Dunton, John (1659-1732)

The Ladies Dictionary

London

Printed for John Dunton

1694

"Wine is strong, and Kings are strong, but a Beautiful Woman fixes her unshaken Empire in the hearts of her Admirers, when all things totters."

Beauty in Women, its Power and Force. ---- —Beauty had some Effects upon Diogenes, held to be the Morosests of all the Philosophers; for when he saw handsom Women, he called them Queens, because he had observed Men so Curteous, Obliging and Obedient to them; bowing and bringing, as if they would adore their very Shoe-strings: Wine is strong, and Kings are strong, but a Beautiful Woman fixes her unshaken Empire in the hearts of her Admirers, when all things totters. Monarchs we confess, though they sit still, streach a wide Command over Sea and Land; but Beauty, we generally find has Dominion even over them: Gold and Jewels tumbles at the Fair ones feet, and the Doner is proud if she will deigne to receive it, their Eyes are fixed on her with wonder, and they take her for a kind of a Terrestial Paradise, furnished out with delights not common to the World; Friends and Relations are forsaken for her, and she is exalted upon the Soveraign Throne of Affection: Life is a small hazard to protect or vindicate her Honour, Says Esdras, though it was death for any to touch the Persian Kings without an especial Command, yet says he of Darius, I saw Apame his Concubine sitting familiar with him on his right hand, and she took the Crown from off his head, and put it on her own, and stroaked him with her left hand; yet the King was well pleased, Gaping and Gazing on her; and when she smilled, he smilled; and laughed when she laughed; and when she was angry, he flattered to be reconciled to her. When the fair Chariclea fell into the hands of Pyrates with divers others, she only escaped being put to the Sword, her Excelling Beauty, working upon the Villains heart, contrary to their bloody custom to save her Life. Some Nations chuse their Kings and Queens by their Beauty and Proportion of Body, without regard to their Birth: As of Old, the Indians, Persians, and Aethiopians have done.
(p. 59)

Government::Empire

Reading Carlos J. Gómez's "Courtship, Marriage Vows, and Political Metaphor in Vanbrugh’s 'The Relapse' and 'The Provoked Wife,'" Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, 1:2, (Fall/Winter 2001): 93-123, p. 93.

The Ladies Dictionary, Being a General Entertainment of the Fair-Sex a Work Never Attempted Before in English. (London: Printed for John Dunton, 1694). <Link to EEBO-TCP>

09/24/2013