The Riddle of Blackness in England’s National Family Romance

JEMCS 1.1 (Spring/ Summer2001) The Riddle ofBlackness in England's National Family Romance ScottOldenburg Pseudodoxia Epidemica, published in 1646, Sir Thomas Brownedescribesthecause ofblacknessas "a Riddle"(466). EarlymodernEngland'sincreasedcontactwithAfrica and Africans ledwriters oftheperiodtoanswerthis"Riddle" witha wide variety oftheoriesconcerning theoriginofblackness. The proliferation ofexplanationsofblacknessin thelate sixteenth and earlytomidseventeenth centuries, liketheElizabethandecrees toexpelblack people,revealsearlymodernEngland'spreoccupationwithblackness as a markerofdifference.Further,as withOedipus' answer to the riddleposed him by the Sphinx, England's attemptsto answer Browne's"Riddle"ofblackness revealmuch about Englanditself. According to earlymodern writers likeGeorgeBest (1578), SirThomasHerbert (1634),and SirThomas Browne(1645), blacknessis variouslytheresultof cannibalism(Browne468), bestiality (Herbert inJordan30-31), a geneticdisease (Best 262-64; Browne467), a chemicalcompound in theblood (Browne477-78), something in theair,water ,or land (Browne462; 466), or perhaps the powerof the mother'simagination duringconceptionor pregnancy (Browne 466-67). The twomostpopulartheoriesofblackness,however, weretheClimatetheory and theBiblicaltheory. TheClimatetheory statesthatthesun'sintensity brings about variationsin skin color. As GeorgeBest explains it, "Others againe imaginethemiddleZone to be extreme hot,because the people ofAfrica, especiallyEthiopians,are so cole blacke,and theirhair likewoollcurledshort,whichblacknesseand curled haire theysuppose to come onelyby the parchingheat ofthe Sunne" (261). The theory is notBest's owninvention, nordoes itoriginate inEngland. Rather,thistheory cametoEnglandvia classical textslikePliny'sNatural History, whichstates"thatthe Oldenburg 47 Ethiopiansareburntbytheheatoftheheavenly bodynearthem, and are bornwitha scorchedappearance,withcurlybeardand hair"(2:80),and Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos, whichexplainsthatEthiopians "sincetheyhave thesun overtheirheads and are burned byit,have black skinsand thick,woolyhair"(123). Thus, the popularityofthe Climatetheoryis in part a resultofRenaissance England'srenewedinterest in classical texts. Despite repeated attemptsat debunkingit (Best 261-62; Sandys 213; Browne 460-70), the Climate theorypersisted throughout theearlymodern periodas a credible wayofexplaining blackness and seems to have especiallyappealed to poets and dramatists. Elezear, the black MoorofThomas Dekker's Lust'sDominion, declares,"Lookwellon Elezear;value me/Not bymysunburnt cheek"(3.2.205-06). Similarly, inJohnWebster's The White Devil,thepopularproverb about theimpossibility of blackpeoplewashingthemselves whiteis describedas "thesunburntproverb " (5.3.263). InWilliam Shakespeare'sTheMerchant ofVenice, thePrinceofMoroccoexplains,"Mislike menotfor my complexion,/ The shadowedlivery ofthe burnish'edsun,/ To whom I am a neighborand near bred" (2.1.1-3.). Likewise, Shakespeare'sCleopatraexplains,"Think on me,/Thatam with Phoebus'amorouspinchesblack"(1.5.27-28). Cleopatra'sallusiontoPhoebusfurther providesan example ofthewayin whichtheClimatetheory was oftenincorporated into a mythicnarrativeofblackness, linkedparticularly with thestoryofPhoebus's son,Phaeton,a story which,liketheClimatetheory itself, reachedEnglandviaclassical texts,primarily Ovid's Metamorphoses.Phaeton,the son ofPhoebus and the nymph Clymene, feeling theneedtoprovehis parentage,makes a pilgrimagefromhis native Ethiopia to Phoebus's palace. Phoebusconfirms hisparentageand promisestograntanywish his son mightrequireofhim. Phaeton,much to his father's dismay,wishestoridethechariotofthesun forone day. After muchdeliberation, Phoebusconcedesand instructshimabout theproper pathtotake. Phaetonlosescontrol, burning theheavens and theEarth. Then,writesOvidinArthur Golding's1567 Englishtranslation, "Aethiopians at thattime(as menfortruth upholde)/(Thebloudbyforceofthatsame heatedrawnetothe outerpart/And thereadust fromthat timeforth) became so black and swart"(2.299-301). The story ofPhaetonservesas a mythic rendering oftheClimate theorygivingnarrativeforceto thistheoryofblackness. WilliamBasse retellsthe storyin his Urania,orThe Womanin theMoon: 48 TheJournal forEarlyModern Cultural Studies ForereApollo'ssonnehis father's chayre, To leade theLight,on daydidundertake, TheAethiopiansthenwerewhiteand fay re, Thoughbytheworldscombustionsincemadeblack WhenwantonPhaetonoverthrew theSun, Whichdredfull mischiefe had notyetbeen done. (qtd.in Hall 63)1 Andin Ben Jonson'sMasque ofBlackness,performed in 1605, Nigeralludes tothemyth, explaining, As one ofPhaeton, thatfired theworld, Andthatbefore his heedlessflameswerehurled Abouttheglobe,theEthiopswereas fair As otherdames,nowblackwithblackdespair. (136-39) Althoughthe Climatetheoryand its mythic rendering persistedthroughout theearlymodern period, itwas seriously called intoquestionas earlyas 1589 whenGeorgeBest publishedhis Discoursewhichsought"toproveall partesoftheWorldhabitable "(250), thatis, toencouragefurther exploration, commerce, and colonizationofdistantlands. Best asks, "iftheEthiopians blacknessecamebytheheatoftheSunne,whyshouldnotthose Americansand Indians also be as blacke as they,seeing the Sunne is equally distantfromthemboth,theyabidingin one Parallel?" (261). Best further notes that a black man in England ,"begata sonneinall respectsas blackeas thefather was, although England were his native countrey,and an English womanhis mother" (262). Bestthusrefutes theClimatetheory and putsinitsplace the other popularearly modern theory ofblackness, theBiblical theory. Bestexplainsthatthecause ofblackness"manifestly andplainely appearethbyholyScripture" (263); he thenretellsthestoryof thefloodafter which"thereremainedno moemenalivebutNoe and his threesonnes,Sem,Cham,and Japhet. . . whoall three beingwhite, and their wivesalso,bycourseofnatureshouldhave begotten and brought foorth whitechildren" (263). Bestexplainsthatblacknessappears intheworldas a curse broughtabout by the "wickedSpirite"who caused the fallof Adamand, duringtheflood, causes oneofNoah'sthreesons "to [so] transgresseand disobeyhis fathers commaundement, that afterhimall his posteritie shouldbee accursed"(263). In this Oldenburg 49 explanationofblackness, then,dark complexionsare closely associated withthe Devil and sin. Blackness, explains Best, functions as "a spectacleofdisobediencetoall theworlde"(264). Thespecific natureofthedisobedience is ofsomeimportance...