Admiration of a man's "black" skin is expressed by an Egyptian lady in
Chapman's _The Blind Beggar of Alexandria_, a comedy romp performed by the
Admiral's Men about 1596. He, Porus, is an Ethiopian
king whose rival for the lady denigrates his color, but the admiring lady
chooses to marry the Ethiopian in part because of his beautiful blackness.
This at a time when
as Kim Hall argues the English among others were busy inventing and
embracing whiteness, utilizing blackness to do so. Spenser's possible
role in this process, perhaps a complex one, as well as Sidney's, would be
interesting to explore, if it
hasn't been. Maybe there's a platonic allegory in Chapman's play, but I
don't imagine it could come to the fore on the stage of the Rose,
especially in a play like this. (I don't think there are any
Christians in the play). There audiences saw a woman going beyond
Desdemona's later admiration of the *mental* visage of her
husband--though not a European woman.
Perhaps the existence of people of color on the streets of London helped
to complicate thinking. By the way, one of Behn's sources, Ligon's
account of Barbados, exhibits remarkable admiration of blacks alongside
affirmation of slavery.
Charles Whitney
English Dept.
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
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