Still to be neat, still to be dressed

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1609

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Literary Context

“Still to be neat, still to be dressed” is from early in the first scene of Ben Jonson’s play, Epicoene. As he is getting dressed for a high society social event, Clerimont requests that his page sing a song Clerimont has written on the subject of Lady Haughty—a woman who wears heavy makeup to hide physical defects. This song also foreshadows the play’s main plot, which involves Clerimont helping to dress a young boy as a woman to deceive another man. In performance, this concern about female deception via make-up and costumes had an ironic and amusing undertone. The theatrical use of make-up to have its all-male performers appear as women would not be lost on the audience members when listening to this song.

This poem helps to show why Jonson is considered a Cavalier poet. Cavalier poets, a group of gentlemen poets, politically supported King Charles I during the English Civil War. This group includes notable poets like Richard Lovelace and Robert Herrick in addition to lesser-known poets like Thomas Carew, Sir John Suckling, and Edmund Waller. Their lifestyle emphasized the concept of carpe diem, translated from Latin to mean “seize the day”—a sentiment made famous by Roman poet Horace. As Cavalier poets admired classical styles, their lyric poetry often borrowed from Roman and Greek writing. Cavaliers used poetry to highlight their accomplishments as high society courtiers, gallants, wits, and soldiers. They largely wrote refined and classical lyrical poems.

While “Still to be dressed” does not overtly advocate for a carpe diem approach to life, it does reflect the Cavalier poets’ neoclassical style. Jonson modeled this poem on a Latin lyric; it was inspired by Horace’s concept of simplex munditiis. Horace used this phrase in Line 5 of “Odes 1.5” to describe a chaste and simple woman. Jonson uses this concept to inform both his subject and his form. His classical lyrical form matches the literal translation of “simple in your adornments” meaning unaffected by manners. In his content, Jonson, like Horace, advocates for women to be chaste and plain in their adornments.

Historical Context

“Still to be neat” is clearly informed by historical standards of beauty during the time it was composed. During the English Renaissance, beautiful women often had fair hair, a pale complexion, and red lips. To attain this look, women often turned to cosmetics, as evidenced by portraits of aristocratic women wearing lead white powder and brightly painted red lips. These cosmetics were also used to try and create the illusion of a higher class as pale skin would reflect a woman’s ability to not work out in the sun and to stay inside. In addition, women used clothing to alter their silhouettes to attain a desired shape. To achieve such artificial standards of beauty, upper-class women spent a lot of time applying makeup and styling themselves. The “Lady” in the poem is in the midst of her beauty routine at the start of the poem.

The poem’s second stanza reveals the English Renaissance’s obsession with sexual fidelity and chastity. Overly made-up women were thought to be sexually loose, as make-up was connected to prostitutes. Jonson’s speaker expresses this belief when he claims that the “sweet neglect” (Line 10) of appearance is more appealing than a made-up look that he explicitly calls “the adulteries of art” (Line 11). The speaker demonstrates the historical belief by connecting the woman’s appearances with her lack of sexual fidelity. The use of cosmetics reveals a woman’s vanity, which she should seek to overcome. By deviating from a natural appearance, a woman deviates from her natural state of chastity and fidelity. The speaker’s ultimate conclusion is that a woman’s purity should be reflected her look.