Elizabeth Barett Browning and Robert Browning are two of England's
most noted romantic poets. Elizabeth grew up in a priviliged, wealthy
family. She had 11 brothers and
sisters. Her mother dressed the boys
just like girls in long hair and dresses. Elizabeth was very upset when
her father had the boys' hair cut. After marring Robert they had one son,
Pen in Italy. Pen was the light of Elizabeth's life. She spoiled him
outrageously. He was schooled at home by Elizabeth and Robert. While not interested in clothes herself, she bought elaborate expensive outfits for the boy. He was kept in dresses with the same flair as her romantic poetry even at
9 years of age and at 11 wore a tunic with lacey pantalettes. Until
Elizabeth's untimely death, Pen wore long carefully curled hair. Pen
did not object as a younger boy, enjoying the attention and compliments from
his mother's friends. As an older boy he began to object, but with little
success in the face of his strong opinionated mother who had very definite
ideas on the subject.
The clothes Elizabeth chose for the boy reflected
fashion trends at the mid-19th century,
although there was considerable differences on how boys were dressed.
Elizabeth was a doting mother and dressed her son accordingly in some of
the more romantic boys' fashions of the day. We are positive at what age Pen was breached, and it is a little difficulr describing his clothes at age 11 (figure 2). One biographer points out that at the age of 11 Pen was still not not allowed to wear "boy's clothes". [HBC would have written "standard boys' clothes.] He was trucked out in white satin and ribbons, with
dainty ankle socks and strapover shoes. Golden ringlets fell to his
shoulders since his mother vetoed the "barbarism" of male haircuts. [Finlayson] A photograph of Pen taken in 1860, shows him with his mother at
11 years of age. He is dressed in a fancy jacket with short below the
knee pants, white socks, and strap shoes. He wears long over the shoulder hair, more than 20 years before Mrs. Francis Hobson Benett launched the Fauntleroy craze in 1885-86. Robert's hair was not cut until
his mother's death in July of 1861. HBC believes that it is not correct to say he was dressed as a girl as girls ould not have worn such outfits, but rather dresses. It is true that the outfits seems rather juvenile for the age. He was not the only boy dressed like this at the time, but it was certainly not very common. Mothers at the time, however, were given wide lattitude on how their children should be dressed.
Biographers of the Brownings commonly speculate that
she really desired a daughter and dressed "Pen" accordingly. A recent
biography of Mrs. Browing has a photograph of Pen at 9 years of age
wearing a dress over with voluminous petticoats,
lace trimmed pantalettes and carefully arranged long ringlets (figure 1). A biographer of Robert writes, "Browning: A Private Life' is a new biography of the poet Robert reports that Elizabeth was apparently disappointed with not having a girl and attempted to conceal Pen's gender. [Finlayson] The biographers we have read support this theory twith a description of Pen's clothes. This is usually done with 20th century sensibilities based on the fact that the clothes look girlish. It must be remembered that 1) boys were commonly wore dresses in the 19th century (although most but not had been breached by age 11), and 2) Pens clothes as shown here (figure 2) were not really girlish, but rther juvenile. We know of no written evidence in her papers suggestingthat she desired to conceal Pen's gender or that she wished he was a girl. We do not dismiss the suggestions of the various biographers, we simply point out that alluding to his clothes does not in itself prove their point.
Elizabeth carried on a regular correspondence with a friend over
the years where the subject of their children's clothes are discussed. I would
like to add some pasages from this correspondece to this web site and
would be very interested in any copies visitors to this web site could
provide. Opinions of the day varied widely from family to family and between income levels. It appears that Elizabeth friend who had several boys had very different ideas on boys' clothes. Elizabeth mentions in one of the letters that her friend's youngest son who is several years younger than Pen is already wearing tunics.
Despite her romantic poetry, Elizabeth was not a woman absorbed with fashion. Elizabeth's interest in Pen's clothes is fasinating, given her lack of interest in fashion. It was on Pen's behalf that she was most extravagant. She bought him a white felt hat with white satin ribbons and feathers and
trimmings of blue, and a pair of "such ridiculous tiny trowsers up to his knees" and long white gaiters. Wilson said people turned in the street to look
at her charge, to Elizabeth's gradification. apparently Pen as he got older was less pleased.
Pen as a younger boy did not object to the clothing. He seems to have enjoyed the attention Elizabeth lavished upon him. As he got older, however. he began objecting to the dresses, pantalettes,
tunics, lace collars and other rather romantic outfits Elizabeth chose
for him, but he had little success in changing his mother's mind on the
subject which was firmly set. As much as she endulged the boy, she did
not yield on this subject.
|
I have no information on how Robert was dressed as a boy. We do know,
however, that as Pen got older he disagreed with the clothes Elizabeth
chose for him. The two discussed every aspect of Pen's upbringing in
great detail. They had had "words"--just as she had once said married people were supposed to--over how she dressed Pen. Robert thought it time that he looked more like a boy. People were always admiring his son as the prettiest of little girls and he did not like it. There were heated discussions on the issue. Elizabeth leered at him and swept aside his objections, once more
repeating that it was absurd to declare some clothes for children masculine
and others feminine. She argued "if you put him into a coat and waistcoat
forthwith he only would look like a small angel travestied". As far as
she was concerned, children of two were neither boys nor girls but
"neuter." Despite his personal thoughts on the matter, it is likely that he
considered the subject of Pen's clothes a matter for his wife to decide. At any rate, he did not insist on the issue, fearing that it would damage his relationship with Elizabeth, her feelings on the matter were so strong. Perhaps Robert there were more important issues. Given that they disagreed on many tpics, he may have decided that given her definite opinions
on the matter--he appears to have been reluctant to question her on the
issue of Pen's clothes.
Boys being boys, presumably Pen must have asked his father to
intervene. We know Pen was very close to his mother. Less information is
available on his relationship to his father, but they do appear to have been
on good terms. At any rate, as a younger boy Pen's clothes were not
unusual. Pen did not begin to question his mother until he
was older. In fact, Pen for his part as a younger boy did not complain
at all. In fact he appears to have liked the attention. Pen apparently
liked his girlish dress when young, because of the
attention he received from adoring adults (woman); however, as he grew
older, he begin to ask, without much success, for more
boyish clothes, shoes, and haircut. She relented once and allowed him to
wear pants while riding his horse because otherwise he tore his
"pretty clothes". I'm not sure just when he began to bring up the subject.
By the time he was 11 and becoming increasingly self-conscious about his
clothes, his mother's health was deteriorating. Presumably neither Pen or
his father would not have done anything to disturb her at that time.
I do know that right after Elizabeth's untimely death, Pen was allowed
to have his hair cut and get more boyish clothes.
The question arrises as to how common it was for boys to be dressed
like Pen. We are of course discussing how boys from affluent families were dressed. I think it was fairly unusual, at least for boys beyond 5 or 6 years of age and especially by the time they reached 8 years of age. When Pen was a boy in the 1850s-60s, English public (private) schools had no consistent system as to when boys began school. By the 1870s-80s most had settled on admitting boys at about 13 years of age. Preparatory schools developed for younger boys, usually beginning at about 8 yearolds. (An interesting view of English preparatory schools with historical background is available in a photographic book
Boys' Preparatory
Schools. Thus mothers could often dress their sons with considerable lattitude, until they were sent away to their boarding preparatory schools. Boys at that age who did not conform to the standards of the other boys would be mercelessly teased. But boys who were schooled at home like Pen were kept isolated from most other children and thus the mother could outfit her son just as she saw fit. While Pen's clothes and long hair for a boy 11 years old might have been uncommon, he was not the only one to be kept in such elaborate outfits. A decade later, the sons of the great English poetlauret Alfred Lord Tenneyson were kept in long hair and child-like tunis until their teens. It is interesting to note, that while other boys might tease Pen and the Tennyson boys, other mothers did not seem to look uncritically at this practice. In fact many admired the outfits selected for the boys.
Finlayson, Ian. Browning: A Private Life (Harper Collins).
Forster, Margaret. Elizabeth Barrett Browning: A Biography.
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Elizabeth Barrett Browning pages:
[Return to the Main Pen Browning page]
[Pen Arrives and Parenthood]
[Italy and France]
[]
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Cloth and textiles]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Topics]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Satellite sites]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]