Facing Facts
Arts & Ideas
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Introduction
In early modern britain, few people could expect to have entirely clear skin or all of their teeth. A key reason for this was that they knew that they would be judged by their appearance. Emily cocke from the university of cardiff is working on a project looking at disfigurement in 16 hundred 18 50. She's called her essay, facing facts,. Judging by appearances, was rife in shakespeare's london. People used medicines and cosmetics to change or cover their faces. And portrait artists politely overlooked flaws. Fashionable men and women were nothing but piles of cosmetics, wigs and padding., hiding their natural ugliness and ill health. But beauty was considered a key
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