Monday, October 29, 2007

Fashion & Bodies; Pleasure & Nobility

As Hyde Park investigates manners and what is fashionable in West End London, how do bodies enter into that conversation? Bodies, body parts (e.g. eyes, lips, hands, legs, feet, shoulders), and bodily engagements (e.g. dancing, kissing, running) are prevalent throughout the play, but for what social purpose? It seems having a stylish mastery over one's body--being able to dance or sing--is counterposed by fumbling off a horse and into mud. With Carol's speech in 3.2 ("Would I had art enough to draw your picture/ It would shew rarely at the Exchange") and other bodily matters, is there some sort of divide being created between one's physical constitution and a social body/a body that serves fashionable purposes?

Greg's second question makes me reexamine the first mention of Lord Bonvile in 1.1:
Venture: What's he?
Trier: A sprig of nobility,
That has a spirit equal to his fortunes;
A gentleman that loves clean napery.
Venture: I guess your meaning.
Trier: A lady of pleasure; 'tis no shame for men
Of his high birth to love a wench; his honor
May privilege more sins; next to a woman,
He loves a horse.--
Setting aside these recreations,
He has a noble nature, valiant, bountiful.

Is Bonvile's behavior excused from the beginning? "Pleasure" seems to be the guiding principle for Bonvile. He identifies Julietta as a "woman of pleasure" in 2.3 and in 5.1 puns on the word as he speaks with Julietta. What is important about Bonvile's tastes, as they are defined, considering he is the only member of the nobility in the play?

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