‘Arise Evans' nose and Alexander Leighton's ear: perspectives on early modern facial difference’

College of Arts and Humanities

- A Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Research (MEMO) Event

Speaker

Emily Cook

Speaker's Biography

Emily Cock is a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow in the School of History, Archaeology and Religion at Cardiff
University, an Honorary Research Fellow in MEMO at Swansea University, and a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker
for 2019. She completed her PhD at the University of Adelaide, and will soon publish a related book all about noses
and plastic surgery in early modern British medicine and culture. Emily’s research explores social and cultural histories
of medicine, sexuality, and disability in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and currently focuses on
experiences and representations of facial disfigurements in Britain and its colonies in Virginia, Massachusetts, and
Australia.

From: 14 May 2019, 5:15 p.m.
To: 14 May 2019, 6:30 p.m.
Location: Swansea: Coleg Cymraeg Studio, Other

This paper unpacks experiences and competing representations of facial disfigurements in mid-seventeenth-century London through the cases of Arise Evans and Alexander Leighton. Both men offer fascinating instances of facial disfigurements recorded in numerous sources, and most importantly first-person accounts, and in each instance the infliction and/or removal of the facial mark is tied to contemporary religion and politics. Arise (Rhys) Evans (c.1607–
c.1660) was a Welsh prophet who became well-known for publishing predictions of the civil wars and then the restoration of the monarchy. In 1660, Evans sought out Charles II in St James Park in order to be touched for a disfiguring swelling or tumour in his nose. Though he insisted it was not the King’s Evil, Evans was convinced (and apparently correct) that Charles could cure it. John Aubrey’s comic anecdote of the scene was frequently anthologised, but stands in stark contrast to Evans’ own lesser-known accounts of a deferential interaction, posing important questions about disability and dignity. Alexander Leighton (c.1570–1649) was born in Scotland, and practiced as a trained but unlicensed physician, and a minister. He was arrested for sedition in February 1630, and was whipped, pilloried, and had one side of his face branded and nose slit, and an ear cut off; the intended mirroring on the other side was not carried out. Leighton published stoic accounts of his disfigurement, but also offered further, melancholy reflection on his sentence and appearance in two poems preserved in manuscript. Both of these men therefore offer important cases for the consideration of perspective and representation of facial disfigurement in this period, and the relationships between disability and political and religious faiths.



Event created by: joshua.beard