Cosmetics in Shakespearean and Renaissance drama - Farah Karim-Cooper

"Provides a fascinating perspective on how early modern culture dealt with the growth and transformation of cosmetics into an 'industry' and offers exciting insight into how cosmetic textual imagery might have been interpreted in stage performance."

Tom Healy, University of Sussex

"Karim-Cooper's rich and suggestive interpretations of the plays that she takes in hand convincingly demonstrate the relevance of the period's cosmetic culture to theater and performance, and make this book required reading for critics and students of the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage."

Comparative Drama

This original study examines how the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries dramatise the cultural preoccupation with cosmetics. Farah Karim-Cooper analyses contemporary tracts that address the then-contentious issue of cosmetic practice and identifies a 'culture of cosmetics', which finds its visual identity on the Renaissance stage. She also examines cosmetic recipes and their relationship to drama as well as to the construction of early modern identities.