The Mask
Elizabeth would not be showing much of her face to the world, however. Her answer to her disfiguration was to slap on as much Venetian ceruse as was needed to hide her scars. Few ever saw her without the grizzly stuff on following her convalescence. If you have seen a lot of paintings, films, and other media that show Elizabeth with a thick white mask, now you know why. There was a sad reality behind the sinister visage.
The Mask
The Inner Circle
There were only a few select individuals within Elizabeth’s court that ever managed to glance at Elizabeth’s real face. This inner circle would be among the few people to have lived that witnessed the gradual deformation of the queen’s face. Her face, already having been heavily damaged by smallpox’s symptoms, would suffer even worse thanks to the toxic properties of her preferred makeup. Amazingly, most people outside of Elizabeth’s inner circle would be convinced that she was still perfectly gorgeous, with credit to the aptly titled “mask of youth”.
The Inner Circle
