Scarlet

This colour contains multitudes. (The Bus 4.44)

Feb 22, 2024

Welcome aboard The Bus!

The Stop

Scarlet, one of the most striking shades of red, has long been a controversial colour. Though it has been 'almost continually in fashion’ since the 14th century, its approval has not been universal. Associated with everything from the ‘archetypal scarlet woman, the biblical Whore of Babylon’ to symbols of great power, wealth and even divinity, the colour has been associated with power and riches both good and bad since ancient times. The name ‘scarlet’ however, was not initially the name of the colour, but a ‘particularly admired woollen cloth.’1

Though references to what might today be considered scarlet dyes are mentioned in Ancient Persia and Assyria, they were actually known as Armenian Red. After this colour was exported to Rome, it quickly became a mark of both wealth and authority, with the highest ranking generals wearing the bright red paludamenta - cloaks which signalled leadership, fastened over one shoulder. One reason for its exclusivity was its nearly prohibitive price, as it was painstakingly obtained from the kermes beetle, a species of tiny scale insects the common name of which was given to the red dye obtained from crushing their dried bodies.

So tiny they were ‘often mistaken for seeds or grains’ - in the first century CE, Pliny the Elder described it as ‘a berry that becomes a worm’ - the bodies of around 80 female kermes beetles were required to produce a single gram of the colour. Producing the exact tone and shade took great skill, but the result was a ‘dye so bright and colourfast’ that cloth dyed with kermes became the ‘epitome of luxury.’ From the 14th century, because the fine woollen scarlet cloth was so often coloured with kermes, the word began denoting the colour instead. By the 15th century in England, it would cost a master mason a month’s wages to buy a ‘single yard of the cheapest scarlet cloth; the dearest cost twice as much.’

Kermes red had long been popular with royalty: in 800 CE, Charlemagne wore scarlet shoes when crowned Holy Roman Emperor, and Richard II did the same when he was crowned in England 500 years later. In 13th century France, the colour was restricted to be worn only by kings, and in 1464 Pope Paul II ordered his cardinals to change their robes to scarlet from purple; from this point the colour began its inextricable connection with power and ‘insignia, particularly in the Church and academia.’ It was also a shade enjoyed by the princess who would become Elizabeth I. Though she appreciated scarlet’s connotations of power, she recognised the colour wouldn’t fit her image as ‘virgin queen’. Consequently, once she was crowned in 1558, she dressed her ‘ladies-in-waiting and retainers in scarlet … presumably so that they could act as a dramatically symbolic backdrop’ to her colour palette consisting of ‘neutral or broken tones like tawny, gold and ash.’

The Detour

Today’s Detour is to ‘When You Heat Any Fluid’, an engaging video (11:49) in which the creator’s curiosity about how convection currents in heated fluids make different - often striking - patterns, whether this is boiling water, cooking oil, or even the surface of the sun. Worth even a cursory skim-through!

When You Heat Any Fluid

The Recommendation

Today’s Recommendation is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1850). A book that unfortunately suffers from the assigned-in-high-school-English stigma, this is actually a great story.2 It’s set in a world that was different from the one in which it was written and certainly one even further from our own, but it nevertheless considers profound themes with which our society still grapples: sin, guilt, redemption, and the hypocrisy of a supposedly pious community.

Brief synopsis:

Set in a village in 17th century Puritan New England, Hester Prynne is a young woman who has had a child out of wedlock. Forced to wear the scarlet letter A on her dress as punishment for her adultery and refusing to name her lover, her husband - who she believed was dead - secretly arrives in the village, conceals his identity and becomes obsessed with discovering the father. When he learns the man in question is Arthur Dimmesdale - the saintly young minister leading the pack demanding her to name the father - he proceeds to torment Dimmesdale until, overcome with guilt, the minister publicly dies in her arms.

The Sounds

Today’s playlist is a selection of five tracks, all with scarlet in their title: ‘Scarlet Begonias’ (The Grateful Dead, 1974), ‘Scarlet’ (The Rolling Stones, 1973), ‘Scarlet Pussy’ (Prince, 1988), ‘Scarlet Town’ (Bob Dylan, 2012) and ‘Scarlet Ribbons (For Her Hair)’ (Harry Belafonte, 1956). Enjoy!

The Thought

Today’s Thought is a useful, humbling reminder from Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter:

‘It is a good lesson - though it may often be a hard one - for a man ... to step aside out of the narrow circle in which his claims are recognised, and to find how utterly devoid of significance, beyond that circle, is all that he achieves, and all he aims at.’

If you have a thought on this Thought - or any part of today’s issue - please leave a comment below:

The Bus