, the natural catastrophe believed to help fuel the Thirty Years War. Many of the troop movements that stain Germany’s war-torn history and the damage left behind can be found in these books. They tend to be overlooked by ‘real’ historians but they are a wealth of knowledge and now our little secret.

Around the time of the Thirty Years War, the early 1700’s, literacy in Germany was supposedly 2% to 4% of the population, without taking into consideration the difference between those who read regularly and those who could read at all. The reported literates were either of a high standing or involved in the church. More Protestants were known to be able to read than Catholics. Yes, there were those women who were learned but the majority of these were men. And some of these people felt the need to write their memoirs.

A local hero from the town of Uehlfeld in Franconia, Veit von Berg was a young Protestant pastor who was in the city of Neustadt an der Aisch when it was sacked in July 1632. After the war, in 1648, he was commissioned to serve the Evangelical parish in Uehlfeld. Thirty-five people survived the horrors that left this village in ash and rubble, a village that once had population of over 600. Veit von Berg spent his free time rebuilding Uehlfeld, teaching the savaged farmers how to sow seed and live life and writing his autobiography. This is a touching, explicit, insightful story of his fight to live through an unjust war.

A more famous story is Simplicius Simplicissimus by Grimmelshausen, considered to be the first German novel. It is the story of a peasant boy torn away from his family by marauding mercenaries. We follow him from the abduction, to the life with a hermit, to military service, to wealth and excess back to the life of a hermit. The adventures he experienced are considered to be the autobiographical account of Grimmelshausen’s life.

In 1988, Jan Peters, a German historian, found a hand-written document in the Berliner Staatsbibliotek, the Berlin Library. Peters set out to decipher the writings and search for the author, whose name is nowhere in the writings to be found. After much detective work, the writer is believed to the mercenary soldier, Peter Hagendorf. Hagendorf recorded his 25-year career as a mercenary and the 22,500 km travels that took him from Italy to Germany, to the Spanish Netherlands and France. He also took part in the famous Sack of Magdeburg in 1631.

Now, most of my reference books are in German and most of them are written by men. But I want to recreate this time period for an English-speaking audience and keep the language contemporary. I want to get close to the characters, inside their heads, and I also want to do this from the viewpoint of a woman. And I want to stay true to the events documented in my sources.

American historian, Joel Harrington, http://as.vanderbilt.edu/history/bio/joel-harrington professor at the Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, specializes in the Early Modern Period in Germany and has written numerous books concerning this time period in the English language. In 2009, he published The Unwanted Child: The Fate of Foundlings, Orphans, and Juvenile Criminals in Early Modern Germany (University of Chicago Press, 2009). Harrington studies the situation of abandoned children in Nuremberg, Germany, their mothers and the role society played in all of this in the early modern world.

Over the years, the more information I searched for, the more I found. This is only a small outtake from all the sources I have collected. For me, the love of research equals the love of writing historical fiction. And as I reconstruct the Thirty Years War, these books and documents are as instrumental to my writing as my computer and a pad and paper. The stage is set and I can bring in the actors and raise the curtain.

  

Laura Libricz at home here:  http://lauralibricz.blogspot.de/

I am a writer, a mother, a guitar factory worker. And I love to write. I was born and raised in Bethlehem, PA and moved to Upstate New York when I was 22. After working a few years building Steinberger guitars, I got a scholarship to go to college. I tried to ‘do the right thing’ and study something useful, but spent all my time reading German literature (ahem, struggling through originals and reading the English translations.) And the passion for writing brewed there in the background. Most of my writing from that time landed in the fire. What a shame, I think now. 

I earned a BA in German at The College of New Paltz, NY in 1991 and moved to Germany, where I reside today. My first novel, The Master and the Maid, is the first book of the Heaven's Ponds Trilogy and is now available at Smashwords, Amazon and all other e-book sellers. The second book, The Soldier's Return, is scheduled to be released in October 2015. Both are historical in nature, dealing with the Thirty Years War in Germany from 1618-1648.

The Price of Beauty in the Seventeenth Century - Jessica Cale

Maybe She’s Born With It (Maybe It’s Lead!)

Barbara Palmer (née Villiers), Duchess of Cleveland by John Michael Wright

So many seventeenth-century portraits feature women with smooth, perfectly white complexions. The paint used in the portraits would have been very similar to the makeup used by the women featured, both being comprised chiefly of white lead. By the Restoration, cosmetics were widely available and used across the social spectrum. In a time when freckles were undesirable and so many faces were marred with smallpox scars, demand for complexion correctives was high, and white lead made its first comeback as a cosmetic since the end of the Roman Empire.

Ceruse was made of lead carbonite or oxide and could be combined with lemon juice or vinegar. It was bought as a powder and mixed into a paste with water or egg whites and applied with a damp cloth to whiten the face, neck, and chest. It clung well to the skin and didn’t have to be applied too heavily to produce an even, matte result. It could be set with a mask of egg whites to varnish the skin or powders of starch or ground alabaster.

While it could create the illusion of perfection for a time, ceruse was not without its failings. The egg whites dried quickly on the skin, and they would have created an uncomfortably tight mask that would wrinkle and crack with any facial movement at all, so smiling and talking were out. Over the course of a day, it could even turn grey, necessitating touch-ups with alabaster powder to disguise the changing tone. Ceruse was also found to have a depilatory effect on the eyebrows and hairline, which could be seen as an advantage (or disadvantage, if false mouse-skin eyebrows don’t appeal to you) and could partially explain the artificially high hairlines that appeared throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Still, it was preferable to the alternative, a combination of borax and sulphur, which created a pale powder that was very drying as well as slightly yellow; not very compatible with the fashionable pink and white complexion of the time.

Ceruse was also extremely poisonous. The most sought-after ceruse came from Venice, seen by many as the center of the fashionable world, which was the most expensive and contained the highest concentration of lead. In 1651, Noah Biggs warned against the use of lead in lab equipment and near any water supplies in The Vanity of the Craft of Physic, and the Royal Society noted that people involved in the manufacture of white lead suffered from cramps and blindness by 1661. Mercury was used in the production of beaver hats, giving rise to the term “mad as a hatter.”

Although mercury and lead were known to cause madness, they continued to be used in cosmetics, hair rinses, and popular (if only somewhat successful) remedies for syphilis in every form from enemas, ointments, and pills to steam baths or “sweats” in mercury vapor.

The first person known to die from it was Lady Coventry in 1760. 

Hogarth. Harlot's Progress (detail)

Patches

Patches reached their height of popularity in the seventeenth century. Lady Castlemaine advised ladies to wear them daily, except when in mourning. They could be made of taffeta or other thin, black fabrics, and even red Spanish Leather. They came in all shapes and were affixed to the face with gum to disguise blemishes or pockmarks, or to provide a “mark of Venus.”

They were called different things depending upon their position on the face. A patch beside the mouth was called a “kiss.” At the middle of the cheek, it was called a “finery,” a “boldness” beside the nostril, and a “passion” at the corner of the eye. During the 1650s, it became fashionable to wear patches shaped as coaches complete with galloping horses, although it’s difficult to imagine how large a patch would have had to be to resemble anything of the kind.

If a coach and six was not to the wearer’s taste, the Exchanges were restocked daily with a plethora of shapes. From The Gentlewoman’s Companion (Anonymous, 1675):

“By the impertinent pains of this curious Facespoiling-mender, the Exchanges (for now we have three great Arsenals of choice Vanities) are furnished with a daily supply and variety of Beautyspots … and these Patches are cut out into little Moons, Suns, Stars, Castles, Birds, Beasts, and Fishes of all sorts, so that their Faces may be properly termed a Landscape of living Creatures. The vanity and pride of these Gentlewomen hath in a manner abstracted Noah’s Ark, and exprest a Compendium of the Creation in their Front and Cheeks. Add to this the gallantry of their Garb, with all the Ornamental appurtances which rackt Innvention can discover, and then you will say … That she was defective in nothing but a vertueus mind.”

Despite this scathing attack on the virtue of London’s patch-wearing populace, patches continued to be popular through the eighteenth century, and during the reign of Queen Anne, were even worn to indicate political allegiances by wearing them on different sides of the face. 

Jessica Cale

Jessica Cale is a historical romance author and journalist based in North Carolina. Originally from Minnesota, she lived in Wales for several years where she earned a BA in History and an MFA in Creative Writing while climbing castles and photographing mines for history magazines. She kidnapped ("married") her very own British prince (close enough) and is enjoying her happily ever after with him in a place where no one understands his accent. You can visit her at  http://www.authorjessicacale.com

Look out for her debut novel, Tyburn the first of a romantic series set in the time of the Restoration. 

BUY TYBURN

Time for a Change!

To all our loyal readers and followers...

In keeping with the Hoydens sleek new look, there will be a slight change to the way we do business here at Hoydens.

For eight years (and 283 posts!) we have been posting every week on every conceivable subject relevant to the seventeenth century.

The writing world has changed enormously in that time and there are many more writers dipping their toes into our favourite period of history, so rather than hear from the same voices on a weekly basis, we are moving to a less formal format and inviting all comers with an interest in the seventeenth century and/or a book set in that period to use the Hoydens and Firebrands blog site as a forum to put up your post.

The regular Hoydens – Anita Davison, Mary Sharratt, Kim Murphy, Alison Stuart, Deborah Swift, Jo-Ann Butler, Andrea Zuvich and Christy Robinson will still be popping up – after all you can’t shut us up once we get on to our favourite subjects.

So if you are interested in a guest post, just email us (using the contact form to the right) and if it fits, we will put your guest post up as and when you want it.

Looking forward to lots of new and interesting voices and hoping our regular followers enjoy the new format.

Love from

The Hoydens 

Hoydens Round Up...

With three new members of the Hoydens and Firebrands team we thought it timely to do a little catch up on our recent releases and forthcoming news.

Starting with our newest members:

CHRISTY ROBINSON

Nothing much to report on my books, except I'm formatting a Kindle version of my third book into a paperback version. It's my nonfiction book, The DYERS of London, Boston, & Newport.
Find out more about Christy at http://marybarrettdyer.blogspot.com 



JO ANN BUTLER
The Golden Shore, the final mss for my Herodias Long trilogy, is coming together nicely. It should be ready to publish next spring, if I don't let playing bass clarinet in several community bands distract me!
To read more about Jo Ann visit http://www.rebelpuritan.com/






DEBORAH SWIFT 
My teen/adult novel 'Shadow on the Highway' - will be published by the UK's Endeavour Press. It is the first of a series of books based on the life of notorious Highwaywoman Lady Katherine Fanshawe, and is set at the end of the English Civil War. Great fun to write - you can read more about Lady Katherine here: http://riddleofwriting.deborahswift.com/2014/04/13/my-main-character-lady-katherine-fanshawe/ 

'A Divided Inheritance' is now available as an audiobook and in large print. 

 Meanwhile, I am continuing work on my novel based around Pepys's Diary and on the sequel to 'Shadow on the Highway'.

ALISON STUART

My English Civil War, castle siege story, CLAIMING THE REBEL'S HEART came out in January to some lovely reviews. For more information and to read an excerpt visit my website: http://www.alisonstuart.com/claiming-the-rebels-heart.html

In a change of pace (or period), my first foray into Regency, a regency romantic suspense, LORD SOMERTON'S HEIR was published with Escape Publishing (and imprint of Harlequin Australia) in May.

I may have some other, really exciting news but I can't say anything yet... curses!

ANITA DAVISON - Some really big news...

I have two novels being re-released with Books We Love under the titles, The Rebel's Daughter and The Goldsmith's Wife.

The Rebel's Daughter

Helena Woulfe, the daughter of a wealthy Exeter nobleman leads a privileged life. 

However, as King Charles II's reign comes to an end, so does her innocence.
Rebellion sweeps the West Country and when her family is caught in its grip, she finds herself on the road searching for her missing Rebel father and brother after the Duke of Monmouth’s bloody defeat in battle at Sedgemoor.

King James II wants revenge on those who opposed him and their lives are further torn apart when soldiers ransack her home. 

The family estate is confiscated by the crown and given to their bitterest enemy.
Feeling bereft and abandoned, they go to London. Helena hopes the city will overlook 

their past and she can make a new life for herself, and perhaps find love. 

Only, there are others lurking, willing to do harm to a traitor's daughter.

Before she can find happiness with Guy, the man who offers her the security and 

respectability she seeks, she learns her family’s allegiances can snatch away her 

safety at any time.

The Goldsmith's Wife

It is 1688 and in London, and Helena has what she always wanted, respectability and security, although her brothers remain a worry - Aaron schemes in Holland with the Prince of Orange to depose the reigning King James II, and Henry carries his own sorrow, pining for another man's wife.

 

Prince William arrives in England to re-establish the Anglican Church,and when anti-Papist riots break out in London, Helena is forced to flee from her home – again.

 While Helena strives to keep what she holds dear, can she and her brothers attain what they desire and above all, will they ever learn the fate of their missing Father, who disappeared after the Battle of Sedgemoor?

KIM MURPHY

I had an excellent interview in The Atlantic for I Had Rather Die: Rape in the Civi War. 
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/02/gender-race-and-rape-during-the-civil-war/283754/
And my second book in The Dreaming series Wind Talker will be released in the fall. Like Walks Through Mist, it will be a mix of the modern and 17th-century Virginia.

MARY SHARRATT reports she is between books at the moment and ANDREA ZUVICH is in the throes of moving house when all life stops... 

Hoydens News - December 2013

It is good to stop and draw breath for a minute and reflect on the busy year the Hoydens have enjoyed.

But firstly we are thrilled to welcome three new members as regular posters to the Hoydens. All these ladies have been guest posters over the past year so they will be familiar to you all. So in no particular order allow us to introduce:

CHRISTY ROBINSON

Christy K Robinson is published in the historical fiction, nonfiction, and inspiration genres, and has edited and contributed to a variety of other books and magazines during her career as a writer and editor. Mary Dyer Illuminated and Mary Dyer: For Such a Time as This are her first novels. To follow her research in 17^th-century England and New England, or to contact her, visit http://ChristyKRobinson.com  

ANDREA ZUVICH

Andrea Zuvich, aka The Seventeenth Century Lady, lives in a small town in England. She is a full-time historian, author of historical fiction set in the 17th Century, and often gives lectures about the Late Stuart period, in which she specialises. Originally from Philadelphia, Zuvich grew up in Florida with a keen interest in Early Modern European history. She was one of the original developers of and guides on the Garden History Tours at Kensington Palace. Find out more about Andrea at The Seventeenth Century Lady Website

and
JO ANN BUTLER

Jo Ann Butler, author of The Reputed Wife and Rebel Puritan, was born during the twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany, when Teutonic myth destines her to become a werewolf. In the meantime, she has been a colonial archeologist, genealogist, home health therapist, executive dogsbody, and a computer jockey in San Diego’s aerospace industry. Now Ms. Butler is an essayist and historical novelist. What comes next – besides lycanthropy? 

We are looking forward to their future posts.

And for the battle hardened veterans?

For ANITA DAVISON (writing as ANITA SEYMOUR) The year started off with the release of ROYALIST REBEL, a fictionalised account of the life of the scandalous Elizabeth Murray.  She is currently entertaining murderous thoughts and working on a cosy mystery set in the early years of the twentieth century.

MARY SHARRATT goes from strength to strength with her critically acclaimed recent release ILLUMINATIONS: A NOVEL OF HILDEGARD VON BINGEN winning the 2013 Nautilus Gold Award: Better Books for a Better World. 

DEBORAH SWIFT's latest release A DIVIDED INHERITANCE, a story of love and treachery set in early seventeenth century England and Spain, is getting consistent 4 and 5 star reviews. She has just finished a teen (YA) novel set in the English Civil War so all fingers are crossed that her agent finds a home for it.

KIM MURPHY's non fiction book, book I HAD RATHER DIE: RAPE IN THE CIVIL WAR  (that is the American Civil War) will be released on January 1 2014.  

 "A meticulously documented and gut-wrenching account of the gratuitous acts of violence against women's bodies, black and white, slave and free, young and old… A major work of scholarship that was long overdue, and that all historians should be grateful for." --Susan Brownmiller, author of Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape.


ALISON STUART's late 2012 release, the  World War One paranormal romance GATHER THE BONES went on to become an Amazon best seller and to gather award nominations in five major awards during 2013.  In 2013 she released a short time travel romance with an English Civil War setting SECRETS IN TIME (currently on sale at Amazon until 14 December). In January 2014 CLAIMING THE REBEL'S HEART, an English Civil War set historical romance based (very, very loosely) on the siege of Brampton Bryan castle will be released. 

If you are looking for some good holiday reading, there are some wonderful options here...

The Hoydens thank their readers for all the support during 2014 and wishes everyone a happy and safe holiday season.