Flawed Beauty, Flawed Cause: The Political Aesthetics of Parnassus Biceps (1656)

Abstract:In 1656, clergyman Abraham Wright edited and printed Parnassus Biceps, an unabashedly royalist poetic miscellany. Though under the radar in both Wright's day and our own, Biceps performs crucial political work through a program of aesthetic education. This is accomplished in part by Biceps's repeated insistence on its university pedigree and by the inclusion of a number of "flawed beauty" poems, poems that locate, hyperfixate on, and praise a perceived flaw in an otherwise beautiful woman. Through these poems , Biceps attempts to reconfirm the normative gender hierarchy and emphasizes the masculine prerogative to create, circulate, and assign meaning to women. Further, centering and praising a perceived flaw render the flawed beauty poems of Wright's anthology analogous to the royalist cause itself. The coalition of ideological positions grouped under the rubric of royalism not only acknowledged but indeed embraced a flawed king and flawed church at its center. Poems celebrating flawed beauty can thus be assimilated to the defense of an imperfect (dead) king and an imperfect (disestablished) religion. As such, this seemingly trivial volume performs urgent political and aesthetic work by embarking upon the project of urging a scattered, defeated royalist cohort to continue to support their heroically flawed cause.