4 ms·
> No portrait of Michell exists, but he was described as “a little short man, of black complexion, and fat.” Why are Wikipedia contributors hallucinating the m
by vfclists 3y ago
> No portrait of Michell exists, but he was described as “a little short man, of black complexion, and fat.”
Why are Wikipedia contributors hallucinating the meaning of "black complexion"? Apparently since "black people" were not capable of intelligent thought, "black complexion" means "In this case it means he was sad and melancholy".
Do Wikipedia contributors then think that "fair or white complexion" must mean "happy and high-spirited"?
Or is it because all the black people around in the medieval era were uneducated slaves performing menial tasks? What terminology would be used describe the complexion of people of "black African appearance" if "black complexion" meant "sad and melancholy" people?
Charles II was described as "tall black man" when he was on the run during the civil war. I guess those on the look out for him were supposed to look for a tall, "sad and melancholy" looking man, as though that would be a help in picking him out, forgetting that in the middle of a bloody civil war there would be lot of sad people of all heights, shapes and widths out and about.
- fortran77 3y agoApparently the word "complexion" has shifted in meaning and it used to mean "temperment" even into the 19th century. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/complexion#Etymology https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/complexion#Etymology
- kbelder 3y agoAre you saying that you think that description means the Michell was likely African-American? Or are you just saying that that description refers to a physical trait of being relatively dark-skinned for a Caucasian, instead of a behavioral trait? I would have parsed that as meaning he behaved in a generally dour way.
- vfclists 3y agoWhy would Michell have to be African-American? Didn't African-Africans exist in the medieval era? Since when has the word "description" referred to a person's temperament? The only time it seems that "complexion" refers to a person temperament is only when if taken literally it refers to a very dark-skinned person or what we call a "black man" in our era, like an African, a Melanesian or a South Asian. For instance General Monck was described as a "black man" with a sanguine complexion, which should tell you that he was actually a "black man", because sanguine is the reddish-brown, or fawn color that Africans and South Asians exhibit. Would that mean the "black" used to describe him meant he was sad and melancholy when on the other hand sanguine meant cheerful? I think you should check the depiction of an English monarch on the frontispiece of Hobbes Leviathan, and also learn about Anton Wilhelm Amo, before concluding that a the term "black complexion" must refer to the temperament of an insightful natural philosopher.