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Title: English Costume
Author: Calthrop, Dion Clayton, 1878-1937
Language: English
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ENGLISH COSTUME
Painted & Described by
DION CLAYTON CALTHROP
Published
by Adam & Charles Black
London · MCMVII
[Illustration: {Scissors}]
Published in four volumes during 1906.
Published in one volume, April, 1907.
Agents
America The Macmillan Company
64 & 66 Fifth Avenue, New York
Canada The Macmillan Company of Canada, Ltd.
70 Bond Street, Toronto
India Macmillan & Company, Ltd.
Macmillan Building, Bombay
309 Bow Bazaar Street, Calcutta
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF GEORGE IV. (1820-1830)
Here you see the coat which we now wear, slightly altered, in our
evening dress. It came into fashion, with this form of top-boots, in
1799, and was called a Jean-de-Bry. Notice the commencement of the
whisker fashion.]
INTRODUCTION
The world, if we choose to see it so, is a complicated picture of
people dressing and undressing. The history of the world is composed
of the chat of a little band of tailors seated cross-legged on their
boards; they gossip across the centuries, feeling, as they should,
very busy and important. Someone made the coat of many colours for
Joseph, another cut into material for Elijah's mantle.
Baldwin, from his stall on the site of the great battle, has only to
stretch his neck round to nod to the tailor who made the toga for
Julius Cæsar; has only to lean forward to smile to Pasquino, the
wittiest of tailors.
John Pepys, the tailor, gossips with his neighbour who cut that
jackanapes coat with silver buttons so proudly worn by Samuel Pepys,
his son. Mr. Schweitzer, who cut Beau Brummell's coat, talks to Mr.
Meyer, who shaped his pantaloons. Our world is full of the sound of
scissors, the clipping of which, with the gossiping tongues, drown the
grander voices of history.
As you will see, I have devoted myself entirely to civil costume--that
is, the clothes a man or a woman would wear from choice, and not by
reason of an appointment to some ecclesiastical post, or to a military
calling, or to the Bar, or the Bench. Such clothes are but symbols of
their trades and professions, and have been dealt with by persons who
specialize in those professions.
I have taken the date of the Conquest as my starting-point, and from
that date--a very simple period of clothes--I have followed the
changes of the garments reign by reign, fold by fold, button by
button, until we arrive quite smoothly at Beau Brummell, the inventor
of modern clothes, the prophet of cleanliness.
I have taken considerable pains to trace the influence of one garment
upon its successor, to reduce the wardrobe for each reign down to its
simplest cuts and folds, so that the reader may follow quite easily
the passage of the coat from its birth to its ripe age, and by this
means may not only know the clothes of one time, but the reasons for
those garments. To the best of my knowledge, such a thing has never
been done before; most works on dress try to include the world from
Adam to Charles Dickens, lump a century into a page, and dismiss the
ancient Egyptians in a couple of colour plates.
So many young gentlemen have blown away their patrimony on feathers
and tobacco that it is necessary for us to confine ourselves to
certain gentlemen and ladies in our own country. A knowledge of
history is essential to the study of mankind, and a knowledge of
history is never perfect without a knowledge of the clothes with which
to dress it.
A man, in a sense, belongs to his clothes; they are so much a part of
him that, to take him seriously, one must know how he walked about, in
what habit, with what air.
I am compelled to speak strongly of my own work because I believe in
it, and I feel that the series of paintings in these volumes are
really a valuable addition to English history. To be modest is often
to be excessively vain, and, having made an exhaustive study of my
subject from my own point of view, I do not feel called upon to hide
my knowledge under a bushel. Of course, I do not suggest that the
ordinary cultured man should acquire the same amount of knowledge as a
painter, or a writer of historical subjects, or an actor, but he
should understand the clothes of his own people, and be able to
visualize any date in which he may be interested.
One half of the people who talk glibly of Beau Brummell have but half
an idea when he lived, and no idea that, for example, he wore
whiskers. Hamlet they can conjure up, but would have some difficulty
in recognising Shakespeare, because most portraits of him are but head
and shoulders. Napoleon has stamped himself on men's minds very
largely through the medium of a certain form of hat, a lock of hair,
and a gray coat. In future years an orchid will be remembered as an
emblem.
I have arranged, as far as it is possible, that each plate shall show
the emblem or distinguishing mark of the reign it illustrates, so that
the continuity of costume shall be remembered by the arresting notes.
As the fig-leaf identifies Adam, so may the chaperon twisted into a
cockscomb mark Richard II. As the curled and scented hair of
Alcibiades occurs to our mind, so shall Beau Nash manage his clouded
cane. Elizabeth shall be helped to the memory by her Piccadilly ruff;
square Henry VIII. by his broad-toed shoes and his little flat cap;
Anne Boleyn by her black satin nightdress; James be called up as
padded trucks; Maximilian as puffs and slashes; D'Orsay by the curve
of his hat; Tennyson as a dingy brigand; Gladstone as a collar; and
even more recent examples, as the Whistlerian lock and the Burns blue
suit.
And what romantic incidents may we not hang upon our clothes-line! The
cloak of Samuel Pepys ('Dapper Dick,' as he signed himself to a
certain lady) sheltering four ladies from the rain; Sir Walter Raleigh
spreading his cloak over the mud to protect the shoes of that great
humorist Elizabeth (I never think of her apart from the saying,
'Ginger for pluck'); Mary, Queen of Scots, ordering false attires of
hair during her captivity--all these scenes clinched into reality by
the knowledge of the dress proper to them.
And what are we doing to help modern history--the picture of our own
times--that it may look beautiful in the ages to come? I cannot answer
you that.
Some chapters of this work have appeared in the _Connoisseur_, and I
have to thank the editor for his courtesy in allowing me to reproduce
them.
I must also thank Mr. Pownall for his help in the early stages of my
labours.
One thing more I must add: I do not wish this book to go forth and be
received with that frigid politeness which usually welcomes a history
to the shelves of the bookcase, there to remain unread. The book is
intended to be read, and is not wrapped up in grandiose phrases and a
great wind about nothing; I would wish to be thought more friendly
than the antiquarian and more truthful than the historian, and so have
endeavoured to show, in addition to the body of the clothes, some
little of their soul.
DION CLAYTON CALTHROP.
Contents
PAGE
WILLIAM THE FIRST 1
WILLIAM THE SECOND 10
HENRY THE FIRST 21
STEPHEN 29
HENRY THE SECOND 46
RICHARD THE FIRST 55
JOHN 62
HENRY THE THIRD 67
EDWARD THE FIRST 81
EDWARD THE SECOND 92
EDWARD THE THIRD 102
RICHARD THE SECOND 122
THE END OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 141
HENRY THE FOURTH 152
HENRY THE FIFTH 161
HENRY THE SIXTH 176
EDWARD THE FOURTH 198
EDWARD THE FIFTH 213
RICHARD THE THIRD 213
HENRY THE SEVENTH 223
HENRY THE EIGHTH 247
EDWARD THE SIXTH 274
MARY 283
ELIZABETH 291
JAMES THE FIRST 325
CHARLES THE FIRST 341
THE CROMWELLS 359
CHARLES THE SECOND 365
JAMES THE SECOND 378
WILLIAM AND MARY 383
QUEEN ANNE 395
GEORGE THE FIRST 406
GEORGE THE SECOND 414
GEORGE THE THIRD 432
GEORGE THE FOURTH 440
Illustrations in Colour
1. A Man of the Time of George IV. 1820-1830 _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
2. A Man of the Time of William I. 1066-1087 2
3. A Woman of the Time of William I. " 8
4. A Man of the Time of William II. 1087-1100 10
5. A Woman of the Time of William II. " 16
6. A Man of the Time of Henry I. 1100-1135 22
7. A Child of the Time of Henry I. " 24
8. A Woman of the Time of Henry I. " 26
9. A Man of the Time of Stephen 1135-1154 30
10. A Woman of the Time of Stephen " 38
11. A Man of the Time of Henry II. 1154-1189 46
12. A Woman of the Time of Henry II. " 52
13. A Man of the Time of Richard I. 1189-1199 56
14. A Woman of the Time of Richard I. " 60
15. A Man of the Time of John 1199-1216 62
16. A Woman of the Time of John " 66
17. A Man of the Time of Henry III. 1216-1272 68
18. A Woman of the Time of Henry III. " 74
19. A Peasant of Early England 78
20. A Man and Woman of the Time of
Edward I. 1272-1307 88
21. A Man and Woman of the Time of
Edward II. 1307-1327 96
22. A Man of the Time of Edward III. 1327-1377 112
23. A Woman of the Time of Edward III. " 120
24. A Man of the Time of Richard II. 1377-1399 128
25. A Woman of the Time of Richard II. " 136
26. A Man and Woman of the Time of
Henry IV. 1399-1413 152
27. A Man of the Time of Henry V. 1413-1422 164
28. A Woman of the Time of Henry V. " 172
29. A Man of the Time of Henry VI. 1422-1461 180
30. A Woman of the Time of Henry VI. " 192
31. A Man of the Time of Edward IV. 1461-1483 200
32. A Woman of the Time of Edward IV. " 208
33. A Man of the Time of Richard III. 1483-1485 216
34. A Woman of the Time of Richard III. " 220
35. A Man of the Time of Henry VII. 1485-1509 226
36. A Woman of the Time of Henry VII. " 242
37. A Man of the Time of Henry VIII. 1509-1547 250
38. A Man of the Time of Henry VIII. " 256
39. A Woman of the Time of Henry VIII. " 258
40. A Woman of the Time of Henry VIII. " 266
41. A Man and Woman of the Time of
Edward VI. 1547-1553 278
42. A Man of the Time of Mary 1553-1558 286
43. A Woman of the Time of Mary " 290
44. A Man of the Time of Elizabeth 1558-1603 298
45. A Woman of the Time of Elizabeth " 306
46. A Woman of the Time of Elizabeth " 314
47. A Man of the Time of James I. 1603-1625 330
48. A Woman of the Time of James I. " 338
49. A Man of the Time of Charles I. 1625-1649 346
50. A Woman of the Time of Charles I. " 354
51. A Cromwellian Man 1649-1660 360
52. A Woman of the Time of the
Cromwells " 362
53. A Woman of the Time of the
Cromwells " 364
54. A Man of the Time of Charles II. 1660-1685 366
55. A Man of the Time of Charles II. " 368
56. A Woman of the Time of Charles II. " 372
57. A Man of the Time of James II. 1685-1689 378
58. A Woman of the Time of James II. " 380
59. A Man of the Time of William
and Mary 1689-1702 384
60. A Woman of the Time of William
and Mary " 392
61. A Man of the Time of Queen Anne 1702-1714 396
62. A Woman of the Time of Queen Anne " 400
63. A Man of the Time of George I. 1714-1727 408
64. A Woman of the Time of George I. 1714-1727 412
65. A Man of the Time of George II. 1727-1760 416
66. A Woman of the Time of George II. " 424
67. A Man of the Time of George III. 1760-1820 432
68. A Woman of the Time of George III. " 434
69. A Man of the Time of George III. 1760-1820 436
70. A Woman of the Time of George III. " 438
Illustrations in Black and White
FACING PAGE
A Series of Thirty-two Half-tone Reproductions of
Engravings by Hollar 358
A Series of Sixty Half-tone Reproductions of Wash Drawings
by the Dightons--Father and Son--and by the Author 440
Numerous Line Drawings by the Author throughout the Text.
WILLIAM THE FIRST
Reigned twenty-one years: 1066-1087.
Born 1027. Married, 1053, Matilda of Flanders.
THE MEN
[Illustration: {A man of the time of William I.; a shoe}]
Why France should always give the lead in the matter of dress is a
nice point in sartorial morality--a morality which holds that it takes
nine tailors to make a man and but one milliner to break him, a code,
in fact, with which this book will often have to deal.
Sartorially, then, we commence with the 14th of October, 1066, upon
which day, fatal to the fashions of the country, the flag of King
Harold, sumptuously woven and embroidered in gold, bearing the figure
of a man fighting, studded with precious stones, was captured.
William, of Norse blood and pirate traditions, landed in England, and
brought with him bloodshed, devastation, new laws, new customs, and
new fashions.
Principal among these last was the method of shaving the hair at the
back of the head, which fashion speedily died out by reason of the
parlous times and the haste of war, besides the utter absurdity of the
idea. Fashion, however, has no sense of the ridiculous, and soon
replaced the one folly by some other extravagance.
William I. found the Saxons very plainly dressed, and he did little to
alter the masculine mode.
He found the Saxon ladies to be as excellent at embroidery as were
their Norman sisters, and in such times the spindle side was content
to sit patiently at home weaving while the men were abroad ravaging
the country.
William was not of the stuff of dandies. No man could draw his bow; he
helped with his own hands to clear the snowdrift on the march to
Chester. Stark and fierce he was, loving the solitudes of the
woods and the sight of hart and hind.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF WILLIAM I. (1066-1087)
Cloak buckled at the shoulder. Leather thongs crossed on his legs.
Shoes of leather. Tunic fitting to his body like a jersey.]
When some kind of order was restored in England, many of the Saxons
who had fled the country and gone to Constantinople came back,
bringing with them the Oriental idea of dress. The Jews came with
Eastern merchandise into England, and brought rich-coloured stuffs,
and as these spread through the country by slow degrees, there came a
gradual change in colour and material, and finer stuffs replaced the
old homespun garments.
The Jews were at this time very eminent as silk manufacturers and
makers of purple cloth. The Britons had been very famous for their
dyed woollen stuffs. Boadicea is said to have worn a tunic of
chequered stuff, which was in all probability rather of the nature of
Scotch plaids.
The tunics worn by the men of this time were, roughly speaking, of two
kinds: those that fitted close to the body, and those that hung loose,
being gathered into the waist by a band. The close-fitting tunic was
in the form of a knitted jersey, with skirts reaching to the knee; it
was open on either side to the hips, and fell from the hips in loose
folds. The neck was slit open four or five inches, and had an edging
of embroidery, and the sleeves were wide, and reached just below the
elbows. These also had an edging of embroidery, or a band different in
colour to the rest of the tunic.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of William I.}]
The other form of tunic was made exactly in shape like the modern
shirt, except that the neck opening was smaller. It was loose and
easy, with wide sleeves to the elbow, and was gathered in at the waist
by a band of stuff or leather.
The skirts of the tunics were cut square or V-shaped in front and
behind. There were also tunics similar in shape to either of those
mentioned, except that the skirts were very short, and were tucked
into wide, short breeches which reached to the knee, or into the
trousers which men wore.
Under this tunic was a plain shirt, loosely fitting, the sleeves tight
and wrinkled over the wrist, the neck showing above the opening of the
tunic. This shirt was generally white, and the opening at the neck
was sometimes stitched with coloured or black wool.
Upon the legs they wore neat-fitting drawers of wool or cloth, dyed or
of natural colour, or loose trousers of the same materials, sometimes
worn loose, but more generally bound round just above the knee and at
the ankle.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of William I.}]
They wore woollen socks, and for footgear they wore shoes of skin and
leather, and boots of soft leather shaped naturally to the foot and
strapped or buckled across the instep. The tops of the boots were
sometimes ornamented with coloured bands.
The cloak worn was semicircular in shape, with or without a small
semicircle cut out at the neck. It was fastened over the right
shoulder or in the centre by means of a large round or square brooch,
or it was held in place by means of a metal ring or a stuff loop
through which the cloak was pushed; or it was tied by two cords sewn
on to the right side of the cloak, which cords took a bunch of the
stuff into a knot and so held it, the ends of the cords having tags
of metal or plain ornaments.
One may see the very same make and fashion of tunic as the Normans
wore under their armour being worn to-day by the Dervishes in Lower
Egypt--a coarse wool tunic, well padded, made in the form of tunic and
short drawers in one piece, the wide sleeves reaching just below the
elbow.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of William I.}]
The hats and caps of these men were of the most simple form--plain
round-topped skull-caps, flat caps close to the head without a brim,
and a hat with a peak like the helmet.
Hoods, of course, were worn during the winter, made very close to the
head, and they were also worn under the helmets.
Thus in such a guise may we picture the Norman lord at home, eating
his meat with his fingers, his feet in loose skin shoes tied with
thongs, his legs in loose trousers bound with crossed garters, his
tunic open at the neck showing the white edge of his shirt, his face
clean-shaven, and his hair neatly cropped.
THE WOMEN
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of William I.}]
Nothing could be plainer or more homely than the dress of a Norman
lady. Her loose gown was made with ample skirts reaching well on to
the ground, and it was gathered in at the waist by a belt of wool,
cloth, silk, or cloth of gold web.
The gown fitted easily across the shoulders, but fell from there in
loose folds. The neck opening was cut as the man's, about five inches
down the front, and the border ornamented with some fine needlework,
as also were the borders of the wide sleeves, which came just below
the elbows.
Often the gown was made short, so that when it was girded up the
border of it fell only to the knees, and showed the long chemise
below.
The girdle was, perhaps, the richest portion of their attire, and was
sometimes of silk diapered with gold thread, but such a girdle would
be very costly. More often it would be plain wool, and be tied simply
round the waist with short ends, which did not show.
The chemise was a plain white garment, with tight sleeves which
wrinkled at the wrists; that is to say, they were really too long for
the arm, and so were caught in small folds at the wrist.
The gown, opening at the neck in the same way as did the men's tunics,
showed the white of the chemise, the opening being held together
sometimes by a brooch.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of William I.; a type of
neckline}]
Towards the end of the reign the upper part of the gown--that is, from
the neck to the waist--was worn close and fitted more closely to the
figure, but not over-tightly--much as a tight jersey would fit.
Over all was a cloak of the semicircular shape, very voluminous--about
three feet in diameter--which was brooched in the centre or on the
shoulder.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF WILLIAM I. (1066-1087)
A twist of wool holds the gown at the waist. Under the gown the
chemise shows. The neck of the gown is embroidered.]
On the head, where the hair was closely coiled with a few curls at the
forehead, a wimple was worn, which was wound about the head and
thrown over the shoulder, not allowing the hair to show. These
wimples were sometimes very broad, and were almost like a mantle, so
that they fell over the shoulders below the breast.
Tied round the wimple they sometimes had a snood, or band of silk.
The shoes were like those worn by the men.
These ladies were all housewives, cooking, preparing simples, doing
embroidery and weaving. They were their own milliners and dressmakers,
and generally made their husbands' clothes, although some garments
might be made by the town tailors; but, as a rule, they weaved, cut,
sewed, and fitted for their families, and then, after the garments
were finished to satisfaction, they would begin upon strips of
embroidery to decorate them.
In such occupation we may picture them, and imagine them sitting by
the windows with their ladies, busily sewing, looking up from their
work to see hedged fields in lambing-time, while shepherds in rough
sheepskin clothes drove the sheep into a neat enclosure, and saw to it
that they lay on warm straw against the cold February night.
WILLIAM THE SECOND
Reigned thirteen years: 1087-1100.
Born _c._ 1060.
THE MEN
[Illustration: {A man of the time of William II.}]
About this time there came to England a Norman, who settled near by
the Abbey of Battle--Baldwin the Tailor by name, whom one might call
the father of English tailoring.
Baldwin the Tailor sat contentedly cross-legged on his bench and plied
his needle and thread, and snipped, and cut, and sewed, watching the
birds pick worms and insects from the turf of the battleground.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF WILLIAM II. (1087-1100)
Shows the wide drawers with an embroidered hem. Under them can be
seen the long woollen drawers bound with leather thongs.]
England is getting a little more settled.
The reign opens picturesquely enough with William Rufus hastening to
England with his father's ring, and ends with the tragedy of the New
Forest and a blood-stained tunic.
Clothes begin to play an important part. Rich fur-lined cloaks and
gowns trail on the ground, and sweep the daisies so lately pressed by
mailed feet and sopped with blood where the Saxons fell.
[Illustration: The Cloak pushed through a Ring.]
Times have changed since Baldwin was at the coronation at Westminster
on Christmas Day twenty years ago. Flemish weavers and farmers arrive
from overseas, and are established by William II. in the North to
teach the people pacific arts, causing in time a stream of Flemish
merchandise to flow into the country, chiefly of rich fabrics and fine
cloths.
The men adopt longer tunics, made after the same pattern as
before--split up either side and loose in the sleeve--but in many
cases the skirts reach to the ground in heavy folds, and the sleeves
hang over the hands by quite a yard.
The necks of these tunics are ornamented as before, with coloured
bands or stiff embroidery.
The cuffs have the embroidery both inside and out, so that when the
long sleeve is turned back over the hand the embroidery will show.
The fashion in cloaks is still the same--of a semicircular pattern.
The shoes are the same as in the previous reign--that is, of the shape
of the foot, except in rare cases of dandyism, when the shoes were
made with long, narrow toes, and these, being stuffed with moss or
wool, were so stiffened and curled up at the ends that they presented
what was supposed to be a delightfully extravagant appearance.
They wore a sort of ankle garter of soft leather or cloth, which came
over the top of the boot and just above the ankle.
The hair, beard, and moustaches were worn long and carefully
combed--in fact, the length of the beard caused the priests to rail at
them under such terms as 'filthy goats.' But they had hardly the
right to censorship, since they themselves had to be severely
reprimanded by their Bishops for their extravagance in dress.
Many gentlemen, and especially the Welsh, wore long loose trousers as
far as the ankle, leaving these garments free from any cross
gartering. These were secured about the waist by a girdle of stuff or
leather.
[Illustration: {Two men of the time of William II.}]
The ultra-fashionable dress was an elongation of every part of the
simple dress of the previous reign. Given these few details, it is
easy for anyone who wishes to go further to do so, in which case he
must keep to the main outline very carefully; but as to the actual
length of sleeve or shoe, or the very measurements of a cloak, they
varied with the individual folly of the owner. So a man might have
long sleeves and a short tunic, or a tunic which trailed upon the
ground, the sleeves of which reached only to the elbow.
I have noticed that it is the general custom of writers upon the dress
of this early time to dwell lovingly upon the colours of the various
parts of the dress as they were painted in the illuminated
manuscripts. This is a foolish waste of time, insomuch as the colours
were made the means of displays of pure design on the part of the very
early illuminators; and if one were to go upon such evidence as this,
by the exactness of such drawings alone, then every Norman had a face
the colour of which nearly resembled wet biscuit, and hair picked out
in brown lines round each wave and curl.
These woollen clothes--cap, tunic, semicircular cloak, and leg
coverings--have all been actually found in the tomb of a Briton of the
Bronze Age. So little did the clothes alter in shape, that the early
Briton and the late Norman were dressed nearly exactly alike.
When the tomb of William II. was opened in 1868, it was found, as had
been suspected, that the grave had been opened and looted of what
valuables it might have contained; but there were found among the
dust which filled the bottom of the tomb fragments of red cloth, of
gold cloth, a turquoise, a serpent's head in ivory, and a wooden spear
shaft, perhaps the very spear that William carried on that fatal day
in the New Forest.
Also with the dust and bones of the dead King some nutshells were
discovered, and examination showed that mice had been able to get into
the tomb. So, if you please, you may hit upon a pretty moral.
THE WOMEN
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of William II.}]
And so the lady began to lace....
A moralist, a denouncer of the fair sex, a satirist, would have his
fling at this. What thundering epithets and avalanche of words should
burst out at such a momentous point in English history!
However, the lady pleased herself.
Not that the lacing was very tight, but it commenced the habit, and
the habit begat the harm, and the thing grew until it arrived finally
at that buckram, square-built, cardboard-and-tissue figure which
titters and totters through the Elizabethan era.
Our male eyes, trained from infancy upwards to avoid gazing into
certain shop windows, nevertheless retain a vivid impression of an
awesome affair therein, which we understood by hints and signs
confined our mothers' figures in its deadly grip.
That the lady did not lace herself overtight is proved by the many
informations we have of her household duties; that she laced tight
enough for unkind comment is shown by the fact that some old monk
pictured the devil in a neat-laced gown.
It was, at any rate, a distinct departure from the loosely-clothed
lady of 1066 towards the neater figure of 1135.
The lacing was more to draw the wrinkles of the close-woven bodice of
the gown smooth than to form a false waist and accentuated hips, the
beauty of which malformation I must leave to the writers in ladies'
journals and the condemnation to health faddists.
However, the lacing was not the only matter of note. A change was
coming over all feminine apparel--a change towards richness, which
made itself felt in this reign more in the fabric than in the actual
make of the garment.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF WILLIAM II. (1087-1100)
This shows the gown, which is laced behind, fitting more closely to
the figure. The sleeves are wider above the wrist.]
The gown was open at the neck in the usual manner, was full in
the skirt and longer than heretofore, was laced at the back, and was
loose in the sleeve.
The sleeve as worn by the men--that is, the over-long sleeve hanging
down over the hand--was also worn by the women, and hung down or was
turned back, according to the freak of the wearer. Not only this, but
a new idea began, which was to cut a hole in the long sleeve where the
hand came, and, pushing the hand through, to let the rest of the
sleeve droop down. This developed, as we shall see later.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of William II.}]
Then the cloak, which had before been fastened by a brooch on the
shoulder or in the centre of the breast, was now held more tightly
over the shoulders by a set of laces or bands which ran round the back
from underneath the brooch where they were fastened, thus giving more
definition to the shoulders.
You must remember that such fashions as the hole in the sleeve and the
laced cloak were not any more universal than is any modern fashion,
and that the good dame in the country was about a century behind the
times with her loose gown and heavy cloak.
There were still the short gowns, which, being tucked in at the waist
by the girdle, showed the thick wool chemise below and the unlaced
gown, fitting like a jersey.
The large wimple was still worn wrapped about the head, and the hair
was still carefully hidden.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of William II.}]
Shall we imagine that it is night, and that the lady is going to bed?
She is in her long white chemise, standing at the window looking down
upon the market square of a small town.
The moon picks out every detail of carving on the church, and throws
the porch into a dense gloom. Not a soul is about, not a light is to
be seen, not a sound is to be heard.
The lady is about to leave the window, when she hears a sound in the
street below. She peers down, and sees a man running towards the
church; he goes in and out of the shadows. From her open window she
can hear his heavy breathing. Now he darts into the shadow of the
porch, and then out of the gloom comes a furious knocking, and a voice
crying, 'Sanctuary!'
The lady at her window knows that cry well. Soon the monks in the
belfry will awake and ring the Galilee-bell.
The Galilee-bell tolls, and the knocking ceases.
A few curious citizens look out. A dog barks. Then a door opens and
closes with a bang.
There is silence in the square again, but the lady still stands at her
window, and she follows the man in her thoughts.
Now he is admitted by the monks, and goes at once to the altar of the
patron-saint of the church, where he kneels and asks for a coroner.
The coroner, an aged monk, comes to him and confesses him. He tells
his crime, and renounces his rights in the kingdom; and then, in that
dark church, he strips to his shirt and offers his clothes to the
sacrist for his fee. Ragged, mud-stained clothes, torn cloak, all fall
from him in a heap upon the floor of the church.
Now the sacrist gives him a large cloak with a cross upon the
shoulder, and, having fed him, gives him into the charge of the
under-sheriff, who will next day pass him from constable to constable
towards the coast, where he will be seen on board a ship, and so pass
away, an exile for ever.
The night is cold. The lady pulls a curtain across the window, and
then, stripping herself of her chemise, she gets into bed.
HENRY THE FIRST
Reigned thirty-five years: 1100-1135.
Born 1068. Married to Matilda of Scotland, 1100; to
Adela of Louvain, 1121.
THE MEN
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Henry I.; two types of shoe}]
The Father of Popular Literature, Gerald of Wales, says: 'It is better
to be dumb than not to be understood. New times require new fashions,
and so I have thrown utterly aside the old and dry methods of some
authors, and aimed at adopting the fashion of speech which is actually
in vogue to-day.'
Vainly, perhaps, I have endeavoured to follow this precept laid down
by Father Gerald, trying by slight pictures of the times to make the
dry bones live, to make the clothes stir up and puff themselves into
the shapes of men.
It is almost a necessity that one who would describe, paint, stage, or
understand the costume of this reign should know the state of England
at the time.
For there is in this reign a distinction without a difference in
clothes; the shapes are almost identical to the shapes and patterns of
the previous reigns, but everybody is a little better dressed.
The mantles worn by the few in the time of William the Red are worn
now by most of the nobility, fur-lined and very full.
One may see on the sides of the west door of Rochester Cathedral Henry
and his first wife, and notice that the mantle he wears is very full;
one may see that he wears a supertunic, which is gathered round his
waist. This tunic is the usual Norman tunic reaching to the knee, but
now it is worn over an under-tunic which reaches to the ground in
heavy folds.
One may notice that the King's hair is long and elegantly twisted into
pipes or ringlets, and that it hangs over his shoulders.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF HENRY I. (1100-1135)
His hair is curled in ringlets; he wears a long cloak. The shirt
shows at the neck of the tunic. The small design in the corner is
from a sanctuary door-knocker.]
No longer is the priestly abuse of 'filthy goat' applicable, for
Henry's beard is neatly trimmed and cut round his face.
These two things are the only practical difference between the two
dates--the end of the eleventh century and the beginning of the
twelfth.
The under-tunic was made as a perfectly plain gown with tight sleeves
ending at the wrist; it hung loose and full upon the figure. Over this
was worn the short tunic with wide sleeves ending at the elbow. Both
tunics would have broad borders of embroidered work or bands of
coloured material. The supertunic would be brooched by one of those
circular Norman brooches which was an ornamental circle of open
gold-work in which stones and jewels were set. The brooch was fastened
by a central pin.
The extravagances of the previous reign were in some measure done away
with; even the very long hair was not fashionable in the latter half
of this reign, and the ultra-long sleeve was not so usual.
So we may give as a list of clothes for men in this reign:
A white linen shirt.
A long tunic, open at the neck, falling to the ground, with tight
sleeves to the wrist.
A short tunic reaching only to the knees, more open at the neck than
the long tunic, generally fastened by a brooch.
Tight, well-fitting drawers or loose trousers.
Bandages or garters crossed from the ankle to the knee to confine the
loose trousers or ornament the tights.
Boots of soft leather which had an ornamental band at the top.
Socks with an embroidered top.
Shoes of cloth and leather with an embroidered band down the centre
and round the top.
Shoes of skin tied with leather thongs.
Caps of skin or cloth of a very plain shape and without a brim.
Belts of leather or cloth or silk.
Semicircular cloaks fastened as previously described, and often lined
with fur.
The clothes of every colour, but with little or no pattern; the
patterns principally confined to irregular groups of dots.
And to think that in the year in which Henry died Nizami visited the
grave of Omar Al Khayyám in the Hira Cemetery at Nishapur!
[Illustration: A CHILD OF THE TIME OF HENRY I.
It is only in quite recent years that there have been quite distinct
dresses for children, fashions indeed which began with the ideas for
the improvement in hygiene. For many centuries children were
dressed, with slight modifications, after the manner of their
parents, looking like little men and women, until in the end they
arrived at the grotesque infants of Hogarth's day, powdered and
patched, with little stiff skirted suits and stiff brocade gowns,
with little swords and little fans and, no doubt, many pretty airs
and graces.
One thing I have never seen until the early sixteenth century, and
that is girls wearing any of the massive head-gear of their parents;
in all other particulars they were the same.]
THE WOMEN
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Henry I.}]
The greatest change in the appearance of the women was in the
arrangement of the hair.
After a hundred years or more of headcloths and hidden hair suddenly
appears a head of hair. Until now a lady might have been bald for all
the notice she took of her hair; now she must needs borrow hair to add
to her own, so that her plaits shall be thick and long.
It is easy to see how this came about. The hair, for convenience, had
always been plaited in two plaits and coiled round the head, where it
lay concealed by the wimple. One day some fine lady decides to discard
her close and uncomfortable head-covering. She lets her plaits hang
over her shoulders, and so appears in public. Contempt of other ladies
who have fine heads of hair for the thinness of her plaits;
competition in thick and long hair; anger of ladies whose hair is not
thick and long; enormous demand for artificial hair; failure of the
supply to meet the ever-increasing demand; invention of silken cases
filled with a substitute for hair, these cases attached to the end of
the plaits to elongate them--in this manner do many fashions arrive
and flourish, until such time as the common people find means of
copying them, and then my lady wonders how she could ever have worn
such a common affair.
The gowns of these ladies remained much the same, except that the
loose gown, without any show of the figure, was in great favour; this
gown was confined by a long girdle.
The girdle was a long rope of silk or wool, which was placed simply
round the waist and loosely knotted; or it was wound round above the
waist once, crossed behind, and then knotted in front, and the ends
allowed to hang down. The ends of the girdle had tassels and knots
depending from them.
The silk cases into which the hair was placed were often made of silk
of variegated colours, and these cases had metal ends or tassels.
The girdles sometimes were broad bands of silk diapered with gold
thread, of which manufacture specimens remain to us.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF HENRY I. (1100-1135)
This shows the pendant sleeve with an embroidered hem. The long
plaits of hair ended with metal, or silk, tags. At the neck and
wrists the white chemise shows.]
The sleeves of the gowns had now altered in shape, and had acquired a
sort of pendulent cuff, which hung down about two hands' breadth from
the wrist. The border was, as usual, richly ornamented.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Henry I.}]
Then we have a new invention, the pelisse. It is a loose silk coat,
which is brooched at the waist, or buttoned into a silk loop. The
sleeves are long--that is, they gradually increase in size from the
underarm to the wrist, and sometimes are knotted at the ends, and so
are unlike the other gown sleeves, which grow suddenly long near to
the wrist.
This pelisse reaches to the knees, and is well open in front. The idea
was evidently brought back from the East after the knights arrived
back from the First Crusade, as it is in shape exactly like the coats
worn by Persian ladies.
We may conceive a nice picture of Countess Constance, the wife of Hugh
Lufus, Earl of Chester, as she appeared in her dairy fresh from
milking the cows, which were her pride. No doubt she did help to milk
them; and in her long under-gown, with her plaits once more confined
in the folds of her wimple, she made cheeses--such good cheeses that
Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, rejoiced in a present of some of
them.
What a change it must have been to Matilda, free of the veil that she
hated, from the Black Nuns of Romsey, and the taunts and blows of her
aunt Christina, to become the wife of King Henry, and to disport
herself in fine garments and long plaited hair--Matilda the very
royal, the daughter of a King, the sister to three Kings, the wife of
a King, the mother of an Empress!
STEPHEN
Reigned nineteen years: 1135-1154.
Born 1094. Married, 1124, to Matilda of Boulogne.
THE MEN
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Stephen}]
When one regards the mass of material in existence showing costume of
the tenth and eleventh centuries, it appears curious that so little
fabric remains of this particular period.
The few pieces of fabric in existence are so worn and bare that they
tell little, whereas pieces of earlier date of English or Norman
material are perfect, although thin and delicate.
There are few illuminated manuscripts of the twelfth century, or of
the first half of it, and to the few there are all previous
historians of costume have gone, so that one is left without choice
but to go also to these same books. The possibilities, however, of the
manuscripts referred to have not been exhausted, and too much
attention has been paid to the queer drawing of the illuminators; so
that where they utilized to the full the artistic license, others have
sought to pin it down as accurate delineation of the costume of the
time. In this I have left out all the supereccentric costumes, fearing
that such existed merely in the imagination of the artist, and I have
applied myself to the more ordinary and understandable. As there are
such excellent works on armour, I have not touched at all upon the
subject, so that we are left but the few simple garments that men wore
when they put off their armour, or that the peasant and the merchant
habitually wore.
Ladies occupied their leisure in embroidery and other fine sewing, in
consequence of which the borders of tunics, of cloaks, the edgings of
sleeves, and bands upon the shoes, were elegantly patterned. The more
important the man, the finer his shoes.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF STEPHEN (1135-1154)
He is wearing a cloak with hood attached; it is of skin, the smooth
leather inside. He has an ankle gaiter covering the top of his
shoes. On the arm over which the cloak hangs can be seen the white
sleeve of the shirt.]
As will be seen from the drawings, the man wore his hair long,
smoothly parted in the centre, with a lock drawn down the parting
from the back of his head. As a rule, the hair curled back naturally,
and hung on the shoulders, but sometimes the older fashion of the past
reign remained, and the hair was carefully curled in locks and tied
with coloured ribbon.
Besides the hood as covering for the head, men wore one or other of
the simple caps shown, made of cloth or of fur, or of cloth fur-lined.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Stephen; two types of shoe; a
boot}]
[Illustration: {Two types of tunic; two types of cloak; four types
of sleeve showing cuff variations}]
Next to his skin the man of every class wore a shirt of the pattern
shown--the selfsame shirt that we wear to day, excepting that the
sleeves were made very long and tight-fitting, and were pushed back
over the wrist, giving those wrinkles which we notice on all the
Bayeux tapestry sleeves, and which we see for many centuries in
drawings of the undergarment. The shape has always remained the same;
the modes of fastening the shirt differ very slightly--so little, in
fact, that a shirt of the fourth century which still remains in
existence shows the same button and loop that we notice of the shirts
of the twelfth century. The richer man had his shirt embroidered round
the neck and sometimes at the cuffs. Over this garment the man wore
his tunic--of wool, or cloth, or (rarely) of silk; the drawing
explains the exact making of it. The tunic, as will be seen, was
embroidered at the neck, the cuffs, and round the border. One drawing
shows the most usual of these tunics, while the other drawings will
explain the variations from it--either a tight sleeve made long and
rolled back, a sleeve made very wide at the cuff and allowed to hang,
or a sleeve made so that it fell some way over the hand. It was
embroidered inside and out at the cuff, and was turned back to allow
free use of the hand.
Over the tunic was worn the cloak, a very simple garment, being a
piece of cloth cut in the shape of a semicircle, embroidered on the
border or not, according to the purse and position of the owner.
Sometimes a piece was cut out to fit the neck.
Another form of cloak was worn with a hood. This was generally used
for travelling, or worn by such people as shepherds. It was made for
the richer folk of fine cloth, fur-lined, or entirely of fur, and for
the poorer people of skin or wool.
The cloak was fastened by a brooch, and was pinned in the centre or on
either shoulder, most generally on the right; or it was pushed through
a ring sewn on to the right side of the neck of the cloak.
The brooches were practically the same as those worn in the earlier
reigns, or were occasionally of a pure Roman design.
As will be seen in the small diagrams of men wearing the clothes of
the day, the tunic, the shirt, and the cloak were worn according to
the season, and many drawings in the MSS. of the date show men wearing
the shirt alone.
On their legs men wore trousers of leather for riding, bound round
with leather thongs, and trousers of wool also, bound with coloured
straps of wool or cloth.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Stephen; an alternative hat
for a man}]
Stockings of wool were worn, and cloth stockings also, and socks.
There was a sock without a foot, jewelled or embroidered round the
top, which was worn over the stocking and over the top of the boot in
the manner of ankle gaiters.
The country man wore twists of straw round his calf and ankle.
For the feet there were several varieties of boots and shoes made of
leather and stout cloth, now and again with wooden soles. As has been
said before, the important people rejoiced in elegant footgear of all
colours. All the shoes buttoned with one button above the outside
ankle. The boots were sometimes tall, reaching to the bottom of the
calf of the leg, and were rolled over, showing a coloured lining.
Sometimes they were loose and wrinkled over the ankle. They were both,
boot and shoe, made to fit the foot; for in this reign nearly all the
extravagances of the previous reign had died out, and it is rare to
find drawings or mention of long shoes stuffed with tow or wool.
During the reign of Stephen the nation was too occupied in wars and
battles to indulge in excessive finery, and few arts flourished,
although useful improvements occurred in the crafts.
There is in the British Museum a fine enamelled plate of this date
which is a representation of Henry of Blois, Stephen's brother, who
was the Bishop of Winchester. Part of the inscription, translated by
Mr. Franks, says that 'Art is above gold and gems,' and that 'Henry,
while living, gives gifts of brass to God.'
Champlevé enamel was very finely made in the twelfth century, and many
beautiful examples remain, notably a plaque which was placed on the
column at the foot of which Geoffrey Plantagenet was buried. It is a
portrait of him, and shows the Byzantine influence still over the
French style.
This may appear to be rather apart from costume, but it leads one to
suppose that the ornaments of the time may have been frequently
executed in enamel or in brass--such ornaments as rings and brooches.
It is hard to say anything definite about the colours of the dresses
at this time. All that we can say is that the poorer classes were
clothed principally in self-coloured garments, and that the dyes used
for the clothes of the nobles were of very brilliant hues. But a
street scene would be more occupied by the colour of armour. One would
have seen a knight and men-at-arms--the knight in his plain armour and
the men in leather and steel; a few merchants in coloured cloaks, and
the common crowd in brownish-yellow clothes with occasional bands of
colour encircling their waists.
The more simply the people are represented, the more truthful will be
the picture or presentation. Few pictures of this exact time are
painted, and few stories are written about it, but this will give all
the information necessary to produce any picture or stage-play, or to
illustrate any story.
The garments are perfectly easy to cut out and make. In order to prove
this I have had them made from the bare outlines given here, without
any trouble.
THE WOMEN
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Stephen}]
Though many parts of England were at this time being harassed by wars,
still the domestic element grew and flourished.
The homes of the English from being bare and rude began to know the
delights of embroidery and weaving. The workroom of the ladies was the
most civilized part of the castle, and the effect of the Norman
invasion of foreign fashions was beginning to be felt.
As the knights were away to their fighting, so were the knights'
ladies engaged in sewing sleeve embroideries, placing of pearls upon
shoes, making silk cases for their hair, and otherwise stitching,
cutting, and contriving against the return of their lords.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Stephen}]
It is recorded that Matilda escaped from Oxford by a postern in a
white dress, and no doubt her women sympathizers made much of white
for dresses.
The ladies wore a simple undergarment of thin material called a sherte
or camise; this was bordered with some slight embroidery, and had
tightish long sleeves pushed back over the wrist. The garment fell
well on to the ground. This camise was worn by all classes.
The upper garment was one of three kinds: made from the neck to below
the breast, including the sleeves of soft material; from the breast to
the hips it was made of some elastic material, as knitted wool or thin
cloth, stiffened by criss-cross bands of cloth, and was fitted to the
figure and laced up the back; the lower part was made of the same
material as the sleeves and bust.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF STEPHEN (1135-1154)
Her dress fits to her figure by lacing at the back. Her long sleeves
are tied up to keep them from trailing upon the ground. Her hair is
fastened at the end into silken cases. She has a wimple in her hands
which she may wind about her head.]
The second was made tight-fitting in the body and bust, all of
one elastic material, and the skirt of loose thin stuff.
The third was a loose tunic reaching half-way between the knees and
feet, showing the camise, and tied about the waist and hips by a long
girdle.
The sleeves of these garments showed as many variations as those of
the men, but with the poor folk they were short and useful, and with
the rich they went to extreme length, and were often knotted to
prevent them from trailing on the ground.
The collar and the borders of the sleeves were enriched with
embroidery in simple designs.
In the case of the loose upper garment the border was also
embroidered.
In winter a cloak of the same shape as was worn by the men was
used--_i.e._, cut exactly semicircular, with embroidered edges.
The shoes of the ladies were fitted to the foot in no extravagant
shape, and were sewn with bands of pearls or embroidery. The poorer
folk went about barefoot.
The hair was a matter of great moment and most carefully treated; it
was parted in the centre and then plaited, sometimes intertwined with
coloured ribbands or twists of thin coloured material; it was added
to in length by artificial hair, and was tied up in a number of ways.
Either it was placed in a tight silk case, like an umbrella case,
which came about half-way up the plait from the bottom, and had little
tassels depending from it, or the hair was added to till it reached
nearly to the feet, and was bound round with ribbands, the ends having
little gold or silver pendants. The hair hung, as a rule, down the
front on either side of the face, or occasionally behind down the
back, as was the case when the wimple was worn.
When the ladies went travelling or out riding they rode astride like
men, and wore the ordinary common-hooded cloak.
Brooches for the tunic and rings for the fingers were common among the
wealthy.
The plait was introduced into the architecture of the time, as is
shown by a Norman moulding at Durham.
Compared with the Saxon ladies, these ladies of Stephen's time were
elegantly attired; compared with the Plantagenet ladies, they were
dressed in the simplest of costumes. No doubt there were, as in all
ages, women who gave all their body and soul to clothes, who wore
sleeves twice the length of anyone else, who had more elaborate
plaits and more highly ornamented shoes; but, taking the period as a
whole, the clothes of both sexes were plainer than in any other period
of English history.
One must remember that when the Normans came into the country the
gentlemen among the Saxons had already borrowed the fashions prevalent
in France, but that the ladies still kept in the main to simple
clothes; indeed, it was the man who strutted to woo clad in all the
fopperies of his time--to win the simple woman who toiled and span to
deck her lord in extravagant embroideries.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Stephen}]
The learning of the country was shared by the ladies and the clergy,
and the influence of Osburgha, the mother of Alfred, and Editha, the
wife of Edward the Confessor, was paramount among the noble ladies of
the country.
The energy of the clergy in this reign was more directed to building
and the branches of architecture than to the more studious and
sedentary works of illumination and writing, so that the sources from
which we gather information with regard to the costume in England are
few, and also peculiar, as the drawing of this date was, although
careful, extremely archaic.
Picture the market-town on a market day when the serfs were waiting to
buy at the stalls until the buyers from the abbey and the castle had
had their pick of the fish and the meat. The lady's steward and the
Father-Procurator bought carefully for their establishments, talking
meanwhile of the annual catch of eels for the abbey.
Picture Robese, the mother of Thomas, the son of Gilbert Becket,
weighing the boy Thomas each year on his birthday, and giving his
weight in money, clothes, and provisions to the poor. She was a type
of the devout housewife of her day, and the wife of a wealthy trader.
The barons were fortifying their castles, and the duties of their
ladies were homely and domestic. They provided the food for
men-at-arms, the followers, and for their husbands; saw that simples
were ready with bandages against wounds and sickness; looked, no
doubt, to provisions in case of siege; sewed with their maidens in a
vestiary or workroom, and dressed as best they could for their
position. What they must have heard and seen was enough to turn them
from the altar of fashion to works of compassion. Their houses
contained dreadful prisons and dungeons, where men were put upon
rachentegs, and fastened to these beams so that they were unable to
sit, lie, or sleep, but must starve. From their windows in the towers
the ladies could see men dragged, prisoners, up to the castle walls,
through the hall, up the staircase, and cast, perhaps past their very
eyes, from the tower to the moat below. Such times and sights were not
likely to foster proud millinery or dainty ways, despite of which
innate vanity ran to ribbands in the hair, monstrous sleeves, jewelled
shoes, and tight waists. The tiring women were not overworked until a
later period, when the hair would take hours to dress, and the dresses
months to embroider.
In the town about the castle the merchants' wives wore simple homespun
clothes of the same form as their ladies. The serfs wore plain smocks
loose over the camise and tied about the waist, and in the bitter
cold weather skins of sheep and wolves unlined and but roughly
dressed.
[Illustration: Cases for the Hair.]
In 1154 the Treaty of Wallingford brought many of the evils to an end,
and Stephen was officially recognised as King, making Henry his heir.
Before the year was out Stephen died.
I have not touched on ecclesiastical costume because there are so many
excellent and complete works upon such dress, but I may say that it
was above all civil dress most rich and magnificent.
I have given this slight picture of the time in order to show a reason
for the simplicity of the dress, and to show how, enclosed in their
walls, the clergy were increasing in riches and in learning; how,
despite the disorders of war, the internal peace of the towns and
hamlets was growing, with craft gilds and merchant gilds. The lords
and barons fighting their battles knew little of the bond of strength
that was growing up in these primitive labour unions; but the lady in
her bower, in closer touch with the people, receiving visits from
foreign merchants and pedlars with rare goods to sell or barter, saw
how, underlying the miseries of bloodshed and disaster, the land began
to bloom and prosper, to grow out of the rough place it had been into
the fair place of market-town and garden it was to be.
Meanwhile London's thirteen conventual establishments were added to by
another, the Priory of St. Bartholomew, raised by Rahere, the King's
minstrel.
HENRY THE SECOND
Reigned thirty-five years: 1154-1189.
Born 1133. Married, 1152, to Eleanor of Guienne.
THE MEN
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Henry II.}]
The King himself is described as being careless of dress, chatty,
outspoken. His hair was close-cropped, his neck was thick, and his
eyes were prominent; his cheek-bones were high, and his lips coarse.
The costume of this reign was very plain in design, but rich in
stuffs. Gilt spurs were attached to the boots by red leather straps,
gloves were worn with jewels in the backs of them, and the mantles
seem to have been ornamented with designs.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF HENRY II. (1154-1189)
He wears the short cloak, and his long tunic is held by a brooch at
the neck and is girdled by a long-tongued belt. There are gloves on
his hands.]
The time of patterns upon clothes began. The patterns were simple, as
crescents, lozenges, stars.
William de Magna Villa had come back from the Holy Land with a new
fabric, a precious silk called 'imperial,' which was made in a
workshop patronized by the Byzantine Emperors.
The long tunic and the short supertunic were still worn, but these
were not so frequently split up at the side.
High boots reaching to the calf of the leg were in common use.
That part of the hood which fell upon the shoulders was now cut in a
neat pattern round the edge.
Silks, into which gold thread was sewn or woven, made fine clothes,
and cloth cloaks lined with expensive furs, even to the cost of a
thousand pounds of our money, were worn.
The loose trouser was going out altogether, and in its stead the hose
were made to fit more closely to the leg, and were all of gay colours;
they were gartered with gold bands crossed, the ends of which had
tassels, which hung down when the garter was crossed and tied about
the knee.
Henry, despite his own careless appearance, was nicknamed Court
Manteau, or Short Mantle, on account of a short cloak or mantle he is
supposed to have brought into fashion.
The shirts of the men, which showed at the opening of the tunic, were
buttoned with small gold buttons or studs of gold sewn into the linen.
The initial difference in this reign was the more usual occurrence of
patterns in diaper upon the clothes.
The length of a yard was fixed by the length of the King's arm.
With the few exceptions mentioned, the costume is the same as in the
time of Stephen.
It is curious to note what scraps of pleasant gossip come to us from
these early times: St. Thomas à Becket dining off a pheasant the day
before his martyrdom; the angry King calling to his knights, 'How a
fellow that hath eaten my bread, a beggar that first came to my Court
on a lame horse, dares to insult his King and the Royal Family, and
tread upon my whole kingdom, and not one of the cowards I nourish at
my table, not one will deliver me of this turbulent priest!'--the
veins no doubt swelling on his bull-like neck, the prominent eyes
bloodshot with temper, the result of that angry speech, to end in the
King's public penance before the martyr's tomb.
Picture the scene at Canterbury on August 23, 1179, when Louis VII.,
King of France, dressed in the manner and habit of a pilgrim, came to
the shrine and offered there his cup of gold and a royal precious
stone, and vowed a gift of a hundred hogsheads of wine as a yearly
rental to the convent.
A common sight in London streets at this time was a tin medal of St.
Thomas hung about the necks of the pilgrims.
And here I cannot help but give another picture. Henry II., passing
through Wales on his way to Ireland in 1172, hears the exploits of
King Arthur which are sung to him by the Welsh bards. In this song the
bards mention the place of King Arthur's burial, at Glastonbury Abbey
in the churchyard. When Henry comes back from Ireland he visits the
Abbot of Glastonbury, and repeats to him the story of King Arthur's
tomb.
One can picture the search: the King talking eagerly to the Abbot; the
monks or lay-brothers digging in the place indicated by the words of
the song; the knights in armour, their mantles wrapped about them,
standing by.
Then, as the monks search 7 feet below the surface, a spade rings
upon stone. Picture the interest, the excitement of these
antiquarians. It is a broad stone which is uncovered, and upon it is a
thin leaden plate in the form of a corpse, bearing the inscription:
'HIC JACET SEPULTUS INCLYTUS REX ARTURIUS IN INSULA
AVALONIA.'
They draw up this great stone, and with greedy eyes read the
inscription. The monks continue to dig. Presently, at the depth of 16
feet, they find the trunk of a tree, and in its hollowed shape lie
Arthur and his Queen--Arthur and Guinevere, two names which to us now
are part of England, part of ourselves, as much as our patron St.
George.
Here they lie upon the turf, and all the party gaze on their remains.
The skull of Arthur is covered with wounds; his bones are enormous.
The Queen's body is in a good state of preservation, and her hair is
neatly plaited, and is of the colour of gold. Suddenly she falls to
dust.
They bury them again with great care. So lay our national hero since
he died at the Battle of Camlan in Cornwall in the year 542, and
after death was conveyed by sea to Glastonbury, and all traces of his
burial-place lost except in the songs of the people until such day as
Henry found him and his Queen.
THE WOMEN
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Henry II.; a circular pin}]
About this time came the fashion of the chin-band, and again the glory
of the hair was hidden under the wimple.
To dress a lady's hair for this time the hair must be brushed out, and
then divided into two parts: these are to be plaited, and then brought
round the crown of the head and fastened in front above the forehead.
The front pieces of hair are to be neatly pushed back from the
forehead, to show a high brow. Now a cloth of linen is taken, folded
under the chin, and brought over the top of the head, and there
pinned. Then another thin band of linen is placed round the head and
fastened neatly at the back; and over all a piece of fine linen is
draped, and so arranged that it shall just cover the forehead-band and
fall on to the shoulders. This last piece of linen is fastened to the
chin-band and the forehead-strap by pins.
[Illustration: {Four steps to dress a woman's hair}]
This fashion gave rise in later times to a linen cap; the
forehead-strap was increased in height and stiffened so that it rose
slightly above the crown of the head, and the wimple, instead of
hanging over it, was sewn down inside it, and fell over the top of the
cap. Later the cap was sewn in pleats.
The gown of this time was quite loose, with a deep band round the neck
and round the hem of the skirts, which were very full. So far as one
can tell, it was put on over the head, having no other opening but at
the neck, and was held at the waist by an ornamental girdle.
The chemise showed above the neck of the gown, which was fastened by
the usual round brooch.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF HENRY II. (1154-1189)
There is a chin-band to be seen passing under the wimple; this band
is pinned to hold it round the head.]
The sleeves were well fitting, rather loose at the elbow, and
fell shaped over the wrist, where there was a deep border of
embroidery. It is quite possible that the cuffs and hem may have been
made of fur.
The shoes were, as usual to the last two reigns, rather blunt at the
toe, and generally fitting without buckle, button, or strap round the
ankle, where they were rolled back.
Above the waist the tied girdle was still worn, but this was being
supplanted by a broad belt of silk or ornamented leather, which
fastened by means of a buckle. The tongue of the belt was made very
long, and when buckled hung down below the knee.
The cloaks, from the light way in which they are held, appear to have
been made of silk or some such fine material as fine cloth. They are
held on to the shoulders by a running band of stuff or a silk cord,
the ends of which pass through two fasteners sewn on to the cloak, and
these are knotted or have some projecting ornament which prevents the
cord from slipping out of the fastener.
In this way one sees the cloak hanging from the shoulders behind, and
the cord stretched tight across the breast, or the cord knotted in a
second place, and so bringing the cloak more over the shoulders.
The effigy of the Queen at Fontevraud shows her dress covered with
diagonal bars of gold, in the triangles of which there are gold
crescents placed from point to point, and no doubt other ladies of her
time had their emblems or badges embroidered into their gowns.
RICHARD THE FIRST
Reigned ten years: 1189-1199.
Born 1157. Married, 1191, to Berengaria of Navarre.
THE MEN
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Richard I.; a hood; a shoe}]
The King had but little influence over dress in his time, seeing that
he left England as soon as he was made King, and only came back for
two months in 1194 to raise money and to be crowned again.
The general costume was then as plain as it had ever been, with long
tunics and broad belts fastened by a big buckle.
The difference in costume between this short reign and that of Henry
II. is almost imperceptible; if any difference may be noted, it is in
the tinge of Orientalism in the garments.
There is more of the long and flowing robe, more of the capacious
mantle, the wider sleeve.
No doubt the many who came from the Crusades made a good deal of
difference to English homes, and actual dresses and tunics from the
East, of gorgeous colours and Eastern designs, were, one must suppose,
to be seen in England.
Cloth of gold and cloth of gold and silks--that is, warf of silk and
weft of gold--were much prized, and were called by various names from
the Persian, as 'ciclatoun,' 'siglaton.'
Such stuff, when of great thickness and value--so thick that six
threads of silk or hemp were in the warf--was called 'samite.'
Later, when the cloth of gold was more in use, and the name had
changed from 'ciclatoun' to 'bundekin,' and from that to 'tissue,' to
keep such fine cloth from fraying or tarnishing, they put very thin
sheets of paper away between the folds of the garments; so to this day
we call such paper tissue-paper.
Leaf-gold was used sometimes over silk to give pattern and richness to
it.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF RICHARD I. (1189-1199)]
A curious survival of this time, which has a connection with costume,
was the case of Abraham Thornton in 1818. Abraham Thornton was accused
of having drowned Mary Ashford, but he was acquitted by the jury. This
acquittal did not satisfy popular feeling, and the brother of Mary
Ashford appealed. Now Thornton was well advised as to his next
proceeding, and, following the still existent law of this early time
of which I write, he went to Westminster Hall, where he threw down, as
a gage of battle, an antique gauntlet without fingers or thumb, of
white tanned skin ornamented with silk fringes and sewn work, crossed
by a narrow band of leather, the fastenings of leather tags and
thongs.
This done, he declared himself ready to defend himself in a fight, and
so to uphold his innocence, saying that he was within his rights, and
that no judge could compel him to come before a jury.
This was held to be good and within the law, so Abraham Thornton won
his case, as the brother refused to pick up the gauntlet. The scandal
of this procedure caused the abolishment of the trial by battle, which
had remained in the country's laws from the time of Henry II. until
1819.
It was a time of foreign war and improvement in military armour and
arms. Richard I. favoured the cross-bow, and brought it into general
use in England to be used in conjunction with the old 4-foot bow and
the great bow 6 feet long with the cloth-yard arrow--a bow which could
send a shaft through a 4-inch door.
For some time this military movement, together with the influence of
the East, kept England from any advance or great change in costume;
indeed, the Orientalism reached a pitch in the age of Henry III.
which, so far as costume is concerned, may be called the Age of
Draperies.
To recall such a time in pictures, one must then see visions of
loose-tuniced men, with heavy cloaks; of men in short tunics with
sleeves tight or loose at the wrists; of hoods with capes to them, the
cape-edge sometimes cut in a round design; of soft leather boots and
shoes, the boots reaching to the calf of the leg. To see in the
streets bright Oriental colours and cloaks edged with broad bands of
pattern; to see hooded heads and bared heads on which the hair was
long; to see many long-bearded men; to see old men leaning on
tan-handled sticks; the sailor in a cap or coif tied under his chin;
the builder, stonemason, and skilled workman in the same coif; to see,
as a whole, a brilliant shifting colour scheme in which armour gleamed
and leather tunics supplied a dull, fine background. Among these one
might see, at a town, by the shore, a thief of a sailor being carried
through the streets with his head shaven, tarred and feathered.
THE WOMEN
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Richard I.; a pouch}]
It is difficult to describe an influence in clothes.
It is difficult nowadays to say in millinery where Paris begins and
London accepts. The hint of Paris in a gown suggests taste; the whole
of Paris in a gown savours of servile imitation.
No well-dressed Englishwoman should, or does, look French, but she may
have a subtle cachet of France if she choose.
The perfection of art is to conceal the means to the end; the
perfection of dress is to hide the milliner in the millinery.
The ladies of Richard I.'s time did not wear Oriental clothes, but
they had a flavour of Orientalism pervading their dress--rather
masculine Orientalism than feminine.
The long cloak with the cord that held it over the shoulders; the
long, loose gown of fine colours and simple designs; the soft, low,
heelless shoes; the long, unbound hair, or the hair held up and
concealed under an untied wimple--these gave a touch of something
foreign to the dress.
Away in the country there was little to dress for, and what clothes
they had were made in the house. Stuffs brought home from Cyprus, from
Palestine, from Asia Minor, were laboriously conveyed to the house,
and there made up into gowns. Local smiths and silver-workers made
them buckles and brooches and ornamental studs for their long belts,
or clasps for their purses.
A wreck would break up on the shore near by, and the news would
arrive, perhaps, that some bales of stuff were washed ashore and were
to be sold.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF RICHARD I. (1189-1199)
Her very full cloak is kept in place by the cord which passes
through loops. A large buckle holds the neck of the gown well
together. The gown is ornamented with a simple diaper pattern; the
hem and neck are deeply embroidered.]
The female anchorites of these days were busy gossips, and from their
hermitage or shelter by a bridge on the road would see the world
go by, and pick up friends by means of gifts of bandages or purses
made by them, despite the fact that this traffic was forbidden to
them.
So the lady in the country might get news of her lord abroad, and hear
that certain silks and stuffs were on their way home.
The gowns they wore were long, flowing and loose; they were girded
about the middle with leathern or silk belts, which drew the gown
loosely together. The end of the belt, after being buckled, hung down
to about the knee. These gowns were close at the neck, and there
fastened by a brooch; the sleeves were wide until they came to the
wrist, over which they fitted closely.
The cloaks were ample, and were held on by brooches or laces across
the bosom.
The shoes were the shape of the foot, sewn, embroidered, elaborate.
The wimples were pieces of silk or white linen held to the hair in
front by pins, and allowed to flow over the head at the back.
There were still remaining at this date women who wore the
tight-fitting gown laced at the back, and who tied their chins up in
gorgets.
JOHN
Reigned seventeen years: 1199-1216.
Born 1167. Married, in 1189, to Hadwisa, of Gloucester,
whom he divorced; married, in 1200, to Isabella of
Angoulême.
THE MEN
There was a garment in this reign which was the keynote of costume at
the time, and this was the surcoat. It had been worn over the armour
for some time, but in this reign it began to be an initial part of
dress.
Take a piece of stuff about 9 or 10 yards in length and about 22
inches wide; cut a hole in the centre of this wide enough to admit of
a man's head passing through, and you have a surcoat.
[Illustration: {A simple surcoat pattern}]
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF JOHN (1199-1216)]
Under this garment the men wore a flowing gown, the sleeves of which
were so wide that they reached at the base from the shoulder to
the waist, and narrowed off to a tight band at the wrist.
These two garments were held together by a leather belt buckled about
the middle, with the tongue of the belt hanging down.
Broad borders of design edged the gowns at the foot and at the neck,
and heraldic devices were sewn upon the surcoats.
King John himself, the quick, social, humorous man, dressed very
finely. He loved the company of ladies and their love, but in spite of
his love for them, he starved and tortured them, starved and beat
children, was insolent, selfish, and wholly indifferent to the truth.
He laughed aloud during the Mass, but for all that was superstitious
to the degree of hanging relics about his neck; and he was buried in a
monk's cowl, which was strapped under his chin.
Silk was becoming more common in England, and the cultivation of the
silkworm was in some measure gaining hold. In 1213 the Abbot of
Cirencester, Alexander of Neckham, wrote upon the habits of the
silkworm.
Irish cloth of red colour was largely in favour, presumably for cloaks
and hoods.
The general costume of this reign was very much the same as that of
Henry II. and Richard I.--the long loose gown, the heavy cloak, the
long hair cut at the neck, the fashion of beards, the shoes, belts,
hoods, and heavy fur cloaks, all much the same as before, the only
real difference being in the general use of the surcoat and the very
convenient looseness of the sleeves under the arms.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of John; an alternative cuff}]
There is an inclination in writing of a costume one can visualize
mentally to leave out much that might be useful to the student who
knows little or nothing of the period of dress in which one is
writing; so perhaps it will be better to now dress a man completely.
First, long hair and a neatly-trimmed beard; over this a hood and cape
or a circular cap, with a slight projection on the top of it.
Second, a shirt of white, like a modern soft shirt.
Third, tights of cloth or wool.
Fourth, shoes strapped over the instep or tied with thongs, or
fitting at the ankle like a slipper, or boots of soft leather turned
over a little at the top, at the base of the calf of the leg.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of John}]
Fifth, a gown, loosely fitting, buckled at the neck, with sleeves wide
at the top and tight at the wrist, or quite loose and coming to just
below the elbow, or a tunic reaching only to the knees, both gown and
tunic fastened with a belt.
Sixth, a surcoat sometimes, at others a cloak held together by a
brooch, or made for travelling with a hood.
This completes an ordinary wardrobe of the time.
THE WOMEN
As may be seen from the plate, no change in costume took place.
The hair plaited and bound round the head or allowed to flow loose
upon the shoulders.
Over the hair a gorget binding up the neck and chin. Over all a wimple
pinned to the gorget.
A long loose gown with brooch at the neck. Sleeves tight at the
wrist. The whole gown held in at the waist by a belt, with one long
end hanging down.
Shoes made to fit the shape of the foot, and very elaborately
embroidered and sewn.
A long cloak with buckle or lace fastening.
In this reign there were thirty English towns which had carried on a
trade in dyed cloths for fifty years.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF JOHN (1199-1216)
One may just see the purse beneath the cloak, where it hangs from
the belt. The cloak itself is of fine diaper-patterned material.]
HENRY THE THIRD
Reigned fifty-six years: 1216-1272.
Born 1207. Married, 1236, to Eleanor of Provence.
THE MEN
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Henry III.}]
Despite the fact that historians allude to the extravagance of this
reign, there is little in the actual form of the costume to bear out
the idea. Extravagant it was in a large way, and costly for one who
would appear well dressed; but the fopperies lay more in the stuffs
than in the cut of the garments worn.
It was an age of draperies.
This age must call up pictures of bewrapped people swathed in heavy
cloaks of cloth of Flanders dyed with the famous Flemish madder dye;
of people in silk cloaks and gowns from Italy; of people in loose
tunics made of English cloth.
This long reign of over fifty years is a transitional period in the
history of clothes, as in its course the draped man developed very
slowly towards the coated man, and the loose-hung clothes very
gradually began to shape themselves to the body.
The transition from tunic and cloak and Oriental draperies is so slow
and so little marked by definite change that to the ordinary observer
the Edwardian cotehardie seems to have sprung from nowhere: man seems
to have, on a sudden, dropped his stately wraps and mantles and
discarded his chrysalis form to appear in tight lines following the
figure--a form infinitely more gay and alluring to the eye than the
ponderous figure that walks through the end of the thirteenth century.
Up to and through the time from the Conquest until the end of Henry
III.'s reign the clothes of England appear--that is, they appear to
me--to be lordly, rich, fine, but never courtier-like and elegant.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF HENRY III. (1216-1272)
Heavy cloak and fulness of dress characteristic of this time.]
If one may take fashion as a person, one may say: Fashion arrived in
1066 in swaddling-clothes, and so remained enveloped in rich cloaks
and flowing draperies until 1240, when the boy began to show a more
active interest in life; this interest grew until, in 1270, it
developed into a distaste for heavy clothes; but the boy knew of no
way as yet in which to rid himself of the trailings of his mother
cloak. Then, in about 1272, he invented a cloak more like a strange,
long tunic, through which he might thrust his arms for freedom; on
this cloak he caused his hood to be fastened, and so made himself
three garments in one, and gave himself greater ease.
Then dawned the fourteenth century--the youth of clothes--and our
fashion boy shot up, dropped his mantles and heaviness, and came out
from thence slim and youthful in a cotehardie.
Of such a time as this it is not easy to say the right and helpful
thing, because, given a flowing gown and a capacious mantle,
imagination does the rest. Cut does not enter into the arena.
Imagine a stage picture of this time: a mass of wonderful, brilliant
colours--a crowd of men in long, loose gowns or surcoats; a crowd of
ladies in long, loose gowns; both men and women hung with cloaks or
mantles of good stuffs and gay colours. A background of humbler
persons in homespun tunics with cloth or frieze hoods over their
heads. Here and there a fop--out of his date, a quarter-century
before his time--in a loose coat with pocket-holes in front and a
buttoned neck to his coat, his shoes very pointed and laced at the
sides, his hair long, curled, and bound by a fillet or encompassed
with a cap with an upturned brim.
[Illustration: {Two men of the time of Henry III.}]
The beginning of the coat was this: the surcoat, which up till now was
split at both sides from the shoulder to the hem, was now sewn up,
leaving only a wide armhole from the base of the ribs to the shoulder.
This surcoat was loose and easy, and was held in at the waist by a
belt. In due time a surcoat appeared which was slightly shaped to the
figure, was split up in front instead of at the sides, and in which
the armholes were smaller and the neck tighter, and fastened by two or
three buttons. In front of this surcoat two pocket-holes showed. This
surcoat was also fastened by a belt at the waist.
In common with the general feeling towards more elaborate clothes, the
shoes grew beyond their normal shape, and now, no longer conforming
to the shape of the foot, they became elongated at the toes, and stuck
out in a sharp point; this point was loose and soft, waiting for a
future day when men should make it still longer and stuff it with tow
and moss.
Of all the shapes of nature, no shape has been so marvellously
maltreated as the human foot. It has suffered as no other portion of
the body has suffered: it has endured exceeding length and exceeding
narrowness; it has been swelled into broad, club-like shapes; it has
been artificially raised from the ground, ended off square, pressed
into tight points, curved under, and finally, as to-day, placed in
hard, shining, tight leather boxes. All this has been done to one of
the most beautiful parts of the human anatomy by the votaries of
fashion, who have in turn been delighted to expose the curves of their
bodies, the round swelling of their hips, the beauties of their nether
limbs, the whiteness of their bosoms, the turn of their elbows and
arms, and the rotundity of their shoulders, but who have, for some
mysterious reasons, been for hundreds of years ashamed of the
nakedness of their feet.
Let me give a wardrobe for a man of this time.
A hood with a cape to it; the peak of the hood made full, but about
half a hand's breadth longer than necessary to the hood; the cape cut
sometimes at the edge into a number of short slits.
A cap of soft stuff to fit the head, with or without an upturned brim.
A fillet of silk or metal for the hair.
A gown made very loose and open at the neck, wide in the body, the
sleeves loose or tight to the wrist. The gown long or short, on the
ground or to the knee, and almost invariably belted at the waist by a
long belt of leather with ornamental studs.
A surcoat split from shoulder to hem, or sewn up except for a wide
armhole.
A coat shaped very slightly to the figure, having pocket-holes in
front, small armholes, and a buttoned neck.
A great oblong-shaped piece of stuff for a cloak, or a heavy, round
cloak with an attached hood.
Tights of cloth or sewn silk--that is, pieces of silk cut and sewn to
the shape of the leg.
Shoes with long points--about 2 inches beyond the toes--fastened by a
strap in front, or laced at the sides, or made to pull on and fit at
the ankle, the last sometimes with a V-shaped piece cut away on
either side.
There was a tendency to beads, and a universal custom of long hair.
In all such clothes as are mentioned above every rich stuff of cloth,
silk, wool, and frieze may be used, and fur linings and fur hats are
constant, as also are furred edges to garments.
There was a slight increase of heraldic ornament, and a certain amount
of foreign diaper patterning on the clothes.
THE WOMEN
Now the lady must needs begin to repair the ravages of time and touch
the cheek that no longer knows the bloom of youth with--rouge.
This in itself shows the change in the age. Since the Britons--poor,
simple souls--had sought to embellish Nature by staining themselves
blue with woad and yellow with ochre, no paint had touched the faces
of the fashionable until this reign. Perhaps discreet historians had
left that fact veiled, holding the secrets of the lady's toilet too
sacred for the black of print; but now the murder came out. The fact
in itself is part of the psychology of clothes. Paint the face, and
you have a hint towards the condition of fashion.
Again, as in the case of the men, no determined cut shows which will
point to this age as one of such and such a garment or such an
innovation, but--and this I would leave to your imagination--there was
a distinction that was not great enough to be a difference.
The gowns were loose and flowing, and were gathered in at the waist by
a girdle, or, rather, a belt, the tongue of which hung down in front;
but as the end of the reign approached, the gowns were shaped a little
more to the figure.
A lady might possess such clothes as these: the gowns I have mentioned
above, the sleeves of which were tight all the way from the shoulder
to the wrist, or were loose and cut short just below the elbow,
showing the tight sleeves of the under-gown.
Shoes very elaborately embroidered and pointed at the toes.
A rich cloak made oblong in shape and very ample in cut.
A shaped mantle with strings to hold it together over the shoulders.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF HENRY III. (1216-1272)
This will show how very slight were the changes in woman's dress; a
plain cloak, a plain gown, and a wimple over the head.]
For the head a wimple made of white linen or perhaps of silk; this
she would put above her head, leaving the neck bare.
A long belt for her waist, and, if she were a great lady, a pair of
gloves to wear or stick into her belt.
THE COUNTRY FOLK
From the Conquest to the reign of Edward I.
[Illustration: {A countryman}]
Until the present day the countryman has dressed in a manner most
fitted to his surroundings; now the billycock hat, a devil-derived
offspring from a Greek source, the Sunday suit of shiny black with
purple trousers, the satin tie of Cambridge blue, and the stiff shirt,
have almost robbed the peasant of his poetical appearance.
Civilization seems to have arrived at our villages with a pocketful of
petty religious differences, a bagful of public-houses, a bundle of
penny and halfpenny papers full of stories to show the fascination of
crime and--these Sunday clothes.
The week's workdays still show a sense of the picturesque in
corduroys and jerseys or blue shirts, but the landscape is blotted
with men wearing out old Sunday clothes, so that the painter of rural
scenes with rural characters must either lie or go abroad.
As for the countrywoman, she, I am thankful to say, still retains a
sense of duty and beauty, and, except on Sunday, remains more or less
respectably clad. Chivalry prevents one from saying more.
[Illustration: {A countryman}]
In the old days--from the Conquest until the end of the thirteenth
century--the peasant was dressed in perfect clothes.
The villages were self-providing; they grew by then wool and hemp for
the spindles. From this was made yarn for materials to be made up into
coats and shirts. The homespun frieze that the peasant wore upon his
back was hung by the nobleman upon his walls. The village bootmaker
made, besides skin sandals to be tied with thongs upon the feet,
leather trousers and belts.
The mole-catcher provided skin for hats. Hoods of a plain shape were
made from the hides of sheep or wolves, the wool or hair being left on
the hood. Cloaks lined with sheepskin served to keep away the winter
cold.
To protect their legs from thorns the men wore bandages of twisted
straw wrapped round their trousers, or leather thongs cross-gartered
to the knee.
The fleece of the sheep was woven in the summer into clothes of wool
for the winter. Gloves were made, at the beginning of the thirteenth
century, of wool and soft leather; these were shaped like the modern
baby's glove, a pouch for the hand and fingers and a place for the
thumb.
A coarse shirt was worn, over which a tunic, very loosely made, was
placed, and belted at the waist. The tunic hardly varied in shape from
the Conquest to the time of Elizabeth, being but a sack-like garment
with wide sleeves reaching a little below the elbow. The hood was
ample and the cloak wide.
The women wore gowns of a like material to the men--loose gowns which
reached to the ankles and gave scope for easy movement. They wore
their hair tied up in a wimple of coarse linen.
[Illustration: A PEASANT OF EARLY ENGLAND
(WILLIAM I.-HENRY III.)
His hood is made from sheepskin, the wool outside, the hem trimmed
into points. His legs are bound up with garters of plaited straw.
His shoes are of the roughest make of coarse leather. He has the
shepherd's horn slung over his shoulder.]
The people of the North were more ruggedly clothed than the
Southerners, and until the monks founded the sheep-farming industry in
Yorkshire the people of those parts had no doubt to depend for their
supply of wool upon the more cultivated peoples.
[Illustration: {Two countrymen}]
Picture these people, then, in very simple natural wool-coloured
dresses going about their ordinary country life, attending their bees,
their pigs, sheep, and cattle, eating their kele soup, made of
colewort and other herbs.
See them ragged and hungry, being fed by Remigius, Bishop of Lincoln,
after all the misery caused by the Conquest; or despairing during the
Great Frost of 1205, which began on St. Hilary's Day, January 11, and
lasted until March 22, and was so severe that the land was like iron,
and could not be dug or tilled.
When better days arrived, and farming was taken more seriously by the
great lords, when Grosseteste, the Bishop of Lincoln, wrote his book
on farming and estate management for Margaret, the Dowager-Countess
of Lincoln, then clothes and stuffs manufactured in the towns became
cheaper and more easy to obtain, and the very rough skin clothes and
undressed hides began to vanish from among the clothes of the country,
and the rough gartered trouser gave way before cloth cut to fit the
leg.
On lord and peasant alike the sun of this early age sets, and with the
sunset comes the warning bell--the _couvre-feu_--so, on their beds of
straw-covered floors, let them sleep....
EDWARD THE FIRST
Reigned thirty-five years: 1272-1307.
Born 1239. Married, 1254, Eleanor of Castile; 1299,
Margaret of France.
MEN AND WOMEN
Until the performance of the Sherborne Pageant, I had never had the
opportunity of seeing a mass of people, under proper, open-air
conditions, dressed in the peasant costume of Early England.
For once traditional stage notions of costume were cast aside, and an
attempt was made, which was perfectly successful, to dress people in
the colours of their time.
The mass of simple colours--bright reds, blues, and greens--was a
perfect expression of the date, giving, as nothing else could give, an
appearance of an illuminated book come to life.
One might imagine that such a primary-coloured crowd would have
appeared un-English, and too Oriental or Italian; but with the
background of trees and stone walls, the English summer sky distressed
with clouds, the moving cloud shadows and the velvet grass, these
fierce hard colours looked distinctly English, undoubtedly of their
date, and gave the spirit of the ages, from a clothes point of view,
as no other colours could have done. In doing this they attested to
the historical truth of the play.
It seemed natural to see an English crowd one blazing jewel-work of
colour, and, by the excellent taste and knowledge of the designer, the
jewel-like hardness of colour was consistently kept.
It was interesting to see the difference made to this crowd by the
advent of a number of monks in uniform black or brown, and to see the
setting in which these jewel-like peasants shone--the play of
brilliant hues amid the more sombre browns and blacks, the shifting of
the blues and reds, the strong notes of emerald green--all, like the
symmetrical accidents of the kaleidoscope, settling into their places
in perfect harmony.
The entire scene bore the impress of the spirit of historical truth,
and it is by such pageants that we can imagine coloured pictures of an
England of the past.
Again, we could observe the effect of the light-reflecting armour,
cold, shimmering steel, coming in a play of colour against the
background of peasants, and thereby one could note the exact
appearance of an ordinary English day of such a date as this of which
I now write, the end of the thirteenth century.
The mournful procession bearing the body of Queen Eleanor of Castile,
resting at Waltham, would show a picture in the same colours as the
early part of the Sherborne Pageant.
Colour in England changed very little from the Conquest to the end of
the reign of Edward I.; the predominant steel and leather, the gay,
simple colours of the crowds, the groups of one colour, as of monks
and men-at-arms, gave an effect of constantly changing but ever
uniform colours and designs of colour, exactly, as I said before, like
the shifting patterns of the kaleidoscope.
It was not until the reign of Edward II. that the effect of colour
changed and became pied, and later, with the advent of stamped
velvets, heavily designed brocades, and the shining of satins, we get
that general effect best recalled to us by memories of Italian
pictures; we get, as it were, a varnish of golden-brown over the crude
beauties of the earlier times.
It is intensely important to a knowledge of costume to remember the
larger changes in the aspect of crowds from the colour point of view.
A knowledge of history--by which I do not mean a parrot-like
acquirement of dates and Acts of Parliament, but an insight into
history as a living thing--is largely transmitted to us by pictures;
and, as pictures practically begin for us with the Tudors, we must
judge of coloured England from illuminated books. In these you will go
from white, green, red, and purple, to such colours as I have just
described: more vivid blues, reds, and greens, varied with brown,
black, and the colour of steel, into the chequered pages of pied
people and striped dresses, into rich-coloured people, people in
black; and as you close the book and arrive at the wall-picture, back
to the rich-coloured people again.
[Illustration: {Three men of the time of Edward I.}]
The men of this time, it must be remembered, were more adapted to the
arts of war than to those of peace; and the knight who was up betimes
and into his armour, and to bed early, was not a man of so much
leisure that he could stroll about in gay clothes of an inconvenient
make. His principal care was to relieve himself of his steel burden
and get into a loose gown, belted at the waist, over which, if the
weather was inclement, he would wear a loose coat. This coat was made
with a hood attached to it, very loose and easy about the neck and
very wide about the body; its length was a matter of choice, but it
was usual to wear it not much below the knees. The sleeves were also
wide and long, having at a convenient place a hole cut, through which
the arms could be placed.
The men wore their hair long and brushed out about the ears--long,
that is, to the nape of the neck. They also were most commonly
bearded, with or without a moustache.
Upon their heads they wore soft, small hats, with a slight projection
at the top, the brim of the hat turned up, and scooped away in front.
Fillets of metal were worn about the hair with some gold-work upon
them to represent flowers; or they wore, now and again, real chaplets
of flowers.
There was an increase of heraldic ornament in this age, and the
surcoats were often covered with a large device.
These surcoats, as in the previous reign, were split from shoulder to
bottom hem, or were sewn up below the waist; for these, thin silk,
thick silk (called samite), and sendal, or thick stuff, was used, as
also for the gowns.
The shoes were peaked, and had long toes, but nothing extravagant, and
they were laced on the outside of the foot. The boots came in a peak
up to the knee.
The peasant was still very Norman in appearance, hooded, cloaked,
with ill-fitting tights and clumsy shoes; his dress was often of
bright colours on festivals, as was the gown and head-handkerchief of
his wife.
Thus you see that, for ordinary purposes, a man dressed in some gown
which was long, loose, and comfortable, the sleeves of it generally
tight for freedom, so that they did not hang about his arm, and his
shoes, hat, cloak, everything, was as soft and free as he could get
them.
The woman also followed in the lines of comfort: her under-gown was
full and slack at the waist, the sleeves were tight, and were made to
unbutton from wrist to elbow; they stopped short at the wrist with a
cuff.
Her upper gown had short, wide sleeves, was fastened at the back, and
was cut but roughly to the figure. The train of this gown was very
long.
They sought for comfort in every particular but one: for though I
think the gorget very becoming, I think that it must have been most
distressing to wear. This gorget was a piece of white linen wrapped
about the throat, and pinned into its place; the ends were brought up
to meet a wad of hair over the ears and there fastened, in this way
half framing the face.
[Illustration: {Four types of hairstyle and head-dresses for women}]
The hair was parted in the middle, and rolled over pads by the ears,
so as to make a cushion on which to pin the gorget. This was the
general fashion.
Now, the earlier form of head-dress gave rise to another fashion. The
band which had been tied round the head to keep the wimple in place
was enlarged and stiffened with more material, and so became a round
linen cap, wider at the top than at the bottom. Sometimes this cap was
hollow-crowned, so that it was possible to bring the wimple under the
chin, fasten it into place with the cap, and allow it to fall over the
top of the cap in folds; sometimes the cap was solidly crowned, and
was pleated; sometimes the cap met the gorget, and no hair showed
between them.
[Illustration: A MAN AND WOMAN OF THE TIME OF EDWARD I. (1272-1307)
The sleeves of the man's overcoat through which he has thrust his
arms are complete sleeves, and could be worn in the ordinary manner
but that they are too long to be convenient; hence the opening.]
What we know as 'the true lovers' knot' was sometimes used as an
ornament sewn on to dresses or gowns.
You may know the effigy of Queen Eleanor in Westminster Abbey, and if
you do, you will see an example of the very plainest dress of the
time. She has a shaped mantle over her shoulders, which she is holding
together by a strap; the long mantle or robe is over a plain,
loosely-pleated gown, which fits only at the shoulders; her hair is
unbound, and she wears a trefoil crown upon her head.
[Illustration: {Two women of the time of Edward I.}]
The changes in England can best be seen by such monuments as Edward
caused to be erected in memory of his beloved wife. The arts of peace
were indeed magnificent, and though the knight was the man of war, he
knew how to choose his servant in the great arts.
Picture such a man as Alexander de Abyngdon, 'le Imaginator,' who with
William de Ireland carved the statues of the Queen for five marks
each--such a man, with his gown hitched up into his belt, his hood
back on his shoulders, watching his statue put into place on the cross
at Charing. He is standing by Roger de Crundale, the architect of that
cross, and he is directing the workmen who are fixing the statue.... A
little apart you may picture Master William Tousell, goldsmith, of
London, a very important person, who is making a metal statue of the
Queen and one of her father-in-law, Henry III., for Westminster Abbey.
At the back men and women in hoods and wimples, in short tunics and
loose gowns. A very brightly-coloured picture, though the dyes of the
dresses be faded by rain and sun--they are the finer colours for that:
Master Tousell, no doubt, in a short tunic for riding, with his loose
coat on him, the heavy hood back, a little cap on his head; the
workmen with their tunics off, a twist of coloured stuff about their
waists, their heads bare.
It is a beautiful love-story this, of fierce Edward, the terror of
Scotland, for Eleanor, whom he 'cherished tenderly,' and 'whom dead we
do not cease to love.'
The same man, who could love so tenderly and well, who found a
fantastic order of chivalry in the Round Table of Kenilworth, could
there swear on the body of a swan the death of Comyn, Regent of
Scotland, and could place the Countess of Buchan, who set the crown
upon the head of Bruce, in a cage outside one of the towers of
Berwick.
Despite the plain cut of the garments of this time, and the absence of
superficial trimmings, it must have been a fine sight to witness one
hundred lords and ladies, all clothed in silk, seated about the Round
Table of Kenilworth.
EDWARD THE SECOND
Reigned twenty years: 1307-1327.
Born 1284. Married, 1308, Isabella of France.
MEN AND WOMEN
Whether the changes in costume that took place in this reign were due
to enterprising tailors, or to an exceptionally hot summer, or to the
fancy of the King, or to the sprightliness of Piers Gaveston, it is
not possible to say. Each theory is arguable, and, no doubt, in some
measure each theory is right, for, although men followed the new mode,
ladies adhered to their earlier fashions.
Take the enterprising tailor--call him an artist. The old loose robe
was easy of cut; it afforded no outlet for his craft; it cut into a
lot of material, was easily made at home--it was, in fact, a baggy
affair that fitted nowhere. Now, is it not possible that some
tailor-artist, working upon the vanity of a lordling who was proud of
his figure, showed how he could present this figure to its best
advantage in a body-tight garment which should reach only to his hips?
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Edward II.}]
Take the hot summer. You may or may not know that a hot summer some
years ago suddenly transformed the City of London from a place of
top-hats and black coats into a place of flannel jackets and hats of
straw, so that it is now possible for a man to arrive at his City
office clad according to the thermometer, without incurring the severe
displeasure of the Fathers of the City.
It seems that somewhere midway between 1307 and 1327 men suddenly
dropped their long robes, loosely tied at the waist, and appeared in
what looked uncommonly like vests, and went by the name of
'cotehardies.'
It must have been surprising to men who remembered England clothed in
long and decorous robes to see in their stead these gay, debonair,
tight vests of pied cloth or parti-coloured silk.
Piers Gaveston, the gay, the graceless but graceful favourite, clever
at the tournament, warlike and vain, may have instituted this complete
revolution in clothes with the aid of the weak King.
[Illustration: {Two types of cotehardie}]
[Illustration: {Two types of tunic; two types of collar}]
Sufficient, perhaps, to say that, although long robes continued to be
worn, cotehardies were all the fashion.
There was a general tendency to exaggeration. The hood was attacked by
the dandies, and, instead of its modest peak, they caused to be added
a long pipe of the material, which they called a 'liripipe.'
Every quaint thought and invention for tying up this liripipe was
used: they wound it about their heads, and tucked the end into the
coil; they put it about their necks, and left the end dangling; they
rolled it on to the top of their heads.
[Illustration: {Four types of shoe; two types of hat}]
The countryman, not behindhand in quaint ideas, copied the form of a
Bishop's hood, and appeared with his cloth hood divided into two
peaks, one on either side of his head.
[Illustration: {Four types of hood}]
This new cotehardie was cut in several ways. Strictly speaking, it was
a cloth or silk vest, tight to the body, and close over the hips; the
length was determined by the fancy of the wearer. It also had
influence on the long robes still worn, which, although full below the
waist to the feet, now more closely fitted the body and shoulders.
The fashionable sleeves were tight to the elbow, and from there
hanging and narrow, showing a sleeve belonging to an undergarment.
The cloak also varied in shape. The heavy travelling-cloak, with the
hood attached, was of the old pattern, long, shapeless, with or
without hanging sleeves, loose at the neck, or tightly buttoned.
Then there was a hooded cloak, with short sleeves, or with the sleeves
cut right away, a sort of hooded surcoat. Then there were two distinct
forms of cape: one a plain, circular cape, not very deep, which had a
plain, round, narrow collar of fur or cloth, and two or three buttons
at the neck; and there was the round cape, without a collar, but with
turned back lapels of fur. This form of cape is often to be seen.
The boots and shoes were longer at the toes, and were sometimes
buttoned at the sides.
The same form of hats remain, but these were now treated with fur
brims.
Round the waist there was always a belt, generally of plain black
leather; from it depended a triangular pouch, through which a dagger
was sometimes stuck.
[Illustration: A MAN AND WOMAN OF THE TIME OF EDWARD II. (1307-1327)
Notice the great length of liripipe on the man's hood, also his
short tunic of rayed cloth, his hanging sleeve and his under-sleeve.
The woman has her hair dressed in two side-plaits, to which the
gorget or neckcloth is pinned.]
The time of parti-coloured clothes was just beginning, and the
cotehardie was often made from two coloured materials, dividing the
body in two parts by the colour difference; it was the commencement
of the age which ran its course during the next reign, when men were
striped diagonally, vertically, and in angular bars; when one leg was
blue and the other red.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Edward II.; a cap}]
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Edward II.}]
You will note that all work was improving in this reign when you hear
that the King paid the wife of John de Bureford 100 marks for an
embroidered cope, and that a great green hanging was procured for
King's Hall, London, for solemn feasts--a hanging of wool, worked with
figures of kings and beasts. The ladies made little practical change
in their dress, except to wear an excess of clothes against the lack
of draperies indulged in by the men.
It is possible to see three garments, or portions of them, in many
dresses. First, there was a stuff gown, with tight sleeves buttoned to
the elbow from the wrist; this sometimes showed one or two buttons
under the gorget in front, and was fitted, but not tightly, to the
figure. It fell in pleated folds to the feet, and had a long train;
this was worn alone, we may suppose, in summer. Second, there was a
gown to go over this other, which had short, wide sleeves, and was
full in the skirts. One or other of these gowns had a train, but if
the upper gown had a train the under one had not, and _vice versâ_.
Third, there was a surcoat like to a man's, not over-long or full,
with the sleeve-holes cut out wide; this went over both or either of
the other gowns.
[Illustration: {Two women of the time of Edward II.; a wimple with
fillet and gorget}]
Upon the head they wore the wimple, the fillet, and about the throat
the gorget.
The arrangement of the wimple and fillet were new, for the hair was
now plaited in two tails, and these brought down straight on either
side of the face; the fillet was bound over the wimple in order to
show the plait, and the gorget met the wimple behind the plait instead
of over it.
The older fashion of hair-dressing remained, and the gorget was pinned
to the wads of hair over the ears, without the covering of the wimple.
Sometimes the fillet was very wide, and placed low on the head over a
wimple tied like a gorget; in this way the two side-plaits showed only
in front and appeared covered at side-face, while the wimple and broad
fillet hid all the top hair of the head.
Very rarely a tall, steeple head-dress was worn over the wimple, with
a hanging veil; but this was not common, and, indeed, it is not a mark
of the time, but belongs more properly to a later date. However, I
have seen such a head-dress drawn at or about this time, so must
include it.
The semicircular mantle was still in use, held over the breast by
means of a silk cord.
It may seem that I describe these garments in too simple a way, and
the rigid antiquarian would have made comment on courtepys, on
gamboised garments, on cloth of Gaunt, or cloth of Dunster.
I may tell you that a gambeson was the quilted tunic worn under
armour, and, for the sake of those whose tastes run into the arid
fields of such research, that you may call it wambasium, gobison,
wambeys, gambiex, gaubeson, or half a dozen other names; but, to my
mind, you will get no further with such knowledge.
Falding is an Irish frieze; cyclas is a gown; courtepy is a short
gown; kirtle--again, if we know too much we cannot be accurate--kirtle
may be a loose gown, or an apron, or a jacket, or a riding-cloak.
The tabard was an embroidered surcoat--that is, a surcoat on which was
displayed the heraldic device of the owner.
Let us close this reign with its mournful end, when Piers Gaveston
feels the teeth of the Black Dog of Warwick, and is beheaded on
Blacklow Hill; when Hugh le Despenser is hanged on a gibbet; when the
Queen lands at Orwell, conspiring against her husband, and the King is
a prisoner at Kenilworth.
Here at Kenilworth the King hears himself deposed.
'Edward, once King of England,' is hereafter accounted 'a private
person, without any manner of royal dignity.'
Here Edward, in a plain black gown, sees the steward of his household,
Sir Thomas Blount, break his staff of office, done only when a King is
dead, and discharge all persons engaged in the royal service.
Parliament decided to take this strong measure in January; in the
following September Edward was murdered in cold blood at Berkeley
Castle.
EDWARD THE THIRD
Reigned fifty years: 1327-1377.
Born 1312. Married, 1328, Philippa of Hainault.
THE MEN
Kings were Kings in those days; they managed England as a nobleman
managed his estates.
Edward I., during the year 1299, changed his abode on an average three
times a fortnight, visiting in one year seventy-five towns and
castles.
Edward II. increased his travelling retinue until, in the fourth year
of the reign of Edward III., the crowd who accompanied that King had
grown to such proportions that he was forced to introduce a law
forbidding knights and soldiers to bring their wives and families with
them.
Edward III., with his gay company, would not be stopped as he rode out
of one of the gates of London to pay toll of a penny a cart and a
farthing a horse, nor would any of his train.
This toll, which included threepence a week on gravel and sand carts
going in or out of the City, was raised to help pay for street
repairs, the streets and roads of that time being in a continual state
of slush, mud, and pits of water.
Let us imagine Edward III. and his retinue passing over Wakefield
Bridge before he reduced his enormous company.
The two priests, William Kaye and William Bull, stand waiting for the
King outside the new Saint Mary's Chapel. First come the guard of
four-and-twenty archers in the King's livery; then a Marshal and his
servants (the other King's Marshal has ridden by some twenty-four
hours ago); then comes the Chancellor and his clerks, and with them a
good horse carrying the Rolls (this was stopped in the fourth year of
Edward's reign); then they see the Chamberlain, who will look to it
that the King's rooms are decent and in order, furnished with benches
and carpets; next comes the Wardrobe Master, who keeps the King's
accounts; and, riding beside the King, the first personal officer of
the kingdom, the Seneschal; after that a gay company of knights and
their ladies, merchants, monks dressed as ordinary laymen for
travelling, soldiers of fortune, women, beggars, minstrels--a motley
gang of brightly-clothed people, splashed with the mud and dust of the
cavalcade.
[Illustration: {Two men of the time of Edward III.}]
Remembering the condition of the day, the rough travelling, the
estates far apart, the dirty inns, one must not imagine this company
spick and span.
The ladies are riding astride, the gentlemen are in civil garments or
half armour.
Let us suppose that it is summer, and but an hour or so after a heavy
shower. The heat is oppressive: the men have slung their hats at their
belts, and have pushed their hoods from their heads; their heavy
cloaks, which they donned hastily against the rain, are off now, and
hanging across their saddles.
These cloaks vary considerably in shape. Here we may see a circular
cloak, split down the right side from the neck, it buttons on the
shoulder. Here is another circular cloak, jagged at the edge; this
buttons at the neck. One man is riding in a cloak, parti-coloured,
which is more like a gown, as it has a hood attached to it, and
reaches down to his feet.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Edward III.; two types of hood}]
Nearly every man is alike in one respect--clean-shaven, with long hair
to his neck, curled at the ears and on the forehead.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Edward III.}]
Most men wear the cotehardie, the well-fitting garment buttoned down
the front, and ending over the hips. There is every variety of
cotehardie--the long one, coming nearly to the knees; the short one,
half-way up the thigh. Some are buttoned all the way down the front,
and others only with two or three buttons at the neck.
Round the hips of every man is a leather belt, from which hangs a
pouch or purse.
Some of these purses are beautiful with stitched arabesque designs;
some have silver and enamel clasps; some are plain black cloth or
natural-coloured leather; nearly all, however, are black.
The hoods over the men's heads vary in a number of ways: some are very
full in the cape, which is jagged at the hem; some are close about the
neck and are plain; some have long liripipes falling from the peak of
the hood, and others have a liripipe of medium length.
There are two or three kinds of hat worn, and felt and fur caps of the
usual shape--round, with a rolled-up brim and a little peak on the
top. Some of the hats are tall-crowned, round hats with a close, thick
brim--these have strings through the brim so that the hat may be
strung on the belt when it is not in use; other hats are of the long,
peaked shape, and now and again one may see a feather stuck into them;
a third variety shows the brim of a high-crowned hat, castellated.
Among the knights you will notice the general tendency to
parti-coloured clothes, not only divided completely into halves of two
colours, but striped diagonally, vertically, and horizontally, so
giving a very diverse appearance to the mass of colour.
Here and there a man is riding in his silk surcoat, which is
embroidered with his coat of arms or powdered with his badge.
Here are cloth, velvet, silk, and woollen stuffs, all of fine dyes,
and here is some fine silk cotehardie with patterns upon it gilt in
gold leaf, and there is a magnificent piece of stuff, rich in design,
from the looms of Palermo.
Among the merchants we shall see some more sober colours and quieter
cut of clothes; the archers in front are in leather tunics, and these
quiet colours in front, and the respectable merchants behind, enclose
the brilliant blaze of colour round the King.
Behind all come the peasants, minstrels, mummers, and wandering
troupes of acrobats; here is a bearward in worn leather cloak and
hood, his legs strapped at the ankle, his shoes tied on with thongs;
here is a woman in a hood, open at the neck and short at the back: she
wears a smocked apron; here is a beggar with a hood of black stuff
over his head--a hood with two peaks, one on either side of his head;
and again, here is a minstrel with a patched round cloak, and a mummer
with a two-peaked hood, the peaks stuffed out stiff, with bells
jangling on the points of them.
Again, among this last group, we must notice the old-fashioned loose
tunics, the coif over the head, tied under the chin, wooden-soled
shoes and pouch-gloves.
[Illustration: {Three men of the time of Edward III.}]
There are some Norfolk merchants and some merchants from Flanders
among the crowd, and they talk as best they can in a sort of
French-Latin-English jargon among themselves; they speak of England as
the great wool-producing country, the tax on which produced £30,000 in
one year; they talk of the tax, its uses and abuses, and how Norfolk
was proved the richest county in wool by the tax of 1341.
The people of England little thought to hear artillery used in a field
of battle so soon as 1346, when on August 26 it was used for the first
time, nor did they realize the horrors that were to come in 1349, when
the Great Plague was to sweep over England and kill half the
population.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Edward III.}]
There is one man in this crowd who has been marked by everybody. He is
a courtier, dressed in the height of fashion. His cotehardie fits him
very well: the sleeves are tight from elbow to wrist, as are the
sleeves of most of his fellows--some, however, still wear the hanging
sleeve and show an under-sleeve--and his sleeve is buttoned from wrist
to elbow. He wears the newest fashion upon his arm, the tippet, a
piece of silk which is made like a detachable cuff with a long
streamer hanging from it; his cotehardie is of medium length, jagged
at the bottom, and it is of the finest Sicilian silk, figured with a
fine pattern; round his hips he wears a jewelled belt. His hood is
parti-coloured and jagged at the edge and round his face, and his
liripipe is very long. His tights are parti-coloured, and his shoes,
buttoned up the front, are long-toed and are made of red-and-white
chequered leather. By him rides a knight, also in the height of
fashion, but less noticeable: he has his cotehardie skirt split up in
front and turned back; he has not any buttons on his sleeves, and his
belt about his waist holds a large square pouch; his shoes are a
little above his ankles, and are buckled over the instep. His hair is
shorter than is usual, and it is not curled.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Edward III.; three types of
head-gear}]
As we observe these knights, a party of armed knights come riding down
the road towards the cavalcade; they have come to greet the King.
These men have ridden through the rain, and now, as they come closer,
one can see that their armour is already red with rust.
[Illustration: {A hat}]
So the picture should remain on your mind, as I have imagined it for
you: the knights in armour and surcoats covered with their heraldic
device; the archers; the gay crowd of knights in parti-coloured
clothes; the King, in his cotehardie of plain black velvet and his
black beaver hat, just as he looked after Calais in later years; the
merchants; the servants in parti-coloured liveries of their masters'
colours; the tattered crowd behind; and, with the aid of the drawings,
you should be able to visualize the picture.
Meanwhile Edward will arrive at his destination, and to soothe him
before sleep, he will read out of the book of romances, illustrated by
Isabella, the nun of Aumbresbury, for which he had paid £66 13s. 4d.,
which sum was heavy for those days, when £6 would buy twenty-four
swans. £66 13s. 4d. is about £800 of our money to-day.
THE WOMEN
'I looked on my left half as the lady taught me,
And was aware of a woman worthily clothed,
Trimmed with fur, the finest on earth,
Crowned with a crown, the King had none better.
Handsomely her fingers were fretted with gold wire,
And thereon red rubies, as red as any hot coal,
And diamonds of dearest price, and double manner of sapphires,
Orientals and green beryls....
Her robe was full rich, of red scarlet fast dyed,
With bands of red gold and of rich stones;
Her array ravished me, such richness saw I never.'
_Piers the Plowman._
There are two manuscripts in existence the illuminations in which give
the most wonderfully pictorial idea of this time; they are the
manuscript marked MS. Bodl., Misc. 264, in the Bodleian Library at
Oxford, and the Loutrell Psalter in the British Museum.
The Loutrell Psalter is, indeed, one of the most notable books in the
world; it is an example of illumination at the height of that art; it
has for illustrator a person, not only of a high order of
intelligence, but a person possessed of the very spirit of Gothic
humour, who saw rural England, not only with the eyes of an artist,
but with the eyes of a gossiping philosopher.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF EDWARD III. (1327-1377)
Round his arms you will see the curious tippet, the jagged ends of
which hang down; these are the remains of the pendant sleeves. His
shoes are buttoned in front.]
Both this book and the book in the Bodleian Library were illustrated
by persons who were charged to the brim with the spirit of their age;
they were Chaucerian in their gay good-humour and in their quaint
observation, and they have that moral knowledge and outspoken manner
which characterize William Langland, whose 'Piers the Plowman' I have
quoted above.
With Chaucer, Langland, and these illuminators we have a complete
exhibition of English life of these times. The pulse of rural England
is felt by them in a most remarkable way; the religion, language,
thought, politics, the whole trend of rural, provincial, and Court
life may be gathered from their books.
The drawings in the Loutrell Psalter were completed before the year
1340, and they give us all that wonderful charm, that intimate
knowledge, which we enjoy in the 'Canterbury Pilgrims' and the 'Vision
of Piers Plowman.'
There seems to be something in road-travelling which levels all
humanity; there is no road in England which does not throb with
history; there is no poem or story written about roads in England
which does not in some way move the Englishness in us. Chaucer and
Langland make comrades of us as they move along the highway, and with
them we meet, on terms of intimacy, all the characters of the
fourteenth century. With these illuminators of the Loutrell Psalter
and the Bodleian MS. we see actually the stream of English life along
a crowded thoroughfare.
In these books we may see drawings of every form of agricultural life
and manorial existence: we see the country sports, the bear-baiting,
and the cock-fighting; we see the harvesters with straw hats, scythes,
and reaping-hooks; we see carters, carriers, and great carriages, all
depicted in a manner which we can only compare, in later years, to the
broad humour of Hogarth; and, as we turn the priceless pages over, the
whole fourteenth-century world passes before our eyes--japers and
jugglers; disours and jesters; monk, priest, pilgrim, and pardoner;
spendthrift and wench; hermits, good and evil; lords, ladies, and
Kings.
I have written of the men and their dress--how they were often--very
often--dirty, dusty, and travel-stained--of the red-rusted armour and
the striped and chequered clothes, and now I must write of the women
and the manner of their dress.
Of the time, you must remember that it was the time of chivalry, when
there was a Round Table of Knights at Windsor, founded in 1345; when
the Order of the Garter was founded; when tiltings and all manner of
tournaments were at their height; and you listen to the minstrels of
King Edward's household playing upon the trumpet, the cytole, the
pipe, the taberet, the clarion, and the fiddle.
St. George, the Primate of Egypt in the fourth century, had now risen
to public esteem and notice, so that he became in this time not only
the patron saint of chivalry, but the tutelar saint of England.
Boys were taken from the care of the ladies of the household at the
age of seven, when they became pages to knights, and were sworn to
devote themselves to the graces and favours of some girl. At fourteen
the boy became a squire, and at twenty-one, if he were possessed of a
rental of £20 a year in land, he made his fast and vigil, and was
afterward dubbed knight and given his spurs.
[Illustration: {Twelve hair arrangements for women}]
The noteworthy point about a woman of this reign was her hair. The
Queen herself wore an elaborate mode of coiffure for that time; she
wore a metal fillet round her head, to which was attached two cases,
circular in shape, of gold fretwork, ornamented with precious stones.
She wore her hair unplaited, and brought in two parts from the back
of her head, and as far as one can see, pushed into the jewelled
cases.
[Illustration: {Five sleeve types for women}]
The most general form of hair-dressing was an excess on the mode of
the previous reign, a richness of jewel-work, an abundance of gold
wire. It was usual to divide the hair into two plaits, and arrange
these on either side of the face, holding them in their place by means
of a fillet; they might be worn folded straight up by the face, or at
an angle, but they were never left hanging; if hair was left loose it
was not plaited, but flowing.
The gorget, or throat cloth, was still in general use, and it was
attached to the hair by very elaborate-headed pins. Sometimes the
hair, dressed with the gorget, was divided into four plaits, two on
either side of the face, and fastened horizontally.
The wimple of silk or linen was very generally worn. A caul of gold
net came into fashion, but not until the end of the reign. The ladies
were great upon hunting and hawking, and this must have been a
convenient fashion to keep the hair in order. Some wore a white silk
or linen cap, so shaped as to include and cover the two side-plaits
and combine a gorget and wimple in one. Pointed frontals of pearls
were worn across the forehead, and fillets of silk or linen were so
tied that long ends hung down the back.
[Illustration: {Four women of the time of Edward III.}]
Yellow hair was much esteemed, and ladies who were not favoured by
Nature, brought saffron to their aid, and by such efforts brought
Nature into line with Art.
There was the general custom of wearing the surcoat in imitation of
the men, a garment I have described frequently--a slightly-fitting
garment without sleeves--you will see how this grew later into a
gorgeous affair. These surcoats were sometimes of fine cloth of gold
covered with an intricate, delicate pattern in which beasts, birds,
and foliage mingled in arabesque. Under this surcoat was a plainer,
better-fitting garment, made sometimes of the barred and rayed
material so common to the men, or of velvet, cloth, or silk, in plain
colours, green and red being then very favourite; ermines and many
other furs were used to border these gowns. Sometimes you may see that
this gown had sleeves short at the elbow, exposing a different
coloured under-sleeve, buttoned from elbow to wrist; at other
times--in fact, among all fashionable persons--the curious fashion of
the tippet, or long streamer, was worn. I have carefully described
this fashion in the previous chapter.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Edward III.}]
The plain gown with tight sleeves was most in use, and the skirts of
this gown were very voluminous, and had either pockets or holes in the
front of them; the holes enabled the wearer to reach the purse hanging
from a girdle which encircled the waist of the under-dress. These
gowns were generally buttoned in front, from neck to waist, or they
were laced.
They also wore a heavier gown which reached just below the knee,
showing the skirts of the under-gown; the heavy gowns were often
fur-lined, and had loose wide sleeves to the elbow.
There was at this time a curious fur or cloth cape in use, longer
behind than in front--in fact, it varied with the taste of the owner.
It was cut in even scallops all round; I say even to show that they
were sewn-edged, not jagged and rough-edged. Any pair of these
scallops might be longer than any other pair. Ladies wore these capes
for hunting, and ornamented the ends with bells.
The shoes of the women were not very exaggerated in length, but, as a
rule, fitted well to the foot and came out in a slight point. You may
use for this reign shoes buckled across the instep, laced at the side,
or buttoned up the front.
For riding and sport the ladies wore the hood, and sometimes a broad
round hat over it, or the peaked hat. The countrywoman wore an
ill-fitting gown with tight sleeves, an apron, and an open hood.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF EDWARD III. (1327-1377)
You will notice that the woman also wears the tippet on her arm. The
gorget is high about her neck, and is held up by pins to her plaited
hair.]
Imagine London in the year of the third great pestilence, 1369. It is
October, and the worst of the pestilence is over; John Chichester,
the Mayor, is riding through the streets about some great affairs;
many knights and ladies pass by. It is raining hard after the long
drought of the summer, but, despite the rain, many citizens are abroad
to see the doings in the City, and one may see the bright
parti-coloured clothes of the lords and ladies, and here and there, as
a cloak is blown back, a glimpse of rich-patterned cloth of gold.
Perhaps Will Langland--Long Will--a gaunt man of thirty-seven, is
brushing past a young man of twenty-nine, Chaucer, going to his work.
Silk dresses and frieze gowns, velvet and homespun, hurry along as the
rain falls more heavily, and after a while the street becomes quite
deserted. Then nothing but the dreary monotony of the rain falling
from the gables will come to the room of the knight's lady as she lies
sick of small-pox. John de Gaddesden, the King's doctor, has
prescribed for her that she must lie clothed in scarlet red in a room
of that colour, with bed-hangings of that same colour, and so she must
lie, without much comfort, while the raindrops, falling down the wide
chimney, drip on the logs in the fire and make them hiss.
RICHARD THE SECOND
Reigned twenty-two years: 1377-1399.
Born 1366. Married, 1381, Anne of Bohemia; 1395,
Isabella of France.
THE MEN
The King himself was a leader of fashion; he had by grace of Nature
the form, face, and manner which go to make a dandy. The nobles
followed the King; the merchants followed the nobles after their kind;
the peasants were still clothed in the simplest of garments, having
retained the Norman tunic with the sleeves pushed back over the wrist,
kept the loose boots and straw gaiters, and showed the improvement in
their class by the innovation of gloves made as a thumb with a pouch
for the fingers, and pouches for money of cloth and leather hung on a
leather belt. This proved the peasant to be a man of some substance by
need of his wallet. Everyone wore the chaperon--a cap and cape
combined.
We have now arrived at the reign which made such a difference to the
labourer and workman--such as the blacksmith and miller--and in
consequence altered and improved the character of his clothes. The
poll-tax of 1380 brought the labourer into individual notice for the
first time, and thus arose the free labourer in England and the first
labour pamphlets.
We have two word-pictures of the times of the greatest value, for they
show both sides of the coin: the one by the courtly and comfortable
Chaucer, the other by Long Will--William Langland, or Piers the
Plowman. Picture the two along the Strand--Long Will singing his
dirges for hire, and Chaucer, his hand full of parchments, bustling
past.
One must remember that, as always, many people dressed out of the
fashion; that many men still wore the cotehardie, a well-fitting
garment reaching half-way down the thigh, with tight sleeves coming
over the hand, decorated with buttons under the sleeve from the elbow
to the little finger. This garment had a belt, which was placed round
the hips; and this was adorned in many ways: principally it was
composed of square pieces of metal joined together, either of silver,
or enamel in copper, or of gold set with precious stones.
[Illustration: {A cotehardie; hose}]
[Illustration: {Three types of footwear; a coat}]
The cotehardie was generally made of a pied cloth in horizontal or
diagonal bars, in silk or other rich fabric. With this garment the
chaperon (to be more fully described) was worn as a hood; the legs
were in tights, and the feet in pointed shoes a little longer than the
foot. A pouch or wallet depended from the belt, and a sheath
containing two daggers, an anelace, and a misericorde. The pouch was a
very rich affair, often of stamped gilded leather or sewn
velvet--ornamented, in fact, according to the purse of the wearer. In
winter such a man as he of the cotehardie would wear an overcoat with
an attached hood. This coat was made in various forms: one form with
wide sleeves the same width all the way down, under which were slits
in the coat to enable the wearer to place his hands inside, as in the
modern Raglan coat-pocket. Another form was made very loose and
without sleeves, but with the same slits at the side; it was buckled
round the waist on occasion by a broad leather belt, very plain. The
common heavy travelling-coat was made in this way, and it was only the
very fashionable who wore the houppelande for riding or travelling.
Sometimes such a man would wear in winter about the town a cloak
fastened over the right shoulder with three or four buttons, leaving
the right arm free; such a cloak is seen in the brass of Robert
Attelathe, Mayor of Lynn.
[Illustration: {A draped cloak and simple pattern for it}]
In travelling, our gentleman would wear, often in addition to his
chaperon, a peaked hat of cloth, high in the crown, with a brim turned
up all round, ending in a long peak in front--the same hat that we
always associate with Dick Whittington.
His gloves would be of leather, often ornamented with designs on the
back, or, if he were a knight, with his badge.
On this occasion he would wear his sword in a baldric, a long belt
over his right shoulder and under his left arm, from which hung also
his daggers. Although I am not dealing even with personal arms, one
must remember, in representing these people, that daggers were almost
as necessary a part of dress as boots or shoes, and that personal
comfort often depended upon a skilful use of that natty weapon; the
misericorde was used to give the _coup de grâce_.
The farmer in harvest-time wore, if he did not wear a hood, a peaked
hat or a round, large-brimmed straw hat.
[Illustration: The Houppelande or Peliçon.]
We may now arrive at the fashionable man, whose eccentricities in
clothes were the object of much comment. How the houppelande or
peliçon actually was originated I do not know, but it came about that
men suddenly began to clothe themselves in this voluminous and awkward
garment. It was a long loose-fitting robe, made to fit on the
shoulders only, having very long loose sleeves, varying according to
the whim of the owner. These sleeves were cut at the edges into the
forms of leaves or other designs, and were lined, as the houppelande,
with fur or silk. It will be seen that such a garment to suit all
weathers and temperatures must be made of various materials and lined
accordingly. These materials were almost invariably powdered with
badges or some other device, sometimes with a flowing pattern
embracing an heraldic design or motto. The sleeves turned back
disclosed the sleeve of a cotehardie underneath, with the little
buttons running from the elbow to the first knuckle of the little
finger. The houppelande had a very high collar, coming well up to the
middle of the back of the head; it was buttoned up to the chin in
front, and the collar was often turned down half-way, the two top
buttons being left undone. It was fastened about the middle by a thin
leather belt, very long; this was buckled, and the long end turned
under and brought over to hang down; the end was ornamented with many
devices--figures of saints, heraldic figures, or other ornaments.
Sometimes the entire belt was sewn with small devices in precious
metal or enamels.
Now, to be in the height of fashion, one either wore the houppelande
extremely long in the skirt or extremely short--so short, in fact, as
to leave but a frill of it remaining below the waist--leaving the
sleeves still their abnormal length. Pretty fads, as tying a dagger
round the neck, or allowing it to hang low between the legs, or
placing it in the small of the back, were much in vogue.
[Illustration: {Two types of long shoe}]
Every form of beard or moustache was used, and the hair was worn long
to the nape of the neck. By the dandy it was elaborately pressed and
curled at the ends. Bands of real or artificial flowers encircled the
heads of the dandies, the artificial flowers made in enamels or gold.
Rings were worn of great size on thumb and finger; long staffs with
elaborate heads were carried.
Under the houppelande was the skirt and the cotehardie of thin
material, and on the legs hose, pied or powdered, made of silk or
cloth cut to the form and sewn.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF RICHARD II. (1377-1399)
His chaperon, or hood, is twisted and tied about his head with
the liripipe, the elongated peak of his hood, thrown over his
shoulders.]
The shoes were of great length, with long points; rarely we find
examples of the absurd fashion of wearing the points so long that they
were tied back to the knees, but often they were so long that the
points came out 6 inches beyond the toe. They were made of every
material, sewn with pearls on cloth or velvet, stamped with gold on
leather, or the leather raised. The toes were sometimes stuffed hard,
sometimes allowed to hang limp.
For walking in the streets high clogs of wood were used, made with
long pointed ends to support the shoes.
I may add that the hose were gartered below the knee to hold them taut
with rich garters, but if a man were a Garter Knight he wore but the
garter of his Order.
[Illustration: {Evolution of the hood to the chaperon}]
Much in favour with this court of gallants were rich chains about the
neck, having for pendant their badge or some saint's figure in gold or
silver.
[Illustration: {Five types of head-wear}]
Now we come to the most interesting and universal fashion of wearing
the chaperon, which I am anxious to show in its various stages. It
began with a cape and a hood worn separately; these were joined for
convenience so that a man might put on both at once. This fashion held
for many years, and then the fashionable man in search of novelty
caused the peak of the hood to be lengthened until it grew to reach to
his feet. Then he cast about for a fresh mode for his head-wear, and
so he twisted the whole affair about his head, leaving the end of the
cape, which was jagged at the edge, protruding like a cockscomb. Time
went on, and he avoided the trouble of tying this himself, so he had
the hat made up all ready tied, much in the manner of a turban.
Finally, the chaperon grew into disuse, and it remains to-day a
curious reminder in the cockade worn by coachmen (it is almost a
replica in miniature, with the round twist and the jagged edge
sticking up above the hat) and on the cloaks of the Knights of the
Garter, where it is carefully made, and forms a cape on the right
shoulder, and in the present head-dress of the French lawyer, a relic
of the Middle Ages.
The chains worn about the neck remain as badges of office in Mayors
and Judges and in various Orders.
The button worn by the members of the Legion of Honour and other
foreign Orders is, I believe, an idea resulting from the cockade,
which, of course, was at the beginning the chaperon in the colours of
the servant's lord.
[Illustration: {A houppelande showing the leg opening}]
When one knows a custom so well, one is apt to leave out many things
in describing it. For example, the houppelande was open from the
bottom of the skirt to the knee in front or at the side, and this
opening was often cut or jagged into shapes; also it was open all the
way up the side of the leg, and from the neck to the breast, and
buttoned over.
I have not remarked on the jester, a member of many households, who
wore an exaggeration of the prevalent costume, to which bells were
attached at all points.
So was much good cloth wasted in vanity, and much excellent time
spent upon superfluities, to the harm of the people; perhaps useful
enough to please the eye, which must have been regaled with all these
men in wonderful colours, strutting peacockwise.
[Illustration: {Simpler clothing, hat and hood, and bags of peasants}]
The poor peasant, who found cloth becoming very dear, cared not one
jot or tittle for the feast of the eye, feeling a certain unreasonable
hunger elsewhere.
And so over the wardrobe of Dandy Richard stepped Henry, backed by the
people.
THE WOMEN
If ever women were led by the nose by the demon of fashion it was at
this time. Not only were their clothes ill-suited to them, but they
abused that crowning glory, their hair.
No doubt a charming woman is always charming, be she dressed by woad
or worth; but to be captivating with your eyebrows plucked out, and
with the hair that grows so prettily low on the back of the neck
shaved away--was it possible? I expect it was.
[Illustration: {Two types of head-dress for women, showing different
views and a detail}]
The days of high hennins was yet to come; the day of simple
hair-dressing was nearly dead, and in the interval were all the arts
of the cunning devoted to the guimpe, the gorgières, the mentonnières,
the voluminous escoffions.
[Illustration: {Two types of head-dress for women, showing different
views and a detail}]
At this time the lady wore her hair long and hanging freely over her
shoulders; her brows were encircled by a chaplet, or chapel of
flowers, real or artificial, or by a crown or plain circlet of gold;
or she tucked all her hair away under a tight caul, a bag of gold net
enriched with precious stones. To dress hair in this manner it was
first necessary to plait it in tight plaits and bind them round the
head, then to cover this with a wimple, which fell over the back of
the neck, and over this to place the caul, or, as it was sometimes
called, the dorelet. Now and again the caul was worn without the
wimple, and this left the back of the neck exposed; from this all the
hair was plucked.
[Illustration: {Three types of head-dress for women}]
For outdoor exercises the lady would wear the chaperon (explained in
the previous chapter), and upon this the peaked hat.
The poorer woman wore always the hood, the wimple tied under the chin,
or plain plaited hair.
One must remember always that the advance of costume only affected the
upper classes in the towns, and that the knight's lady in the country
was often fifty years behind the times in her gowns. As an instance of
this I give the fur tippet hung with bells, used when hawking.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Richard II.}]
In the early part of the reign the cotehardie was the universal
woman's garment. It was made in two ways: the one a simple,
well-fitting garment, skirts and bodice in one, buttoned in front,
with neck well open, the skirts ample and long, the sleeves over the
hands to the first joints of the fingers, and ornamented with buttons
from the elbow to the little finger--this was the general form of the
garment for all degrees of rank. The lady enriched this with a belt
like a man's, narrow in width round the waist with hanging end, or
broad round the hips and richly ornamented. The other form of
cotehardie was exactly as the man's, ending short below the hips,
under which was worn the petticoat.
[Illustration: {Three types of dress for women}]
The winter addition to these was the surcoat (as usually worn by a
knight over his armour); this was often lined with fur. The surcoat
was a long garment without sleeves, and with a split down the sides
from the shoulder to the top of the thigh; through this split was seen
the cotehardie and the hip-belt. The edges were trimmed with fur, and
very frequently ornamental buttons were worn down the front.
Over the shoulders was the cloak, left open in front, and fastened by
means of a cord of rich substance passing through two loops in the
backs of large ornamental studs; this cord was, as a rule, knotted at
the waist, the ends hanging down as tassels.
[Illustration: {Two types of dress for women}]
Later in the reign, when the second Queen of Richard had brought over
many rich fashions, the ladies adopted the houppelande, with its heavy
collar and wide, hanging sleeves. Every lady and most women carried a
purse in the hand or on the girdle, ornamented according to their
station.
The merchant's wife wore, in common with her maids, a white apron. The
child who was spinning a peg-top in the street was simply dressed in a
short-skirted cotehardie.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF RICHARD II. (1377-1399)
Her loose surcoat is cut away to show her under-dress. Her hair is
completely hidden by her jewelled caul.]
For riding and sport the woman was dressed almost exactly as a
man--with houppelande or heavy cloak buttoned on the right
shoulder, hawking-glove on her left hand with a bell or metal ball
depending from it. She wore boots laced up at the side, or long boots
of soft leather fastened with hook and eye; shoes like a man's, but
not so pointed and extreme. Sometimes for riding a big round hat was
worn over a hood.
In many cases the dresses were powdered with the monogram of the
Blessed Virgin, with badges of the family or some small device, or
they were ornamented with a simple flowing pattern, or were plain.
All the fripperies of fashion lay in pins for the wimple, the head
made as a figure of a patron saint; or girdles rich with precious
stones; or mirror-cases on whose ivory fronts were carved the Castle
of Love, or hunting scenes, or Calvary. The clasps of purses were rich
in design, and rings of every kind were worn on every finger and upon
the thumb. Charms against evil were hung about the neck or sewn into
the clothes. No matter who wrote, passed, and practised the many
sumptuary laws, still, one may know it to have been frequent for
persons owning less than £20 a year to wear gold and silver
ornaments, although expressly forbidden, and ladies of a lower estate
than wives of knights-banneret wore cloth of gold and velvet, and
gowns that reached and trailed upon the ground, while their husbands
braved it in ermine and marten-lined sleeves which swept the road.
The custom of wearing crowns was common to all people of rank, as
heraldic distinction of crowns did not commence until the sixteenth
century.
What a magnificent time for colour was this reign!--the rich
houppelandes, the furs, the long-piked shoes with pearls and gold upon
them, the massive chains about men's necks; ladies whose heads shone
with rich caps and cauls of pearl-embroidered gold, the rich-sheathed
baselard stuck in the girdle or hanging from it on a silver chain.
Even the poor begging friar was touched by all this finery, and,
forgetful of the rules of Saint Francis, he made great haste to
convert his alms into a furred cote 'cutted to the knee and quaintly
buttoned, hose in hard weather fastened at the ankle, and buckled
shoes.'
Imagine that amazing woman the Wife of Bath, in her great hat and
pound-weight kerchief; the carpenter's wife in her gored apron, at her
girdle a purse of leather hanging, decorated with silk tassels and
buttons of metal.
It is almost impossible to describe clearly the head-dresses--the
great gold net bags which encased the hair--for they were ornamented
in such different ways, always, or nearly always, following some
pattern in diaper in contrast to the patterns which came later when
the design followed such lines as are formed by wire-netting, while
later still the connecting-thread of the patterns was done away with
and the inside decoration alone remained.
Well, Richard the King no longer can whistle to Matthew, his favourite
greyhound, and Anne the Queen lies stately in the Abbey at Westminster
without solace of her little lap-dog; but we are not all modern in our
ways, and ladies hang charms about them, from scarabs to queer evil
eye coral hands, from silver shoes to month-stones. Crowns of flowers
have been worn and crowns of jewels too, just as men and women wore
them then, except on Fridays and the eves of fêtes.
These things we do, and other ancient things beside, but let us hope
that Fashion has lost her cruel mood, and deems it wise to leave our
ladies' eyebrows where they be, nor schemes to inspire her faithful
devotees with mad desires to hide their hair and shave their napes.
The crinoline is threatened--let it come; sandals are here, with short
hair and the simple life, but leave me, I pray thee, royal dame, an
eyebrow on my lady, if only to give occupation to the love-lorn
sonneteer.
THE END OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY
[Illustration: Chaucer.]
In the last year of the fourteenth century there were still living two
men whose voices have made the century live for us. One of
them--Chaucer--remains to-day the father of English poetry, the
forerunner of Shakespeare; the other--Gower--less known to most of us,
was the author of three long poems--'Speculum Meditantis,' in French;
'Vox Clamantis,' in Latin; 'Confessio Amantis,' in English. Boccaccio
had written his 'Decameron,' and it was this method of writing a
series of poems or stories by means of connecting-links of narrative
that should run through the series, that inspired the form of the
'Confessio Amantis' and the 'Canterbury Tales'; indeed, many stories
in both of these works are retold out of the 'Decameron.'
Gower wrote of his age as a man giving advice, philosophically; he
did not attempt character studies, but framed his poems as narratives
with morals fit for application to his times.
Chaucer drew his characters clearly--so clearly that they have become
as living as have Uncle Toby or Mrs. Gamp--symbolic people, embracing
a type of national character.
A third writer--Langland--pictured his age from the poor man's point
of view, and the three writers, together with the artist of the
Loutrell Psalter, bring the age most vividly to our eyes.
Of course, in these days of hasty work, it seems hardly feasible to
suggest that artists who would illustrate these times should read the
works of these three men, and go to the British Museum to look at the
Psalter; but any writer must do this, and can do this, considering
that the works of the poets are cheap to obtain and the British Museum
is free to all.
Anyone wishing to picture these times will find that Chaucer has
written very carefully of the costume of his Pilgrims. They will find
the pith of the costume in this book of mine; but since no book is
complete in every sense, they should see for themselves how men of
the day drew the costume they saw about them. It will give them a
sense of the spirit of the age which so many modern drawings lack.
I give you Gower's picture of an exquisite; no words of mine could
show so well the manner of the man:
'And therof thenketh he but a lite,
For all his lust is to delite
In newé thingés, proude and veine,
Als ferforth as he may atteine.
I trowe, if that he mighté make
His body newe, he woldé take
A newé form and leve his olde.
For what thing that he may behold
The which to common use is straunge,
Anone his oldé guisé chaunge
He woll, and fallé therupon
Lich unto the camelion,
Whiche upon every sondry hewe
That he beholt he moté newe
His coloun; and thus unavised
Full ofté time he stand desguised.
More jolif than the brid in Maie,
He maketh him ever fressh and gaie
And doth all his array desguise,
So that of him the newé guise
Of lusty folke all other take.'
Now, if I have described the costume of these times clearly--and I
think I have done so--these lines should conjure up a gay fellow, with
his many changes of dress. If the vision fails, then allow me to say
that you are at fault, and have taken no pains with the description.
Because the coloured drawing to the chapter of Richard II. shows a
long houppelande and a chaperon tied in a certain way, you will very
possibly forget that this dandy would have also a short houppelande,
differently jagged sleeves, more ruffle about the twisting of his
chaperon, more curve to the points of his shoes.
You may see the image of Gower for yourself in St. Mary Overies
Church, now called St. Saviour's, on the Southwark side of London
Bridge. He is dressed in his sober black, his head resting upon his
three books.
In 1397 Gower retired from active life, and resigned his Rectory of
Great Braxted, Essex; he was seventy years of age, and at that age he
married Agnes Groundolf in a chapel of his own under the rooms where
he lived in the Priory of St. Mary Overies.
In 1400 his friend Chaucer died and Gower went blind. He died in 1408.
Chaucer, whose eyes saw England in her greatness after the Battle of
Crecy in 1346, and in her pitiful state at the downfall of Richard
II., saw such a pageant of clothes pass before him that, in describing
those wonderful national types, his Canterbury Pilgrims, he marks each
one with some hint of array that we may know what manner of habit was
proper to them. Here, then, is a list of the clothes he pictured them
as wearing:
[Illustration {The knight}]
THE KNIGHT
wears a fustian doublet, all rust-stained by his coat of mail. It is
interesting to note how old-fashioned is the character of this 'verray
parfit gentil knight,' for he belongs more rightly to the chivalrous
time of the first half of Edward III.'s reign rather than to the less
gentle time of Richard.
[Illustration: {The squire}]
THE SQUIRE.
His locks were curled, 'as they were leyed in presse.' His short gown
with wide sleeves was covered with embroidery of red and white
flowers.
THE YEOMAN
is in a coat and hood of green. He has a sheaf of peacock arrows in
his belt; across his shoulder is a green baldrick to carry a horn.
There is a figure of St. Christopher in silver hanging on his breast.
THE PRIORESS
is in a handsome cloak; she wears coral beads gauded with green, and a
brooch of gold--
'On which was first write a-crowned A,
And after, "Amor vincit omnia."'
THE MONK
wears his gown, but has his sleeves trimmed with gray squirrel. To
fasten his hood he has a curious gold pin, wrought at the greater end
with a love-knot.
THE FRIAR
has his cape stuck full of knives and pins 'for to yeven faire wyves.'
THE MERCHANT
is in a motley of colours--parti-coloured. His beard is forked; upon
his head is a Flaunderish beaver hat. His boots are elegantly
clasped.
THE CLERK
wears a threadbare tunic.
[Illustration: {The man of law}]
THE MAN OF LAW
is in a coat of parti-colours, his belt of silk with small metal bars
on it.
THE FRANKELEYN OR COUNTRY GENTLEMAN
has a white silk purse and a two-edged dagger, or akelace, at his
girdle.
'Then come the HABERDASHER, the CARPENTER, the WEAVER, the DYER, and
the TAPESTRY WORKER, all in the livery of their companies. They all
carry pouches, girdles, and knives, mounted in silver.'
THE SHIPMAN
is in a gown of falding (a coarse cloth), reaching to his knees. A
dagger is under his arm, on a lace hanging round his neck.
THE DOCTOR
wears a gown of red and blue (pers was a blue cloth) lined with
taffeta and sendal.
[Illustration: {The wife of Bath}]
THE WIFE OF BATH.
Her wimples of fine linen--
'I dorste swere they weyeden ten pound
That on a Sonday were upon hir heed.'
Her hose was of fine scarlet red; her shoes were moist and new. Her
hat was as broad as a buckler, and she wore a foot-mantle about her
hips.
THE PLOUGHMAN
wears a tabard, a loose smock without sleeves.
THE REVE OR STEWARD
wears a long surcoat of blue cloth (pers).
THE SOMNOUR
(an officer who summoned persons before the ecclesiastical courts)
wears on his head a garland--'as greet as it were for an ale-stake.'
[Illustration: {The pardoner}]
THE PARDONER
has long yellow hair falling about his shoulders; his hood is turned
back, and he wears a tall cap, on which is sewn a Vernicle. This is
the handkerchief of St. Veronica on which there was an impression of
our Lord's face.
This completes the list of Pilgrims, but it will be useful to give a
few more descriptions of dress as described by Chaucer. The
Carpenter's wife in the Miller's Tale is described:
'Fair was this yonge wyf, and ther-with-al
As any wesele hir body gent (slim) and small.
A ceynt (belt) she werede barred al of silk,
A barneclooth (apron) eek as whyt as morne milk
Upon hir lendes (loins), ful of many a gore.
Whyt was hir smok and brouded al before
And eek behinde, on hir coler aboute,
Of col-blak silk, within and eek withoute.
The tapes of his whyte voluper (a cap)
Were of the same suyte--of hir coler;
Hir filet broad of silk, and set ful hye.
* * * * *
And by hir girdel heeng a purs of lether
Tasseld with silk and perked with latoun (a compound
of copper and zinc).
* * * * *
A brooch she bare upon hir lowe coler,
As broad as is the bos of a buckler.
Her shoes were laced on hir legges hye.'
Here also, from the Parson's Tale, is a sermon against the vain
clothing of his time, that will serve to show how you may best paint
this age, and to what excess of imagination you may run. I have
reduced the wording into more modern English:
'As to the first sin, that is in superfluitee of
clothing, which that maketh it so dere, to the harm of
the people; not only the cost of embroidering, the
elaborate endenting or barring, ornamenting with waved
lines, paling, winding, or bending, and semblable waste
of cloth in vanity; but there is also costly furring in
their gowns, so muche pounching of chisels to make
holes, so much dagging of shears; forthwith the
superfluity in the length of the foresaid gowns,
trailing in the dung and the mire, on horse and eek on
foot, as well of man as of woman, that all this trailing
is verily as in effect wasted, consumed, threadbare, and
rotten with dung, rather than it is given to the poor;
to great damage of the aforesaid poor folk.
'Upon the other side, to speak of the horrible
disordinate scantiness of clothing, as be this cutted
sloppes or hainselins (short jackets), that through
their shortness do not cover the shameful members of
man, to wicked intent.'
After this, the good Parson, rising to a magnificent torrent of
wrathful words, makes use of such homely expressions that should move
the hearts of his hearers--words which, in our day, are not seemly to
our artificial and refined palates.
Further, Chaucer remarks upon the devices of love-knots upon clothes,
which he calls 'amorettes'; on trimmed clothes, as being 'apyked'; on
nearly all the fads and fashions of his time.
It is to Chaucer, and such pictures as he presents, that our minds
turn when we think vaguely of the Middle Ages, and it is worth our
careful study, if we wish to appreciate the times to the full, to
read, no matter the hard spelling, the 'Vision of Piers the Plowman,'
by Langland.
I have drawn a few of the Pilgrims, in order to show that they may be
reconstructed by reading the chapters on the fourteenth century.
HENRY THE FOURTH
Reigned fourteen years: 1399-1413.
Born 1366. Married, 1380, Mary de Bohun; 1403, Joan of
Navarre.
THE MEN AND WOMEN
The reign opens sombrely enough--Richard in prison, and twenty-five
suits of cloth of gold left, among other of his butterfly raiment, in
Haverford Castle.
We are still in the age of the houppelande, the time of cut edges,
jagging, big sleeves and trailing gowns. Our fine gentlemen take the
air in the long loose gown, or the short edition of the same with the
skirts cut from it. They have invented, or the tailor has invented, or
necessity has contrived, a new sleeve. It is a bag sleeve, very full
and fine, enormous at the elbow, tight at the wrist, where it may fall
over the hand in a wide cuff with dagged edges, or it may end in a
plain band.
[Illustration: A MAN AND WOMAN OF THE TIME OF HENRY IV. (1399-1413)
Very little change in dress; the man in the loose gown called the
houppelande. The woman also in a houppelande.]
Let us take six gentlemen met together to learn the old
thirteenth-century part-song, the round entitled 'Sumer is icumen in.'
[Illustration: {Two men of the time of Henry IV.}]
The first, maybe, is in the high-collared houppelande with the long
skirts; his sleeves are of a different colour to his gown, and are
fastened to it under cut epaulettes at his shoulders; he wears a
baldrick, hung with bells, over his shoulder; his houppelande is split
on one side to show his parti-coloured hose beyond his knee; his shoes
are long and very pointed; his hair is cut short, and he wears a
twisted roll of stuff round his head.
The second is in the latest mode; he wears the voluminous sleeves
which end in a plain band at his wrist, and these sleeves are of a
different colour to his houppelande, the skirts of which are cut short
at the knee, and then are cut into neat dags. This garment is not so
full as that of the first gentleman, which is gathered in at the waist
by a long-tongued belt, but is buttoned down the front to the waist
and is full in the skirt; also it has no collar. This man wears his
hair long and curled at the nape of his neck.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Henry IV.}]
A third of these gentlemen, a big burly man, is in a very short tunic
with wide sleeves; his tights are of two colours, his left leg red,
his right blue. Over his tunic he wears a quilted waistcoat, the
collar and armholes of which are trimmed with fur.
[Illustration {A man of the time of Henry IV.}]
A fourth wears a loose houppelande, one half of which is blue and the
other half black; it is buttoned from throat to foot; the sleeves
are wide. His hair is long, and his beard is brushed into two points.
[Illustration: {Four men of the time of Henry IV.; five types of hat;
a pouch}]
[Illustration: {Two men of the time of Henry IV.}]
The fifth gentleman wears a houppelande of middle length, with a very
high collar buttoned up the neck, the two top buttons being undone;
the top of the collar rolls over. He has the epaulette, but instead of
showing the very full bag sleeves he shows a little loose sleeve to
the elbow, and a tight sleeve from the elbow to the hand, where it
forms a cuff. He wears a very new-fashioned cap like a stiff
sugar-bag, with the top lopping over.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Henry IV.}]
The sixth and last of this group is wearing an unbound
houppelande--that is, he wears no belt. He wears a plain hood which is
over his head, and a soft, loose, peaked hat.
'Sumer is icumen in,' the six sing out, and the shepherd, who can
hear them from outside, is considering whether he can play the air
upon his pipe. He is dressed in a loose tunic, a hood, and a
wide-brimmed straw hat; his pipe is stuck in his belt.
Let us suppose that the wives of the six gentlemen are seated
listening to the manly voices of their lords.
The first wears a dress of blue, which is laced from the opening to
the waist, where the laces are tied in a neat bow and hang down. Her
dress is cut fairly low; it has tight sleeves which come over her
hands to the knuckles in tight cuffs. There is a wide border, about a
foot and a half, of ermine on the skirt of her dress. She wears a
mantle over her shoulders. Her hair is enclosed in a stiff square caul
of gold wire over cloth of gold.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Henry IV.}]
The second lady is wearing a houppelande with wide, hanging sleeves
all cut at the edge; the cut of this gown is loose, except that it
fits across her shoulders; she also wears a caul, from the back of
which emerges a linen wimple.
The third lady is in surcoat and cotehardie; the surcoat has a
pleated skirt, and the borders of it are edged thickly with fur; it is
cut low enough at the sides to show a belt over the hips. The
cotehardie, of a different colour to the surcoat, has tight sleeves
with buttons from elbow to little finger. This lady has her hair cut
short at the nape of her neck, and bound about the brows with a golden
circlet.
[Illustration: {Three women of the time of Henry IV.}]
A fourth wears a very loose houppelande, encircled about the waist
with a broad belt, the tongue of which hangs down and has an
ornamented end. This houppelande falls in great folds from the neck to
the feet, and is gathered into the neck; it has loose, but not wide,
sleeves, falling just below the elbow. The gown is worn over a
cotehardie, the sleeves of which show through the other sleeves, and
the skirt of which shows when the gown skirt is gathered up.
[Illustration: {Two women of the time of Henry IV.}]
The fifth lady also wears a cotehardie with a skirt to it; she wears
over it a circular mantle, buttoned by three buttons on the right
shoulder, and split from there to the edge on both sides, showing the
dress; the front semicircle of the cloak is held to the waist by a
belt so that the back hangs loose. Her hair is in a caul.
The sixth is in a very plain dress, tight-fitting, buttoned in front,
with full skirts. She wears a white linen hood which shows the shape
of the caul in which her hair is imprisoned.
So is this queer old round sung, 'Sumer is icumen in.'
Afterwards, perhaps one of these ladies, wishing to get some spite
against one of the gentlemen, will ride away in a heavy riding-cloak,
the hood over her head and a peaked hat on that, and she will call
upon a witch. The witch will answer the rapping at her humble door,
and will come out, dressed in a country dress--just an ill-fitting
gown and hood, with some attempt at classical ornament on the gown,
or a cloak sewn with the sacred initials thrown over her back. These
two will bargain awhile for the price of a leaden image to be made in
the likeness of the ill-fated gentleman, or, rather, a rough figure,
on which his name will be scratched; then the puppet will be cast into
the fire and melted while certain evil charms are spoken, and the
malicious accident required to befall him will be spoken aloud for the
Devil's private ear. Possibly some woman sought a witch near Evesham
in the year 1410, and bought certain intentions against a tailor of
that place, Badby by name; for this much is certain: that the tailor
was burnt for Lollardy ten years after the first victim for Lollard
heresy, William Sawtre.
HENRY THE FIFTH
Reigned nine years: 1413-1422.
Born 1388. Married, 1420, Katherine of France.
THE MEN
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Henry V.}]
I think I may call this a transitional period of clothes, for it
contains the ragged ends of the time of Richard II. and the old
clothes of the time of Henry IV., and it contains the germs of a
definite fashion, a marked change which came out of the chrysalis
stage, and showed itself in the prosperous butterflies of the sixth
Henry's time.
We retain the houppelande, its curtailments, its exaggerations, its
high and low collar, its plain or jagged sleeves. We retain the long
hair, which 'busheth pleasauntlie,' and the short hair of the
previous reign. Also we see the new ideas for the priest-cropped hair
and the roundlet hat.
I speak of the men only.
It was as if, in the press of French affairs, man had but time to
ransack his grandfather's and his father's chests, and from thence to
pull out a garment or two at a venture. If the garment was a little
worn in the upper part of the sleeve, he had a slash made there, and
embroidered it round. If the baldrick hung with bells was worn out in
parts, he cut those pieces away and turned the baldrick into a belt.
If the skirts of the houppelande were sadly frayed at the edge, enter
Scissors again to cut them off short; perhaps the sleeves were
good--well, leave them on; perhaps the skirts were good and the
sleeves soiled--well, cut out the sleeves and pop in some of his
father's bag sleeves. Mind you, my honest gentleman had trouble
brewing: no sooner had he left the wars in Normandy and Guienne than
the siege of Harfleur loomed to his vision, and after that
Agincourt--Agincourt, where unarmoured men prevailed over mailed
knights at the odds of six to one; Agincourt, where archers beat the
great knights of France on open ground! Hear them hammer on the
French armour with their steel mallets, while the Frenchmen, weighed
down with their armour, sank knee-deep in the mud--where we lost 100
men, against the French loss of 10,000!
[Illustration: A Belt with Bells.]
See the port of Le Havre, with the English army landed there--Henry in
his full-sleeved gown, his hair cropped close and shaven round his
head from his neck to an inch above his ears, buskins on his feet, for
he wore buskins in preference to long boots or pointed shoes. The
ships in the harbour are painted in gay colours--red, blue, in
stripes, in squares; the sails are sewn with armorial bearings or some
device. Some of our gentlemen are wearing open houppelandes over their
armour; some wear the stuffed turban on their heads, with a jewelled
brooch stuck in it; some wear the sugar-bag cap, which falls to one
side; some are hooded, others wear peaked hats. One hears, 'By
halidom!' I wonder if all the many, many people who have hastily
written historical novels of this age, and have peppered them with 'By
halidoms,' knew that 'By halidom' means 'By the relics of the saints,'
and that an 'harlote' means a man who was a buffoon who told ribald
stories?
[Illustration: The Turban.]
Still, among all these gentlemen, clothed, as it were, second-hand, we
have the fine fellow, the dandy--he to whom dress is a religion, to
whom stuffs are sonnets, cuts are lyrical, and tailors are the poets
of their age. Such a man will have his tunic neatly pleated, rejecting
the chance folds of the easy-fitting houppelande, the folds of which
were determined by the buckling of the belt. His folds will be regular
and precise, his collar will be very stiff, with a rolled top; his
hose will be of two colours, one to each leg, or parti-coloured. His
shoes will match his hose, and be of two colours; his turban hat will
be cocked at a jaunty angle; his sleeves will be of a monstrous length
and width. He will hang a chain about his neck, and load his
fingers with rings. A fellow to him, one of his own kidney, will wear
the skirt of his tunic a little longer, and will cause it to be cut up
the middle; his sleeves will not be pendant, like drooping wings, but
will be swollen like full-blown bagpipes. An inner sleeve, very finely
embroidered, will peep under the upper cuff. His collar is done away
with, but he wears a little hood with cut edges about his neck; his
hair is cropped in the new manner, like a priest's without a tonsure;
his hat is of the queer sugar-bag shape, and it flops in a drowsy
elegance over the stuffed brim. As for his shoes, they are two fingers
long beyond his toes.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF HENRY V. (1413-1422)
Notice the bag cap with a jewel stuck in it.]
We shall see the fashions of the two past reigns hopelessly garbled,
cobbled, and stitched together; a sleeve from one, a skirt from
another. Men-at-arms in short tunics of leather and quilted waistcoats
to wear under their half-armour; beggars in fashions dating from the
eleventh century; a great mass of people in undistinguishable attire,
looking mostly like voluminous cloaks on spindle legs, or mere bundles
of drapery; here and there a sober gentleman in a houppelande of the
simplest kind, with wide skirts reaching to his feet, and the belt
with the long tongue about his middle.
The patterns upon the dresses of these people are heraldry
contortions--heraldic beasts intertwined in screws and twists of
conventional foliage, griffins and black dogs held by floral chains to
architectural branches, martlets and salamanders struggling in
grotesque bushes, or very elaborate geometrical patterned stuffs.
There is a picture of the Middle Ages which was written by Langland in
'Piers the Plowman'--a picture of an alehouse, where Peronelle of
Flanders and Clarice of Cockeslane sit with the hangman of Tyburn and
a dozen others. It is a picture of the fourteenth century, but it
holds good until the time of Henry VIII., when Skelton, his tutor,
describes just such another tavern on the highroad, where some bring
wedding-rings to pay their scot of ale, and
'Some bryngeth her husband's hood
Because the ale is good.'
Both accounts are gems of description, both full of that rich, happy,
Gothic flavour, that sense of impressionist portraiture, of broad
humour, which distinguishes the drawings in the Loutrell Psalter.
[Illustration: The Sugar-bag Cap.]
[Illustration: A Hood.]
I feel now as if I might be accused of being interesting and of
overlaying my history with too much side comment, and I am well aware
that convention demands that such books as this shall be as dull as
possible; then shall the vulgar rejoice, because they have been
trained to believe that dullness and knowledge snore in each other's
arms.
However wholeheartedly you may set about writing a list of clothes
attributable to certain dates, there will crop up spirits of the age,
who blur the edges of the dates, and give a lifelike semblance to them
which carries the facts into the sphere of fiction, and fiction was
ever on the side of truth. No story has ever been invented by man but
it has been beaten out of time by Nature and the police-courts; no
romance has been penned so intricate but fact will supply a more
surprising twist to life. But, whereas facts are of necessity bald
and naked things, fiction, which is the wardrobe of fact, will clothe
truth in more accustomed guise.
I put before you some true facts of the clothes of this time, clothed
in a little coat of facts put fictionally. I write the word 'cloak';
describe to you that such people wore circular cloaks split at one or
both sides, on one side to the neck, on the other below the shoulder;
of semicircular cloaks, of square cloaks, of oblong cloaks, all of
which were worn (I speak of these, and you may cut them out with some
thought); but I wish to do more than that--I wish to give you a gleam
of the spirit in which the cloaks were worn. A cloak will partake of
the very soul and conscience of its owner; become draggle-tailed,
flaunting, effeminate, masterful, pompous, or dignified. Trousers, I
think, of all the garments of men, fail most to show the state of his
soul; they merely proclaim the qualities of his purse. Cloaks give
most the true man, and after that there is much in the cock of a hat
and the conduct of a cane.
In later days one might tell what manner of man had called to find you
away if he chanced to leave his snuff-box behind. This reasoning is
not finicky, but very profound; accept it in the right spirit.
Now, one more picture of the age.
The rich man at home, dressed, as I say, in his father's finery, with
some vague additions of his own, has acquired a sense of luxury. He
prefers to dine alone, in a room with a chimney and a fire in it. He
can see through a window in the wall by his side into the hall, where
his more patriarchal forebears loved to take their meals. The soiled
rushes are being swept away, and fresh herbs and rushes strewn in
their place; on these mattresses will in their turn be placed, on
which his household presently will lay them down to sleep.
THE WOMEN
Every time I write the heading 'The Women' to such chapters as these,
I feel that such threadbare cloak of chivalry as I may pin about my
shoulders is in danger of slipping off.
Should I write 'The Ladies'? But although all ladies are women, not
all women are ladies, and as it is far finer to be a sweet woman than
a great dame, I will adhere to my original heading, 'The Women.'
However, in the remote ages of which I now write, the ladies were
dressed and the women wore clothes, which is a subtle distinction. I
dare not bring my reasoning up to the present day.
As I said in my last chapter, this was an age of medley--of this and
that wardrobe flung open, and old fashions renovated or carried on.
Fashion, that elusive goddess, changes her moods and modes with such a
quiet swiftness that she leaves us breathless and far behind, with a
bundle of silks and velvets in our arms.
How is a fashion born? Who mothers it? Who nurses it to fame, and in
whose arms does it die? High collar, low collar, short hair, long
hair, boot, buskin, shoe--who wore you first? Who last condemned you
to the World's Great Rag Market of Forgotten Fads?
Now this, I have said, was a transitional age, but I cannot begin to
say who was the first great dame to crown her head with horns, and who
the last to forsake the jewelled caul. It is only on rare occasions
that the decisive step can be traced to any one person or group of
persons: Charles II. and his frock-coat, Brummell and his starched
stock, are finger-posts on Fashion's highroad, but they are not quite
true guides. Charles was recommended to the coat, and I think the mist
of soap and warm water that enshrines Brummell as the Apostle of
Cleanliness blurs also the mirror of truth. It does not much matter.
No doubt--and here there will be readers the first to correct me and
the last to see my point--there are persons living full of curious
knowledge who, diving yet more deeply into the dusty crevices of
history, could point a finger at the man who first cut his hair in the
early fifteenth-century manner, and could write you the name and the
dignities of the lady who first crowned her fair head with horns.
For myself, I begin with certainty at Adam and the fig-leaf, and after
that I plunge into the world's wardrobe in hopes.
Certain it is that in this reign the close caul grew out of all decent
proportions, and swelled into every form of excrescence and
protuberance, until in the reign of Henry VI. it towered above the
heads of the ladies, and dwarfed the stature of the men.
This curious head-gear, the caul, after a modest appearance, as a mere
close, gold-work cap, in the time of Edward III., grew into a stiffer
affair in the time of Richard II., but still was little more than a
stiff sponge-bag of gold wire and stuff and a little padding; grew
still more in the time of Henry IV., and took squarer shapes and
stiffer padding; and in the reign of Henry V. it became like a great
orange, with a hole cut in it for the face--an orange which covered
the ears, was cut straight across the forehead, and bound all round
with a stiff jewelled band.
Then came the idea of the horn. Whether some superstitious lady
thought that the wearing of horns would keep away the evil eye, or
whether it was a mere frivol of some vain Duchess, I do not know.
As this fashion came most vividly into prominence in the following
reign, I shall leave a more detailed description of it until that
time, letting myself give but a short notice of its more simple forms.
We see the caul grow from its circular shape into two box forms on
either side of the head; the uppermost points of the boxes are
arranged in horns, whose points are of any length from 4 to 14 inches.
The top of this head-dress is covered with a wimple, which is
sometimes stiffened with wires.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF HENRY V. (1413-1422)
Her surcoat is stiffened in front with fur and shaped with a band of
metal. Her belt is low on the hips of the under-dress. The horns on
her head carry the large linen wimple.]
There is also a shape something like a fez or a flower-pot, over which
a heavy wimple is hung, attached to this shape; outside the wimple are
two horns of silk, linen, or stuff--that is, silk bags stuffed to the
likeness of horns.
I should say that a true picture of this time would give but few of
these very elaborate horn head-dresses, and the mass of women would be
wearing the round caul.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Henry V.}]
The surcoat over the cotehardie is the general wear, but it has more
fit about it than formerly; the form of the waist and bust are
accentuated by means of a band of heavy gold embroidery, shaped to the
figure. The edges of the surcoat are furred somewhat heavily, and the
skirt often has a deep border of fur. Sometimes a band of metal
ornament runs across the top of the breast and down the centre of the
surcoat, coming below the fur edging. The belt over the hips of the
cotehardie holds the purse, and often a ballade or a rondel.
You will see a few of the old houppelandes, with their varieties of
sleeve, and in particular that long, loose double sleeve, or, rather,
the very long under-sleeve, falling over the hand. This under-sleeve
is part of the houppelande.
All the dresses have trains, very full trains, which sweep the ground,
and those readers who wish to make such garments must remember to be
very generous over the material.
The women commonly wear the semicircular mantle, which they fasten
across them by cords running through ornamental brooches.
They wear very rich metal and enamel belts round their hips, the exact
ornamentation of which cannot be described here; but it was the
ornament of the age, which can easily be discovered.
In the country, of course, simpler garments prevail, and plain
surcoats and cotehardies are wrapped in cloaks and mantles of homespun
material. The hood has not fallen out of use for women, and the peaked
hat surmounts it for riding or rough weather. Ladies wear wooden clogs
or sandals besides their shoes, and they have not yet taken to the
horns upon their heads; some few of them, the great dames of the
counties whose lords have been to London on King's business, or
returned from France with new ideas, have donned the elaborate
business of head-boxes and wires and great wimples.
As one of the ladies rides in the country lanes, she may pass that
Augustine convent where Dame Petronilla is spiritual Mother to so
many, and may see her in Agincourt year keeping her pig-tally with
Nicholas Swon, the swineherd. They may see some of the labourers she
hires dressed in the blood-red cloth she has given them, for the
dyeing of which she paid 7s. 8d. for 27 ells. The good dame's nuns are
very neat; they have an allowance of 6s. 8d. a year for dress.
This is in 1415. No doubt next year my lady, riding through the lanes,
will meet some sturdy beggar, who will whine for alms, pleading that
he is an old soldier lately from the field of Agincourt.
NOTE
As there is so little real change, for drawings of women's dress see
the numerous drawings in previous chapter.
HENRY THE SIXTH
Reigned thirty-nine years: 1422-1461.
Born 1421. Dethroned 1461. Died 1471. Married, 1446,
Margaret of Anjou.
THE MEN
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Henry VI.; two types of sleeve}]
What a reign! Was history ever better dressed?
I never waver between the cardboard figures of the great Elizabethan
time and this reign as a monument to lavish display, but if any time
should beat this for quaintness, colour, and variety, it is the time
of Henry VIII.
Look at the scenes and characters to be dressed: John, Duke of
Bedford, the Protector, Joan of Arc, Jack Cade, a hundred other
people; Crevant, Verneuil, Orleans, London Bridge, Ludlow, St.
Albans, and a hundred other historical backgrounds.
Yet, in spite of all this, in spite of the fact that Joan of Arc is
one of the world's personalities, it is difficult to pick our people
out of the tapestries.
Now, you may have noticed that in trying to recreate a period in your
mind certain things immediately swing into your vision: it is
difficult to think of the Conquest without the Bayeux tapestry; it is
difficult to think of the dawn of the sixteenth century without the
dreamy, romantic landscapes which back the figures of Giorgione; and
it is not easy to think of these people of the Henry VI. period
without placing them against conventional tapestry trees, yellow-white
castles with red, pepper-pot roofs, grass luxuriant with needlework
flowers, and all the other accessories of the art.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Henry VI.}]
The early times are easily imagined in rough surroundings or in open
air; knights in armour ride quite comfortably down modern English
lanes. Alfred may burn his cakes realistically, and Canute rebuke his
courtiers on the beach--these one may see in the round. Elizabeth
rides to Tilbury, Charles II. casts his horoscope, and George rings
the bell, each in their proper atmosphere, but the Dark Ages are dark,
not only in modes of thought, but in being ages of grotesque, of
ornamentation, of anything but realism.
One has, I think, a conventional mind's eye for the times from Edward
I. to Richard III., from 1272 to 1485, and it is really more easy for
a Chinaman to call up a vision of 604 A.D., when Laot-sen, the Chinese
philosopher, was born. Laot-sen, the child-old man, he who was born
with white hair, lived till he was eighty-one, and, having had five
million followers, went up to heaven on a black buffalo. In China
things have changed very little: the costume is much the same, the
customs are the same, the attitude towards life has not changed. But
here the semicivilized, superstitious, rather dirty, fourteenth and
fifteenth century person has gone. Scratch a Russian, they say, and
you will see a Tartar; do the same office by an Englishman, and you
may find a hint of the Renaissance under his skin, but no more. The
Middle Ages are dead and dust.
We will proceed with that congenial paradox which states that the seat
of learning lies in the head, and so discuss the most distinctive
costumery of this time, the roundlet.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Henry VI.; two types of
head-gear}]
Now, the roundlet is one of those things which delight the
clothes-hunter or the costume expert. It is the natural result of a
long series of fashions for the head, and its pedigree is free from
any impediment or hindrance; it is the great-grandson of the hood,
which is derived from a fold in a cloak, which is the beginning of all
things.
I am about to run the risk of displeasure in repeating to some extent
what I have already written about the chaperon, the hood, and the
other ancestors and descendants of the roundlet.
A fashion is born, not made. Necessity is the mother of Art, and Art
is the father of Invention. A man must cover his head, and if he has a
cloak, it is an easy thing in rain or sunshine to pull the folds of
the cloak over his head. An ingenious fellow in the East has an idea:
he takes his 8 feet--or more--of material; he folds it in half, and
at about a foot and a half, or some such convenient length, he puts
several neat and strong stitches joining one point of the folded
material. When he wraps this garment about him, leaving the sewn point
in the centre of his neck at the back, he finds that he has directed
the folds of his coat in such a manner as to form a hood, which he may
place on or off his head more conveniently than the plain unsewn
length of stuff. The morning sun rises on the sands of Sahara and
lights upon the first burnoose. By a simple process in tailoring, some
man, who did not care that the peak of his hood should be attached to
his cloak, cut his cloth so that the cloak had a hood, the peak of
which was separate and so looser, and yet more easy to pull on or off.
Now comes a man who was taken by the shape of the hood, but did not
require to wear a cloak, so he cut his cloth in such a way that he had
a hood and shoulder-cape only. From this to the man who closed the
front of the hood from the neck to the edge of the cape is but a quick
and quiet step. By now necessity was satisfied and had given birth to
art. Man, having admired his face in the still waters of a pool,
seeing how the oval framed in the hood vastly became him, sought
to tickle his vanity and win the approbation of the other sex, so,
taking some shears, cut the edge of his cape in scallops and leaves. A
more dandified fellow, distressed at the success of his brother's
plumage, caused the peak of his hood to be made long.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF HENRY VI. (1422-1461)
His hair is cropped over his ears and has a thick fringe on his
forehead. Upon the ground is his roundlet, a hat derived from the
twisted chaperon of Richard II.'s day. This hat is worn to-day, in
miniature, on the shoulder of the Garter robes.]
Need one say more? The long peak grew and grew into the preposterous
liripipe which hung down the back from the head to the feet. The dandy
spirit of another age, seeing that the liripipe can grow no more, and
that the shape of the hood is common and not in the true dandiacal
spirit, whips off his hood, and, placing the top of his head where his
face was, he twists the liripipe about his head, imprisons part of the
cape, and, after a fixing twist, slips the liripipe through part of
its twined self and lets the end hang down on one side of his face,
while the jagged end of the hood rises or falls like a cockscomb on
the other. Cockscomb! there's food for discussion in that--fops,
beaux, dandies, coxcombs--surely.
I shall not go into the matter of the hood with two peaks, which was
not, I take it, a true child of fashion in the direct line, but a mere
cousin--a junior branch at that.
As to the dates on this family tree, the vague, mysterious beginnings
B.C.--goodness knows when--in a general way the Fall, the Flood, and
the First Crusade, until the time of the First Edward; the end of the
thirteenth century, when the liripipe budded, the time of the Second
Edward; the first third of the fourteenth century, when the liripipe
was in full flower, the time of the Third Edward; the middle of the
fourteenth century, when the liripipe as a liripipe was dying, the
time of the Second Richard; the end of the century, when the chaperon
became the twisted cockscomb turban. Then, after that, until the
twenty-second year of the fifteenth century, when the roundlet was
born--those are the dates.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Henry VI.}]
We have arrived by now, quite naturally, at the roundlet. I left you
interested at the last phase of the hood, the chaperon so called,
twisted up in a fantastical shape on man's head. You must see that the
mere process of tying and retying, twisting, coiling and arranging,
was tedious in the extreme, especially in stirring times with the
trumpets sounding in England and France. Now what more likely for the
artist of the tied hood than to puzzle his brains in order to reach a
means by which he could get at the effect without so much labour!
Enter invention--enter invention and exit art. With invention, the
made-up chaperon sewn so as to look as if it had been tied. There was
the twist round the head, the cockscomb, the hanging piece of
liripipe. Again this was to be simplified: the twist made into a
smooth roll, the skull to be covered by an ordinary cap attached to
the roll, the cockscomb converted into a plain piece of cloth or silk,
the liripipe to become broader. And the end of this, a little round
hat with a heavily-rolled and stuffed brim, pleated drapery hanging
over one side and streamer of broad stuff over the other; just such a
hat did these people wear, on their heads or slung over their
shoulder, being held in the left hand by means of the streamer. There
the honourable family of hood came to a green old age, and was, at the
end of the fifteenth century, allowed to retire from the world of
fashion, and was given a pension and a home, in which home you may
still see it--on the shoulders of the Garter robe. Also it has two
more places of honourable distinction--the roundlet is on the Garter
robe; the chaperon, with the cut edge, rests as a cockade in the hats
of liveried servants, and the minutest member of the family remains in
the foreign buttons of honourable Orders.
[Illustration: {Six types of head-gear}]
We have the roundlet, then, for principal head-gear in this reign, but
we must not forget that the hood is not dead; it is out of the strict
realms of fashion, but it is now a practical country garment, or is
used for riding in towns. There are also other forms of
head-wear--tall, conical hats with tall brims of fur, some brims cut
or scooped out in places; again, the hood may have a furred edge
showing round the face opening; then we see a cap which fits the head,
has a long, loose back falling over the neck, and over this is worn a
roll or hoop of twisted stuff. Then there is the sugar-loaf hat, like
a circus clown's, and there is a broad, flat-brimmed hat with a round
top, like Noah's hat in the popular representations of the Ark.
[Illustration: {Two men of the time of Henry VI.}]
Besides these, we have the jester's three-peaked hood and one-peaked
hood, the cape of which came, divided into points, to the knees, and
had arms with bell sleeves.
Let us see what manner of man we have under such hats: almost without
exception among the gentlemen we have the priestly hair--that queer,
shaved, tonsure-like cut, but without the circular piece cut away from
the crown of the head.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Henry VI.}]
The cut of the tunic in the body has little variation; it may be
longer or shorter, an inch above or an inch below the knee, but it is
on one main principle. It is a loose tunic with a wide neck open in
front about a couple or three inches; the skirt is full, and may be
cut up on one or both sides; it may be edged with fur or some stuff
different to the body of the garment, or it may be jagged, either in
regular small scoops or in long fringe-like jags. The tunic is always
belted very low, giving an odd appearance to the men of this time, as
it made them look very short in the leg.
The great desire for variety is displayed in the forms of sleeve for
this tunic: you may have the ordinary balloon sleeve ending in a stuff
roll or fur edge for cuff, or you may have a half-sleeve, very wide
indeed, like shoulder-capes, and terminated in the same manner as the
bottom of the tunics--that is, fur-edged tunic, fur-edged sleeve, and
so on, as described; under this shows the tight sleeve of an
undergarment, the collar of which shows above the tunic collar at the
neck. The length of these shoulder-cape sleeves varies according to
the owner's taste, from small epaulettes to heavy capes below the
elbow. There is also a sleeve tight from wrist to below the elbow, and
at that point very big and wide, tapering gradually to the shoulder.
You will still see one or two high collars rolled over, and there is a
distinct continuance of the fashion for long-pointed shoes.
There is an almost new form of overcoat which is really a tunic of the
time, unbelted, and with the sleeves cut out; also one with short, but
very full, sleeves, the body very loose; and besides the ordinary
forms of square, oblong, and round cloak, there is a circular cloak
split up the right side to the base of the biceps, with a round hole
in the centre, edged with fur, for the passage of the head.
[Illustration: {Two men of the time of Henry VI.}]
Velvet was in common use for gowns, tunics, and even for bed-clothes,
in the place of blankets. It was made in all kinds of beautiful
designs, diapered, and raised over a ground of gold or silk, or
double-piled, one pile on another of the same colour making the
pattern known by the relief.
The massed effect of well-dressed crowds must have been fine and rich
in colour--here and there a very rich lady or a magnificent gentleman
in pall (the beautiful gold or crimson web, known also as bandekin),
the velvets, the silks of marvellous colours, and none too fresh or
new. I think that such a gathering differed most strongly from a
gathering of to-day by the fact that one is impressed to-day with the
new, almost tinny newness, of the people's clothes, and that these
other people were not so extravagant in the number of their dresses
as in the quality, so that then one would have seen many old and
beautifully-faded velvets and sun-licked silks and rain-improved
cloths.
Among all this crowd would pass, in a plain tunic and short shoes,
Henry, the ascetic King.
THE WOMEN
[Illustration: {Six types of head-dress for women}]
One is almost disappointed to find nothing upon the curious subject of
horns in 'Sartor Resartus.' Such a flaunting, Jovian spirit, and
poetry of abuse as might have been expected from the illustrious and
iconoclastic author would have suited me, at this present date, most
admirably.
I feel the need of a few thundering German words, or a brass band at
the end of my pen, or purple ink in my inkwell, or some fantastic and
wholly arresting piece of sensationalism by which to convey to you
that you have now stepped into the same world as the Duchess out of
'Alice in Wonderland.'
[Illustration: {A head-dress for a woman}]
Look out of your window and see upon the flower-enamelled turf a
hundred bundles of vanity taking the air. The heads of these ladies
are carried very erect, as are all heads bearing weights. The waists
of these ladies are apparently under their bosoms; their feet seem to
be an ell long. An assembly hour is, after the manner of Lydgate's
poem, a dream of delicious faces surmounted by minarets, towers,
horns, excrescences of every shape--enormous, fat, heart-shaped
erections, covered with rich, falling drapery, or snow-white linen, or
gold tissue; gold-wire boxes sewn with pearls and blazing with
colours; round, flat-topped caps, from under which girls' hair escapes
in a river of colour; crown shapes, circular shapes, mitre shapes,
turbans, and shovel-shaped linen erections, wired into place.
Oh, my lady, my lady! how did you ever hear the soft speeches of
gallantry? How did the gentle whispers of love ever penetrate those
bosses of millinery?
[Illustration: {Two types of head-dress for women}]
And the moralists, among whom Heaven forbid that I should be found,
painted lurid pictures for you of hell and purgatory, in which such
head-dresses turned into instruments of torture; you lifted your
long-fingered, medieval hand and shook the finger with the toad-stone
upon it, as if to dispel the poison of their words.
I think it is beyond me to describe in understandable terms the proper
contortions of your towered heads, for I have little use for archaic
words, for crespine, henk, and jacque, for herygouds with honginde
sleeves, for all the blank cartridges of antiquarianism. I cannot
convey the triple-curved crown, the ear buttress, the magnet-shaped
roll in adequate language, but I can draw them for you.
[Illustration: {Two women of the time of Henry VI.}]
I will attempt the most popular of the roll head-dresses and the
simpler of the stiff-wired box. Take a roll, stuffed with hemp or tow,
of some rich material and twist it into the form of a heart in front
and a V shape behind, where join the ends, or, better, make a circle
or hoop of your rolled stuff and bend it in this way. Then make a cap
that will fit the head and come over the ears, and make it so that
this cap shall join the heart-shaped roll at all points and cause it
to appear without any open spaces between the head and the roll; the
point of the heart in front will be round, and will come over the
centre of the face. By joining cap and roll you will have one complete
affair; over this you may brooch a linen wimple or a fine piece of
jagged silk. In fact, you may twist your circle of stuff in any
manner, providing you keep a vague U shape in front and completely
cover the hair behind.
For the box pattern it is necessary to make a box, let us say of
octagonal shape, flat before and behind, or slightly curved; cut away
the side under the face, or leave but a thin strip of it to go under
the chin. Now stuff your box on either side of the face and cut away
the central square, except for 3 inches at the top, on the forehead;
here, in this cut-away piece, the face shows. You will have made your
box of buckram and stuffed the wings of it with tow; now you must fit
your box to a head and sew linen between the sides of the head and the
tow to hold it firm and make it good to wear. You have now finished
the rough shape, and you must ornament it. Take a piece of thin gold
web and cover your box, then get some gold braid and make a diaper or
criss-cross pattern all over the box, leaving fair sized lozenges; in
these put, at regular intervals as a plain check, small squares of
crimson silk so that they fit across the lozenge and so make a double
pattern. Now take some gold wire or brass wire and knot it at neat
intervals, and then stitch it on to the edges of the gold braid, after
which pearl beads may be arranged on the crimson squares and at the
cross of the braid; then you will have your box-patterned head-dress
complete.
It remains for you to enlarge upon this, if you wish, in the following
manner: take a stiff piece of wire and curve it into the segment of a
circle, so that you may bend the horns as much or as little as you
will, fasten the centre of this to the band across the forehead, or on
to the side-boxes, and over it place a large wimple with the front
edge cut. Again, for further enhancement of this delectable piece of
goods, you may fix a low gold crown above all--a crown of an
elliptical shape--and there you will have as much magnificence as ever
graced lady of the fifteenth century.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF HENRY VI. (1422-1461)
Her head-dress is very high, and over it is a coloured and jagged
silk wimple, a new innovation, being a change from the centuries of
white linen wimples. Her waist is high, after a long period of low
waists.]
September 28, 1443, Margaret Paston writes to her husband in London
'I would ye were at home, if it were your ease, and your
sore might be as well looked to here as it is where ye
be now, liefer than a gown though it were of scarlet.'
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Henry VI.}]
My dear diplomatist, I have forgotten if you got both your husband and
the gown, or the gown only, but it was a sweetly pretty letter, and
worded in such a way as must have caused your good knight to smile,
despite his sore. And what had you in your mind's eye when you wrote
'liefer than a gown though it were of scarlet'? It was one of those
new gowns with the high waist and the bodice opening very low, the
collar quite over your shoulders, and the thick fur edge on your
shoulders and tapering into a point at your bosom. You wanted sleeves
like wings, and a fur edge to the bottom of the gown, besides the fur
upon the edges of the sleeves--those quaint sleeves, thin to your
elbows, and then great and wide, like a foresail. I suppose you had
an under-gown of some wonderful diapered silk which you thought would
go well with scarlet, because, as you knew, the under-gown would show
at your neck, and its long train would trail behind you, and its skirt
would fall about your feet and show very bravely when you bunched up
the short upper gown--all the mode--and so you hinted at scarlet.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Henry VI.}]
Now I come to think of it, the sleeve must have been hard to arrive
at, the fashions were so many. To have had them tight would have
minimized the use of your undergarment; to have had them of the same
width from elbow to wrist would not have given you the newest of the
new ideas to show in Norfolk; then, for some reason, you rejected the
bag sleeve, which was also in the fashion.
No doubt you had a cotehardie with well-fitting sleeves and good full
skirts, and a surcoat with a wide fur edge, or perhaps, in the latest
fashion of these garments, with an entire fur bodice to it. You may
have had also one of those rather ugly little jackets, very full, with
very full sleeves which came tight at the wrist, long-waisted, with a
little skirt an inch or so below the belt. A mantle, with cords to
keep it on, I know you had. Possibly--I have just thought of it--the
sleeves of your under-gown, the tight sleeves, were laced together
from elbow to wrist, in place of the old-fashioned buttons.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Henry VI.}]
I wonder if you ever saw the great metal-worker, William Austin, one
of the first among English artists to leave a great name behind him--I
mean the Austin who modelled the effigy of Earl Richard Beauchamp, at
Warwick.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Henry VI.}]
You must have heard the leper use his rattle to warn you of his
proximity. You, too, may have thought that Joan of Arc was a sorceress
and Friar Bungay a magician. You may have--I have not your wonderful
letter here for reference--heard all about Eleanor of Cobham, and how
she did penance in a shift in the London streets for magic against the
King's person.
Some ladies, I notice, wore the long-tongued belt--buckled it in
front, and then pushed it round until the buckle came into the centre
of the back and the tongue hung down like a tail; but these ladies
were not wearing the high-waisted gown, but a gown with a normal
waist, and with no train, but a skirt of even fulness and of the same
length all the way round.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Henry VI.}]
There were striped stuffs, piled velvet, rich-patterned silks, and
homespun cloths and wool to choose from. Long-peaked shoes, of course,
and wooden clogs out of doors.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Henry VI.}]
The town and country maids, the merchants' wives, and the poor
generally, each and all according to purse and pride, dressed in
humbler imitation of the cut of the clothes of the high-born, in quite
simple dresses, with purse, girdle, and apron, with heads in hoods, or
twisted wimples of coarse linen.
Well, there you lie, ladies, on the tops of cold tombs, stiff and
sedate, your hands uplifted in prayer, your noses as often as not
knocked off by later-day schoolboys, crop-headed Puritans, or Henry
VIII.'s sacrilegious hirelings. Lie still in your huge head-dresses
and your neat-folded gowns--a moral, in marble or bronze, of the pomps
and vanities of this wicked world.
EDWARD THE FOURTH
Reigned twenty-two years: 1461-1483.
Born 1441. Married, 1464, Elizabeth Woodville.
THE MEN
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Edward IV.}]
I invite you to call up this reign by a picture of Caxton's shop: you
may imagine yourself in the almonry at Westminster, where, in a small
enclosure by the west front of the church, there is a chapel and some
almshouses. You will be able to see the rich come to look at Mr.
Caxton's wares and the poor slinking in to receive alms.
'If it please any man, spiritual or temporal, to buy any
pyes of two or three commemorations of Salisbury use
emprynted after the form of this present letter, which
be well and truly correct, let him come to Westminster
into the Almonry at the red pale, and he shall have them
good cheap.'
This was Caxton's advertisement.
As you watch the people going and coming about the small enclosure,
you will notice that the tonsured hair has gone out of fashion, and
that whereas the merchants, citizens, and such people wear the
roundlet hat, the nobles and fine gentlemen are in black velvet caps,
or tall hats with long-peaked brims, or in round high hats with fur
brim close to the crown of the hat, or in caps with little rolled
brims with a button at the top, over which two laces pass from back to
front, and from under the brim there falls the last sign, the dying
gasp of the liripipe, now jagged and now with tasselled ends.
We have arrived at the generally accepted vague idea of 'medieval
costume,' which means really a hazy notion of the dress of this date:
a steeple head-dress for ladies, a short waist, and a train; a tall,
sugar-loaf hat with a flat top for the men, long hair, very short and
very long tunics, long-pointed shoes, and wide sleeves--this, I think,
is the amateur's idea of 'costume in the Middle Ages.'
You will notice that all, or nearly all, the passers-by Caxton's have
long hair; that the dandies have extra-long hair brushed out in a
cloud at the back; that the older men wear long, very simple gowns,
which they belt in at the waist with a stuff or leather belt, on which
is hung a bag-purse; that these plain gowns are laced across the front
to the waist over a vest of some coloured stuff other than the gown.
[Illustration: {Two men of the time of Edward IV.}]
You will see that the poor are in very simple tunics--just a loose,
stuff shirt with sleeves about 8 inches wide, and with the skirts
reaching to the knees, a belt about their middle--rough, shapeless
leather shoes, and woollen tights.
You will remember in the early part of the reign, before the heraldic
shield with the red pale, Caxton's sign, caught your eye, that the
fashionable wore very wide sleeves, great swollen bags fitting only at
shoulder and wrist, and you may recall the fact that a tailor was
fined twenty shillings in 1463 for making such wide sleeves.
Poulaines, the very long shoes, are now forbidden, except that an
esquire and anyone over that rank might wear them 2 inches beyond the
toes; but I think the dandies wore the shoes and paid the fine if
it were enforced.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF EDWARD IV. (1461-1483)
Notice the jagged ribbon falling from the brim of his hat; this is
the last of the liripipe.]
See Caxton, in a sober-coloured gown, long, and laced in the front,
showing a plain vest under the lacing, talking to some of his great
customers. The Duchess of Somerset has just lent him 'Blanchardine and
Eglantine'; Earl Rivers, the Queen's brother, talks over his own
translation of 'The Sayings of the Philosophers'; and Caxton is
extolling that worshipful man Geoffrey Chaucer, and singing praises in
reverence 'for that noble poet and great clerke, Vergyl.'
Edward himself has been to the shop and has consented to become patron
of an edition of Tully--Edward, with his very subtle face, his tall,
handsome appearance, his cold, elegant manners. He is dressed in a
velvet gown edged with fur; the neck of the gown is low, and the silk
vest shows above it. Across his chest are gold laces tapering to his
waist; these are straight across the front of his gown-opening. His
hair is straight, and falls to the nape of his neck; he wears a black
velvet cap upon his head. The skirts of his gown reach to his knees,
and are fur-edged; his sleeves are full at the elbows and tight over
his wrists; he is wearing red Spanish leather tall boots, turned
over at the top.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Edward IV.; lacing on a cut
sleeve}]
As he stands talking to Caxton, one or two gentlemen, who have also
dismounted, stand about him. Three of them are in the height of the
fashion. The first wears a velvet tunic, with fur edges. The tunic is
pleated before and behind, and is full and slightly pursed in front;
the sleeves are long, and are cut from shoulder to wrist, where they
are sewn together again; cuff and border of the cut or opening are
both edged with fur. The neck is high, but there is no collar. The
length of the tunic is quite short; it comes well above the knees. His
under-sleeves are full, and are of rich silk; his shoes are certainly
over the allowed length; his tights are well cut. His peaked hat has
gold bands round the crown.
The second gentleman is also in a very short tunic, with very wide
sleeves; this tunic is pleated into large even folds, and has a belt
of its own material. His hair is long, and bushed behind; his tights
are in two colours, and he wears an eighteen-penny pair of black
leather slops or shoes. His hat is black, tall, but without a peak; a
long feather is brooched into one side of it.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Edward IV.; three types of boot}]
The third man is wearing a low black cap, with a little close brim; a
jagged piece of stuff, about 3 feet long, hangs from under the brim of
his hat. He is wearing long, straight hair. This man is wearing a
little short tunic, which is loose at the waist, and comes but an inch
or two below it; the sleeves are very loose and wide, and are not
fastened at the wrist; the tunic has a little collar. The shortness of
his tunic shows the whole of his tights, and also the ribbon-fastened
cod-piece in front. His shoes are split at the sides, and come into a
peak before and behind.
Now, our gentlemen of this time, having cut open their baggy sleeves,
and made them to hang down and expose all the under-sleeve, must now
needs lace them up again very loosely. Then, by way of change, the
tight sleeve was split at the elbow to show a white shirt. Then came
the broad shoulders, when the sleeves were swelled out at the top to
give an air of great breadth to the shoulders and a more elegant taper
to the waist. Some men had patterns sewn on one leg of their tights.
The gown, or whatever top garment was being worn, was sometimes cut
into a low, V shape behind at the neck to show the undergarment, above
which showed a piece of white shirt.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Edward IV.}]
A long gown, in shape like a monk's habit, wide sleeves, the same
width all the way down, a loose neck--a garment indeed to put on over
the head, to slip on for comfort and warmth--was quite a marked
fashion in the streets--as marked as the little tunic.
[Illustration: {Twelve types of head-gear for men}]
If you are remembering Caxton's shop and a crowd of gentlemen, notice
one in a big fur hat, which comes over his eyes; and see also a man
who has wound a strip of cloth about his neck and over his head, then,
letting one end hang down, has clapped his round, steeple-crowned hat
over it.
You will see high collars, low collars, and absence of collar, long
gown open to the waist, long gown without opening, short-skirted
tunic, tunic without any skirt, long, short, and medium shoes, and, at
the end of the reign, one or two broad-toed shoes. Many of these men
would be carrying sticks; most of them would have their fingers
covered with rings.
Among the group of gentlemen about Edward some merchants have pressed
closer to see the King, and a girl or two has stolen into the front
row. The King, turning to make a laughing remark to one of his
courtiers, will see a roguish, pretty face behind him--the face of a
merchant's wife; he will smile at her in a meaning way.
THE WOMEN
[Illustration: {A head-dress for a woman}]
France, at this date, shows us a sartorial Savonarola, by name Thomas
Conecte, a preaching friar, who held an Anti-Hennin Crusade, which
ended in a bonfire of these steeple head-dresses. The flames of these
peculiar hats lit up the inspired devotees, and showed their heads
wrapped in plain linen wimples or some little unaffected caps. But the
ashes were hardly cold before the gray light of the next day showed
the figure of the dreaded preacher small upon the horizon, and lit
upon the sewing-maids as they sat making fresh steeples for the
adornment of their ladies' heads.
Joan of Arc is dead, and another very different apparition of
womankind looms out of the mists of history. Whilst Joan of Arc is
hymned and numbered among the happy company of saints triumphant, Jane
Shore is roared in drinking-songs and ballads of a disreputable order,
and is held up as an awful example. She has for years been represented
upon the boards of West End and Surrey-side theatres--in her prime as
the mistress of Edward IV., in her penance before the church door, and
in her poverty and starvation, hounded from house to house in a
Christian country where bread was denied to her. I myself have seen
her through the person of a stout, melancholy, and h-less lady, who,
dressed in a sort of burlesque fish-wife costume, has lain dying on
the prompt-side of the stage, in a whirl of paper snow, while, to the
edification of the twopenny gallery, she has bewailed her evil life,
and has been allowed, by a munificent management, to die in the arms
of white-clad angels. There is a gleam of truth in the representation,
and you may see the real Jane Shore in a high steeple head-dress, with
a thin veil thrown over it, with a frontlet or little loop of black
velvet over her forehead; in a high-waisted dress, open in a V shape
from shoulder to waist, the opening laced over the square-cut
under-gown, the upper gown having a collar of fur or silk, a long
train, broad cuffs, perhaps 7 inches long from the base of her
fingers, with a broad, coloured band about her waist, a broader
trimming of the same colour round the hem of her shirt, and in long
peaked shoes. In person of mean stature, her hair dark yellow, her
face round and full, her eyes gray, and her countenance as cheerful as
herself. The second real picture of her shows you a haggard woman,
with her hair unbound and falling about her shoulders, shivering in a
shift, which she clutches about her with one hand, while the other
holds a dripping candle; and the third picture shows an old woman in
dirty wimple and untidy rags.
[Illustration: {Six types of head-dress for women}]
There are many ways of making the steeple head-dress. For the most
part they are long, black-covered steeples, resting at an angle of
forty-five degrees to the head, the broad end having a deep velvet
band round it, with hanging sides, which come to the level of the
chin; the point end has a long veil attached to it, which floats
lightly down, or is carried on to one shoulder. Sometimes this steeple
hat is worn over a hood, the cape of which is tucked into the dress.
Some of these hats have a jutting, upturned piece in front, and they
are also covered with all manner of coloured stuffs, but not commonly
so. All persons having an income of £10 a year and over will have that
black velvet loop, the frontlet, sewn into their hats. There is
another new shape for hats, varying in height from 8 to 18 inches. It
is a cylinder, broader at the top than the bottom, the crown sometimes
flat and sometimes rounded into the hat itself; this hat is generally
jewelled, and covered with rich material. The veils are attached to
these hats in several ways; either they float down behind from the
centre of the crown of the hat, or they are sewn on to the base
of the hat, and are supported on wires, so as to shade the face,
making a roof over it, pointed in front and behind, or flat across the
front and bent into a point behind, or circular. Take two circles of
wire, one the size of the base of your hat and the other larger, and
dress your linen or thin silk upon them; then you may pinch the wire
into any variations of squares and circles you please.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF EDWARD IV. (1461-1483)
She wears the high hennin from which hangs a wisp of linen. On her
forehead is the velvet frontlet, and across her forehead is a veil
stretched on wires.]
The veil was sometimes worn all over the steeple hat, coming down over
the face, but stiff enough to stand away from it. Towards the end of
the reign the hats were not so high or so erect.
Remember, also, that the horned head-dress of the previous reign is
not by any means extinct.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Edward IV.}]
There remain two more forms of making the human face hideous: one is
the head-dress closely resembling an enormous sponge bag, which for
some unknown reason lasted well into the reign of Henry VII. as a
variety to the fashionable head-gear of that time, and the other is
very simple, being a wimple kept on the head by a circular stuffed
hoop of material, which showed, plain and severe across the forehead.
The simple folk wore a hood of linen, with a liripipe and wide
ear-flaps.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Edward IV.}]
The dresses are plain in cut; they are all short-waisted if at all
fashionable. The most of them have a broad waist-belt, and very deep
borders to their skirts; they have broad, turned-back cuffs, often of
black. These cuffs, on being turned down over the hand, show the same
colour as the dress; they are, in fact, the old long cuff over the
fingers turned back for comfort.
It is by the variety of openings at the necks of the gowns that you
may get change. First, let me take the most ordinary--that is, an
opening of a V shape from shoulders to waist, the foot of the V at the
waist, the points on the top of the shoulders at the join of the arm.
Across this opening is seen, cut square and coming up to the base of
the bosom, the under-gown. You may now proceed to vary this by lacing
the V across, but not drawing it together, by having the V fur-edged,
or made to turn over in a collar of black upon light material, or its
opposite, by showing a vest of stuff other than that of the
under-gown, which will then make a variety of colour when the skirt is
held up over the arm. Or you may have your dress so cut that it is
high in front and square cut, and over this you may sew a false V
collar wither to or above the waist. I have said that the whole
neck-opening may be covered by a gorget of cloth, which was pinned up
to the steeple hat, or by a hood of thin stuff or silk, the cape of
which was tucked into the dress.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Edward IV.}]
The lady, I think, is now complete down to her long-pointed shoes, her
necklet of stones or gold chain, with cross or heraldic pendant, and
it remains to show that the countrywoman dressed very plainly, in a
decent-fitting dress, with her waist in its proper place, her skirt
full, the sleeves of her dress turned back like my lady's, her head
wrapped in a wimple or warmed in a hood, her feet in plain,
foot-shaped shoes, and wooden clogs strapped on to them for outdoor
use or kitchen work; in fact, she looked much like any old body to-day
who has lived in a village, except that the wimple and the hood then
worn are out of place to-day, more's the pity!
No doubt ladies were just human in those days, and fussed and
frittered over an inch or so of hennin, or a yard or two of train. One
cut her dress too low to please the others, and another wore her
horned head-dress despite the dictates of Fashion, which said, 'Away
with horns, and into steeples.' No doubt the tall hennins, with their
floating veils, looked like black masts with silken sails, and the
ladies like a crowd of shipping, with velvet trains for waves about
their feet; no doubt the steeples swayed and the silks rustled when
the heads turned to look at the fine men in the days when
hump-shouldered Richard was a dandy.
EDWARD THE FIFTH
Reigned two months: April and June, 1487.
RICHARD THE THIRD
Reigned two years: 1483-1485.
Born 1450. Married, 1473, Anne Neville.
THE MEN
[Illustration: {Three men of the time of Edward V. and Richard III.}]
Fashion's pulse beat very weak in the spring of 1483. More attune to
the pipes of Fate were the black cloaks of conspirators and a measured
tread of soft-shoed feet than lute and dance of airy millinery. The
axe of the executioner soiled many white shirts, and dreadful
forebodings fluttered the dovecots of high-hennined ladies.
The old order was dying; Medievalism, which made a last spluttering
flame in the next reign, was now burnt low, and was saving for that
last effort. When Richard married Anne Neville, in the same year was
Raphael born in Italy; literature was beginning, thought was
beginning; many of the great spirits of the Renaissance were alive and
working in Italy; the very trend of clothes showed something vaguely
different, something which shows, however, that the foundations of the
world were being shaken--so shaken that men and women, coming out of
the gloom of the fourteenth century through the half-light of the
fifteenth, saw the first signs of a new day, the first show of spring,
and, with a perversity or an eagerness to meet the coming day, they
began to change their clothes.
It is in this reign of Richard III. that we get, for the men, a hint
of the peculiar magnificence of the first years of the sixteenth
century; we get the first flush of those wonderful patterns which are
used by Memline and Holbein, those variations of the pine-apple
pattern, and of that peculiar convention which is traceable in the
outline of the Tudor rose.
The men, at first sight, do not appear very different to the men of
Edward IV.'s time; they have the long hair, the general clean-shaven
faces, open-breasted tunics, and full-pleated skirts. But, as a rule,
the man, peculiar to his time, the clothes-post of his age, has
discarded the tall peaked hat, and is almost always dressed in the
black velvet, stiff-brimmed hat. The pleated skirt to his tunic has
grown longer, and his purse has grown larger; the sleeves are tighter,
and the old tunic with the split, hanging sleeves has grown fuller,
longer, and has become an overcoat, being now open all the way down.
You will see that the neck of the tunic is cut very low, and that you
may see above it, above the black velvet with which it is so often
bound, the rich colour or fine material of an undergarment, a sort of
waistcoat, and yet again above that the straight top of a
finely-pleated white shirt. Sometimes the sleeves of the tunic will be
wide, and when the arm is flung up in gesticulation, the baggy white
shirt, tight-buttoned at the wrist, will show. Instead of the overcoat
with the hanging sleeves, you will find a very plain-cut overcoat,
with sleeves comfortably wide, and with little plain lapels to the
collar. It is cut wide enough in the back to allow for the spread of
the tunic. Black velvet is becoming a very fashionable trimming, and
will be seen as a border or as under-vest to show between the shirt
and the tunic. No clothes of the last reign will be incongruous in
this; the very short tunics which expose the cod-piece, the
split-sleeve tunic, all the variations, I have described. Judges walk
about, looking like gentlemen of the time of Richard II.: a judge
wears a long loose gown, with wide sleeves, from out of which appear
the sleeves of his under-tunic, buttoned from elbow to wrist; he wears
a cloak with a hood, the cloak split up the right side, and fastened
by three buttons upon the right shoulder. A doctor is in very plain,
ample gown, with a cape over his shoulders and a small round cap on
his head. His gown is not bound at the waist.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF RICHARD III. (1483-1485)
Here one sees the first of the broad-toed shoes and the birth of the
Tudor costume--the full pleated skirts and the prominence of white
shirt.]
The blunt shoes have come into fashion, and with this the old
long-peaked shoe dies for ever. Common-sense will show you that the
gentlemen who had leisure to hunt in these times did not wear their
most foppish garments, that the tunics were plain, the boots high, the
cloaks of strong material. They wore a hunting-hat, with a long
peak over the eyes and a little peak over the neck at the back; a
broad band passed under the chin, and, buttoning on to either side of
the hat, kept it in place. The peasant wore a loose tunic, often
open-breasted and laced across; he had a belt about his waist, a hood
over his head, and often a broad-brimmed Noah's Ark hat over the hood;
his slops, or loose trousers, were tied below the knee and at the
ankles. A shepherd would stick his pipe in his belt, so that he might
march before his flock, piping them into the fold.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Edward V. and Richard III.;
a hat}]
To sum up, you must picture a man in a dress of Edward IV.'s time,
modified, or, rather, expanded or expanding into the costume of Henry
VII.'s time--a reign, in fact, which hardly has a distinct costume to
itself--that is, for the men--but has a hand stretched out to two
centuries, the fifteenth and the sixteenth; yet, if I have shown the
man to you as I myself can see him, he is different from his father in
1461, and will change a great deal before 1500.
THE WOMEN
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Edward V. and Richard III.}]
Here we are at the end of an epoch, at the close of a costume period,
at one of those curious final dates in a history of clothes which says
that within a year or so the women of one time will look hopelessly
old-fashioned and queer to the modern woman. Except for the peculiar
sponge-bag turban, which had a few years of life in it, the woman in
Henry VII.'s reign would look back at this time and smile, and the
young woman would laugh at the old ideas of beauty. The River of Time
runs under many bridges, and it would seem that the arches were low to
the Bridge of Fashion in 1483, and the steeple hat was lowered to
prevent contact with them. The correct angle of forty-five degrees
changed into a right angle, the steeple hat, the hennin, came toppling
down, and an embroidered bonnet, perched right on the back of the
head, came into vogue. It is this bonnet which gives, from our point
of view, distinction to the reign. It was a definite fashion, a
distinct halt. It had travelled along the years of the fourteenth
century, from the wimple and the horns, and the stiff turbans, and the
boxes of stiffened cloth of gold; it had languished in the caul and
blossomed in the huge wimple-covered horns; it had shot up in the
hennin; and now it gave, as its last transformation, this bonnet at
the back of the head, with the stiff wimple stretched upon wires. Soon
was to come the diamond-shaped head-dress, and after that the birth of
hair as a beauty.
In this case the hair was drawn as tightly as possible away from the
forehead, and at the forehead the smaller hairs were plucked away;
even eyebrows were a little out of fashion. Then this cylindrical
bonnet was placed at the back of the head, with its wings of thin
linen stiffly sewn or propped on wires. These wires were generally of
a V shape, the V point at the forehead. On some occasions two straight
wires came out on either side of the face in addition to the V, and so
made two wings on either side of the face and two wings over the back
of the head. It is more easy to describe through means of the
drawings, and the reader will soon see what bend to give to the wires
in order that the wings may be properly held out.
Beyond this head-dress there was very little alteration in the lady's
dress since the previous reign. The skirts were full; the waist was
high, but not absurdly so; the band round the dress was broad; the
sleeves were tight; and the cuffs, often of fur, were folded back to a
good depth.
The neck opening of the dress varied, as did that of the previous
reign, but whereas the most fashionable opening was then from neck to
waist, this reign gave more liking to a higher corsage, over the top
of which a narrow piece of stuff showed, often of black velvet. We may
safely assume that the ladies followed the men in the matter of broad
shoes. For a time the old fashion of the long-tongued belt came in,
and we see instances of such belts being worn with the tongue reaching
nearly to the feet, tipped with a metal ornament.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF RICHARD III. (1483-1485)
The great erection on her head is made of thin linen stretched upon
wires; through this one may see her jewelled cap.]
Not until night did these ladies discard their winged head erections;
not until the streets were dark, and the brass basins swinging from
the barbers' poles shone but dimly, and the tailors no longer
sat, cross-legged, on the benches in their shop-fronts--then might my
lady uncover her head and talk, in company with my lord, over the
strange new stories of Prester John and of the Wandering Jew; then, at
her proper time, she will go to her rest and sleep soundly beneath her
embroidered quilt, under the protection of the saints whose pictures
she has sewn into the corners of it. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
bless the bed that she lies on.
So we come to an end of a second series of dates, from the First
Edward to the Third Richard, and we leave them to come to the Tudors
and their follies and fantastics; we leave an age that is quaint,
rich, and yet fairly simple, to come to an age of padded hips and
farthingales, monstrous ruffs, knee-breeks, rag-stuffed trunks, and
high-heeled shoes.
With the drawings and text you should be able to people a vast world
of figures, dating from the middle of the thirteenth century, 1272, to
nearly the end of the fifteenth, 1485, and if you allow ordinary
horse-sense to have play, you will be able to people your world with
correctly-dressed figures in the true inspiration of their time. You
cannot disassociate the man from his tailor; his clothes must appeal
to you, historically and soulfully, as an outward and visible sign to
the graces and vices of his age and times.
HENRY THE SEVENTH
Reigned 24 years: 1485-1509.
Born, 1456. Married, 1486, Elizabeth of York.
THE MEN
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Henry VII.; hose}]
Everyone has felt that curious faint aroma, that sensation of lifting,
which proclaims the first day of Spring and the burial of Winter.
Although nothing tangible has taken place, there is in the atmosphere
a full-charged suggestion of promise, of green-sickness; there is a
quickening of the pulse, a thrumming of the heart, and many an eager,
quick glance around for the first buds of the new order of things.
England's winter was buried on Bosworth Field: England's spring, as
if by magic, commenced with Henry's entry into London.
The first picture of the reign shows the mayor, the sheriffs, and the
aldermen, clothed in violet, waiting at Shoreditch for the coming of
the victor. The same day shows Henry in St. Paul's, hearing a _Te
Deum_; in the Cathedral church, packed to its limit, three new banners
waved, one bearing a figure of St. George, another a dragon of red on
white and green sarcenet, and the third showed a dun cow on yellow
tarterne.
Spring, of course, does not, except in a poetic sense, burst forth in
a day, there are long months of preparation, hints, signs in the air,
new notes from the throats of birds.
The springtime of a country takes more than the preparation of months.
Nine years before Henry came to the throne Caxton was learning to
print in the little room of Collard Mansion--he was to print his
'Facts of Arms,' joyous tales and pleasant histories of chivalry, by
especial desire of Henry himself.
Later still, towards the end of the reign, the first book of travel in
the West began to go from hand to hand--it was written by Amerigo
Vespucci, cousin to La Bella Simonetta.
Great thoughts were abroad, new ideas were constantly under
discussion, the Arts rose to the occasion and put forth flowers of
beauty on many stems long supposed to be dead or dormant and incapable
of improvement. It was the great age of individual English expression
in every form but that of literature and painting, both these arts
being but in their cradles; Chaucer and Gower and Langland had
written, but they lay in their graves long before new great minds
arose.
The clouds of the Middle Ages were dispersed, and the sun shone.
The costume was at once dignified and magnificent--not that one can
call the little coats great ideals of dignity, but even they, by their
richness and by the splendour of the persons they adorned, come into
the category.
The long gowns of both men and women were rich beyond words in colour,
texture, and design, they were imposing, exact, and gorgeous. Upon a
fine day the streets must have glittered when a gentleman or lady
passed by.
The fashions of the time have survived for us in the Court cards:
take the jacks, knaves, valets--call them as you will, and you will
see the costume of this reign but slightly modified into a design, the
cards of to-day and the cards of that day are almost identical. Some
years ago the modification was less noticeable; I can remember playing
Pope Joan with cards printed with full-length figures, just as the
illustrations to 'Alice in Wonderland' are drawn. In the knave you
will see the peculiar square hat which came in at this time, and the
petti-cote, the long coat, the big sleeve, and the broad-toed shoes.
You will see the long hair, undressed and flowing over the shoulders
(the professional classes, as the lawyer, cut their hair close, so
also did the peasant). Over this flowing hair a dandy would wear a
little cap with a narrow, rolled-up brim, and over this, on occasions,
an enormous hat of felt, ornamented with a prodigious quantity of
feathers.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Henry VII.}]
There was, indeed, quite a choice of hats: the berretino--a square hat
pinched in at the corners; many round hats, some with a high, tight
brim, some with the least brim possible; into these brims, or
into a band round the hat, one might stick feathers or pin a brooch.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF HENRY VII. (1485-1509)]
The chaperon, before described, was still worn by Garter Knights at
times, and by official, legal, civic, and college persons.
What a choice of coats the gentlemen had, and still might be in the
fashion! Most common among these was the long coat like a
dressing-gown, hanging upon the ground all round, with a wide collar,
square behind, and turning back in the front down to the waist--this
was the general shape of the collar, and you may vary it on this idea
in every way: turn it back and show the stuff to the feet, close it up
nearly to the neck, cut it off completely. Now for the sleeves of such
a coat. I have shown in the illustrations many varieties, the most
common was the wide sleeve, narrow at the shoulder, and hanging over
the hand in folds. The slashes, which show the white shirt, are usual,
and of every order. The shirt itself was often ornamented with fine
gathers and fancy stitching, and was gathered about the neck by a
ribbon. As the years went on it is easy to see that the shirt was worn
nearer to the neck, the gathers became higher and higher, became
more ornamented, and finally rose, in all extravagant finery, to
behind the ears--and we have the Elizabethan ruff.
[Illustration: COATS--HATS]
Next to the shirt a waistcoat, or stomacher, of the most gorgeous
patterned stuff, laced across the breast sometimes, more often fastened
behind. This reached to the waist where it met long hose of every scheme
of colour--striped, dotted, divided in bands--everything--displaying the
indelicate but universal pouch in front, tied with coloured ribbons.
On the feet, shoes of all materials, from cloth and velvet to leather
beautifully worked, and of the most absurd length; these also were
slashed with puffs of white stuff. Many of these shoes were but a sole
and a toe, and were tied on by thongs passing through the sole.
Of course the long coat would not alone satisfy the dandy, but he must
needs cut it off into a short jacket, or petti-cote, and leave it open
to better display his marvellous vest. Here we have the origin of the
use of the word 'petticoat'--now wrongly applied; in Scotland, to this
day, a woman's skirts are called her 'coats.'
About the waists of these coats was a short sash, or a girdle, from
which hung a very elaborate purse, or a dagger.
Stick in hand, jewel in your hat, dandy--extravagant, exquisite dandy!
All ages know you, from the day you choose your covering of leaves
with care, to the hour of your white duck motoring-suit: a very bird
of a man, rejoicing in your plumage, a very human ass, a very narrow
individual, you stride, strut, simper through the story of the
universe, a perfect monument of the Fall of Man, a gorgeous symbol of
the decay of manhood. In this our Henry's reign, your hair busheth
pleasantly, and is kembed prettily over the ear, where it glimmers as
gold i' the sun--pretty fellow--Lord! how your feathered bonnet
becomes you, and your satin stomacher is brave over a padded chest.
Your white hands, freed from any nasty brawls and clean of any form of
work, lie in their embroidered gloves. Your pride forbids the carriage
of a sword, which is borne behind you--much use may it be!--by a
mincing fellow in your dainty livery. And if--oh, rare disguise!--your
coiffure hides a noble brow, or your little, neat-rimmed coif a clever
head, less honour be to you who dress your limbs to imitate the
peacock, and hide your mind beneath the weight of scented clothes.
[Illustration: SLEEVES]
In the illustrations to this chapter and the next, my drawings are
collected and redrawn in my scheme from works so beautiful and highly
finished that every student should go to see them for himself at the
British Museum. My drawings, I hope, make it quite clear what was worn
in the end of the fifteenth century and the first nine years of the
sixteenth, and anyone with a slight knowledge of pictures will be able
to supply themselves with a large amount of extra matter. I would
recommend MS. Roy 16, F. 2; MS. Roy 19, C. 8; and especially Harleian
MS. 4425.
Of the lower classes, also, these books show quite a number. There are
beggars and peasants, whose dress was simply old-fashioned and very
plain; they wore the broad shoes and leather belts and short coats,
worsted hose, and cloaks of fair cloth. 'Poverty,' the old woman with
the spoon in her hat, is a good example of the poor of the time.
When one knows the wealth of material of the time, and has seen the
wonder of the stuffs, one knows that within certain lines imagination
may have full scope. Stuffs of silk, embroidered with coupled birds
and branches, and flowers following out a prescribed line, the
embroideries edged and sewn with gold thread; velvet on velvet,
short-napped fustian, damasked stuffs and diapered stuffs--what
pictures on canvas, or on the stage, may be made; what marvels of
colour walked about the streets in those days! It was to the eye an
age of elaborate patterns--mostly large--and all this broken colour
and glitter of gold thread must have made the streets gay indeed.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Henry VII.}]
Imagine, shall we say, Corfe Castle on a day when a party of ladies
and gentlemen assembled to 'course a stagge,' when the huntsmen, in
green, gathered in the outer ward, and the grooms, in fine coloured
liveries, held the gaily-decked horses; then, from the walls lined
with archers, would come the blast of the horn, and out would walk my
lord and my lady, with knights, and squires, and ladies, and gallants,
over the bridge across the castle ditch, between the round towers.
Behind them the dungeon tower, and the great gray mass of the
keep--all a fitting and impressive background to their bravery.
The gentlemen, in long coats of all wonderful colours and devices,
with little hats, jewelled and feathered, with boots to the knee of
soft leather, turned back in colours at the top; on their left hands
the thick hawking glove on which, jessed and hooded, sits the
hawk--for some who will not go with the hounds will fly the hawk on
the Isle of Purbeck.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Henry VII.}]
Below, in the town over the moat, a crowd is gathered to see them
off--merchants in grave colours, and coats turned back with fur, their
ink-horns slung at their waists, with pens and dagger and purse;
beggars; pilgrims, from over seas, landed at Poole Harbour, in long
gowns, worn with penitence and dusty travels, shells in their hats,
staffs in their hands; wide-eyed children in smocks; butchers in blue;
men of all guilds and women of all classes.
The drawbridge is down, the portcullis up, and the party, gleaming
like a bed of flowers in their multi-coloured robes, pass over the
bridge, through the town, and into the valley.
The sun goes in and leaves the grim castle, gray and solemn, standing
out against the green of the hills....
And of Henry himself, the great Tudor, greater, more farseeing than
the eighth Henry, a man who so dominates the age, and fills it with
his spirit, that no mental picture is complete without him. His fine,
humorous face, the quizzical eye, the firm mouth, showing his
character. The great lover of art, of English art, soon to be
pulverized by pseudo-classic influences; the man who pulled down the
chapel at the west end of Westminster Abbey with the house by
it--Chaucer's house--to make way for that superb triumph of ornate
building, his chapel, beside which the mathematical squares and angles
of classic buildings show as would boxes of bricks by a gorgeous
flower.
The stories against him are, in reality, stories for him, invented by
those whom he kept to their work, and whom he despoiled of their
ill-gotten gains. He borrowed, but he paid back in full; he came into
a disordered, distressed kingdom, ruled it by fear--as had to be done
in those days--and left it a kingdom ready for the fruits of his
ordered works--to the fleshy beast who so nearly ruined the country.
What remained, indeed, was the result of his father's genius.
THE WOMEN
Take up a pack of cards and look at the queen. You may see the
extraordinary head-gear as worn by ladies at the end of the fifteenth
century and in the first years of the sixteenth, worn in a modified
form all through the next reign, after which that description of
head-dress vanished for ever, its place to be taken by caps, hats, and
bonnets.
The richest of these head-dresses were made of a black silk or some
such black material, the top stiffened to the shape of a sloping
house-roof, the edges falling by the face on either side--made stiff,
so as to stand parallel--these were sewn with gold and pearls on
colour or white. The end of the hood hung over the shoulders and down
the back; this was surmounted by a stole of stiffened material, also
richly sewn with jewels, and the whole pinned on to a close-fitting
cap of a different colour, the edge of which showed above the
forehead.
[Illustration: {Seven head-dresses for women; side and front view
of a shoe}]
The more moderate head-dress was of black again, but in shape nearly
square, and slit at the sides to enable it to hang more easily over
the shoulders. It was placed over a coif, often of white linen or of
black material, was turned over from the forehead, folded, and pinned
back; often it was edged with gold.
On either side of the hood were hanging ornamental metal-tipped tags
to tie back the hood from the shoulders, and this became, in
time--that is, at the end of the reign--the ordinary manner of wearing
them, till they were finally made up so.
The ordinary head-dress was of white linen, crimped or embroidered in
white, made in a piece to hang over the shoulders and down the back,
folded back and stiffened in front to that peculiar triangular shape
in fashion; this was worn by the older women over a white hood.
The plain coif, or close-fitting linen cap, was the most general wear
for the poor and middle classes.
The hair was worn long and naturally over the shoulders by young
girls, and plainly parted in the centre and dressed close to the head
by women wearing the large head-dress.
Another form of head-dress, less common, was the turban--a loose bag
of silk, gold and pearl embroidered, fitting over the hair and
forehead tightly, and loose above.
The gowns of the women were very simply cut, having either a long
train or no train at all, these last cut to show the under-skirt of
some fine material, the bodice of which showed above the over gown at
the shoulders. The ladies who wore the long gown generally had it
lined with some fine fur, and to prevent this dragging in the mud, as
also to show the elegance of their furs, they fastened the train to a
button or brooch placed at the back of the waistband. This, in time,
developed into the looped skirts of Elizabethan times.
[Illustration: {Three women of the time of Henry VII.}]
The bodice of the gown was square cut and not very low, having an
ornamental border of fur, embroidery, or other rich coloured material
sewn on to it. This border went sometimes round the shoulders and
down the front of the dress to below the knees. Above the bodice was
nearly always seen the V-shaped opening of the under petticoat bodice,
and across and above that, the white embroidered or crimped chemise.
The sleeves were as the men's--tight all the way down from the
shoulder to the wrist, the cuffs coming well over the first joints of
the fingers (sometimes these cuffs are turned back to show elaborate
linings), or they were made tight at the shoulder and gradually looser
until they became very full over the lower arm, edged or lined with
fur or soft silk, or loose and baggy all the way from shoulder to
hand.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Henry VII.}]
At this time Bruges became world-famed for her silken texture; her
satins were used in England for church garments and other clothes. The
damask silks were greatly in use, and were nearly always covered with
the peculiar semi-Spanish pattern, the base of which was some
contortion of the pomegranate. Some of these patterns were small and
wonderfully fine, depending on their wealth of detail for their
magnificent appearance, others were huge, so that but few repeats of
the design appeared on the dress. Block-printed linens were also in
use, and the samples in South Kensington will show how beautiful and
artistic they were, for all their simple design. As Bruges supplied us
with silks, satins, and velvets, the last also beautifully damasked,
Yprès sent her linen to us, and the whole of Flanders sent us painters
and illuminators who worked in England at the last of the great
illuminated books, but this art died as printing and illustrating by
wood-blocks came in to take its place.
Nearly every lady had her own common linen, and often other stuffs,
woven in her own house, and the long winter evenings were great times
for the sewing chambers, where the lady and her maids sat at the
looms. To-day one may see in Bruges the women at the cottage doors
busy over their lace-making, and the English women by the sea making
nets--so in those times was every woman at her cottage door making
coarse linens and other stuffs to earn her daily bread, while my lady
was sitting in her chamber weaving, or embroidering a bearing cloth
for her child against her time.
However, the years of the Wars of the Roses had had their effect on
every kind of English work, and as the most elegant books were painted
and written by Flemings, as the finest linen came from Yprès, the best
silks and velvets from Bruges, the great masters of painting from
Florence, Germany, and Belgium, so also the elaborate and wonderful
embroidery, for which we had been so famous, died away, and English
work was but coarse at the best, until, in the early sixteen hundreds,
the new style came into use of raising figures some height above the
ground-work of the design, and the rich embroidery of the Stuart times
revived this art.
I have shown that this age was the age of fine patterns, as some ages
are ages of quaint cut, and some of jewel-laden dresses, and some of
dainty needlework.
A few ladies wore their gowns open to the waist to show the stomacher,
as the men did, and open behind to the waist, laced across, the waist
being embraced by a girdle of the shape so long in use, with long ends
and metal ornaments; the girdle held the purse of the lady.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF HENRY VII. (1485-1509)
Notice the diamond-shaped head-dress, the wide, fur-edged gown with
its full sleeves.]
The illustrations given with this chapter show very completely the
costume of this time, and, except in cases of royal persons or very
gorgeously apparelled ladies, they are complete enough to need no
description.
The shoes, it will be seen, are very broad at the toes, with thick
soles, sometimes made much in the manner of sandals--that is, with
only a toecap, the rest flat, to be tied on by strings.
As this work is entirely for use, it may be said, that artists who
have costumes made for them, and costumiers who make for the stage,
hardly ever allow enough material for the gowns worn by men and women
in this and other reigns, where the heaviness and richness of the
folds was the great keynote. To make a gown, of such a kind as these
good ladies wore, one needs, at least, twelve yards of material,
fifty-two inches wide, to give the right appearance. It is possible to
acquire at many of the best shops nowadays actual copies of
embroidered stuffs, velvets, and damask silks of this time, and of
stuffs up to Early Victorian patterns, and this makes it easy for
painters to procure what, in other days, they were forced to invent.
Many artists have their costumes made of Bolton sheeting, on to which
they stencil the patterns they wish to use--this is not a bad thing to
do, as sheeting is not dear and it falls into beautiful folds.
The older ladies and widows of this time nearly all dressed in very
simple, almost conventual garments, many of them wearing the 'barbe'
of pleated linen, which covered the lower part of the face and the
chin--a sort of linen beard--it reached to the breast, and is still
worn by some religious orders of women.
Badges were still much in use, and the servants always wore some form
of badge on their left sleeve--either merely the colours of their
masters, or a small silver, or other metal, shield. Thus, the badge
worn by the servants of Henry VII. would be either a greyhound, a
crowned hawthorn bush, a red dragon, a portcullis, or the red and
white roses joined together. The last two were used by all the Tudors,
and the red rose and the portcullis are still used. From these badges
we get the signs of many of our inns, either started by servants, who
used their master's badge for a device, or because the inn lay on a
certain property the lord of which carried chequers, or a red dragon,
or a tiger's head.
I mentioned the silks of Bruges and her velvets without giving enough
prominence to the fine velvets of Florence, a sample of which, a cope,
once used in Westminster Abbey, is preserved at Stonyhurst College; it
was left by Henry VII. to 'Our Monastery of Westminster,' and is of
beautiful design--a gold ground, covered with boughs and leaves raised
in soft velvet pile of ruby colour, through which little loops of gold
thread appear.
I imagine Elizabeth of York, Queen to Henry VII., of the subtle
countenance--gentle Elizabeth, who died in child-birth--proceeding
through London, from the Tower to Westminster, to her coronation; the
streets cleansed and the houses hung with tapestry, arras and gold
cloth, the fine-coloured dresses of the crowd, the armoured soldiers,
all the rich estate of the company about her, and the fine trappings
of the horses. Our Queen went to her coronation with some Italian
masts, paper flowers, and some hundreds of thousands of yards of
bunting and cheap flags; the people mostly in sombre clothes; the
soldiers in ugly red, stiff coats, were the only colour of note
passing down Whitehall, past the hideous green stuck with frozen
Members of Parliament, to the grand, wonderful Abbey, which has seen
so many Queens crowned.
HENRY THE EIGHTH
Reigned thirty-eight years: 1509-1547.
Born, 1491. Married, 1509, Katherine of Aragon; 1532,
Anne Boleyn; 1536, Jane Seymour; 1540, Anne of Cleves;
1540, Katherine Howard; 1548, Katherine Parr.
THE MEN
VERSES BY HENRY THE EIGHTH IN PRAISE OF CONSTANCY
'As the holy grouth grene with ivie all alone
Whose flowerys cannot be seen and grene wode levys be gone,
Now unto my lady, promyse to her I make
From all other only to her I me betake.
Adew myne owne ladye, adew my specyall
Who hath my hart trewly, be sure, and ever shall.'
So, with songs and music of his own composition, comes the richest man
in Europe to the throne of England. Gay, brave, tall, full of conceit
in his own strength, Henry, a king, a Tudor, a handsome man, abounding
in excellence of craft and art, the inheritance from his father and
mother, figures in our pageant a veritable symbol of the Renaissance
in England.
He had, in common with the marvellous characters of that Springtime of
History, the quick intelligence and all the personal charm that the
age brought forth in abundance. In his reign the accumulated mass of
brain all over the world budded and flowered; the time gave to us a
succession of the most remarkable people in any historical period, and
it is one of the triumphs of false reasoning to prove this, in
England, to have been the result of the separation from the Catholic
Church. For centuries the Church had organized and prepared the ground
in which this tree of the world's knowledge was planted, had pruned,
cut back, nursed the tree, until gradually it flowered, its branches
spread over Christian Europe, and when the flowering branch hanging
over England gave forth its first-fruits, those men who ate of the
fruit and benefited by the shade were the first to quarrel with the
gardeners.
In these days there lived and died Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci,
Raphael, Dürer, Erasmus, Holbein, Copernicus, Luther, Rabelais, and
Michael Angelo, to mention a few men of every shade of thought, and
in this goodly time came Henry to the English throne, to leave, at his
death, instead of the firm progress of order instituted by his father,
a bankrupt country with an enormously rich Government.
You may see for the later pictures of his reign a great bloated mass
of corpulence, with running ulcers on his legs and the blood of wives
and people on his hands, striding in his well-known attitude over the
festering slums his rule had produced in London. Harry, _Grace à
Dieu_!
The mental picture from our--costume--point of view is widely
different from that of the last reign. No longer do we see hoods and
cowls, brown, gray, white, and black in the streets, no longer the
throngs of fine craftsmen, of church-carvers, gilders, embroiderers,
candle-makers, illuminators, missal-makers; all these served but to
swell the ranks of the unemployed, and caused a new problem to
England, never since solved, of the skilled poor out of work. The
hospitals were closed--that should bring a picture to your eyes--where
the streets had been thronged with the doctors of the poor and of the
rich in their habits, no monks or lay brothers were to be seen. The
sick, the blind, the insane had no home but the overhung back
alleys where the foulest diseases might accumulate and hot-beds of
vice spring up, while in the main streets Harry Tudor was carried to
his bear-baiting, a quivering mass of jewels shaking on his corrupt
body, on his thumb that wonderful diamond the Regale of France, stolen
by him from the desecrated shrine of St. Thomas à Becket.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Henry VIII.; collar; ruff}]
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF HENRY VIII. (1509-1547)
He wears the club-toed shoes, the white shirt embroidered in black
silk, the padded shoulders, and the flat cap by which this reign is
easily remembered.]
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Henry VIII.; breeches}]
There are two distinct classes of fashion to be seen, the German-Swiss
fashion and the English fashion, a natural evolution of the national
dress. The German fashion is that slashed, extravagant-looking
creation which we know so well from the drawings of Albert Dürer and
the more German designs of Holbein. The garments which were known as
'blistered' clothes are excessive growths on to the most extravagant
designs of the Henry VII. date. The shirt cut low in the neck, and
sewn with black embroidery; the little waistcoat ending at the waist
and cut straight across from shoulder to shoulder, tied with thongs
of leather or coloured laces to the breeches, leaving a gap between
which showed the shirt; the universal pouch on the breeches often
highly decorated and jewelled. From the line drawings you will see
that the sleeves and the breeches took every form, were of any odd
assortment of colours, were cut, puffed, and splashed all over, so
that the shirt might be pushed through the holes, looking indeed
'blistered.'
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Henry VIII.}]
The shoes were of many shapes, as I have shown, agreeing in one point
only--that the toes should be cut very broad, often, indeed, quite
square.
Short or hanging hair, both were the fashion, and little flat caps
with the rim cut at intervals, or the large flat hats of the previous
reign, covered with feathers and curiously slashed, were worn with
these costumes.
Cloaks, as you may see, were worn over the dress, and also those
overcoats shaped much like the modern dressing-gown.
It is from these 'blistered,' padded breeches that we derive the
trunks of the next reign, the slashings grown into long ribbon-like
slits, the hose puffed at the knee.
Separate pairs of sleeves were worn with the waistcoats, or with the
petti-cotes, a favourite sleeve trimming being broad velvet bands.
The invention sprang, as usual, from necessity, by vanity to custom.
In 1477 the Swiss beat and routed the Duke of Burgundy at Nantes, and
the soldiers, whose clothes were in rags, cut and tore up his silk
tents, his banners, all material they could find, and made themselves
clothes of these odd pieces--clothes still so torn and ragged that
their shirts puffed out of every hole and rent. The arrival of the
victorious army caused all the non-fighters to copy this curious freak
in clothes, and the courtiers perpetuated the event by proclaiming
blistering as the fashion.
The other and more usual fashion springs from the habit of clothes in
bygone reigns.
Let us first take the shirt A. It will be seen how, in this reign, the
tendency of the shirt was to come close about the neck. The previous
reign showed us, as a rule, a shirt cut very low in the neck, with
the hem drawn together with laces; these laces pulled more tightly
together, thus rucking the material into closer gathers, caused the
cut of the shirt to be altered and made so that the hem frilled out
round the neck--a collar, in fact. That this collar took all forms
under certain limitations will be noticed, also that thick necked
gentlemen--Henry himself must have invented this--wore the collar of
the shirt turned down and tied with strings of linen. The cuffs of the
shirt, when they showed at the wrist, were often, as was the collar,
sewn with elaborate designs in black thread or silk.
Now we take the waistcoat B. As you may see from the drawing showing
the German form of dress, this waistcoat was really a petti-cote, a
waistcoat with sleeves. This waistcoat was generally of richly
ornamented material (Henry in purple satin, embroidered with his
initials and the Tudor rose; Henry in brocade covered with posies made
in letters of fine gold bullion). The material was slashed and puffed
or plain, and dependent for its effect on the richness of its
embroidery or design of the fabric. It was worn with or without
sleeves; in most cases the sleeves were detachable.
[Illustration: {Two types of sleeve; eight hats for men}]
The coat C. This coat was made with bases like a frock, a skirted
coat, in fact; the material used was generally plain, of velvet, fine
cloth, silk, or satin. The varieties of cut were numerous, and are
shown in the drawings--open to the waist, open all the way in front,
close to the neck--every way; where the coat was open in front it
generally parted to show the bragetto, or jewelled pouch. It was a
matter for choice spirits to decide whether or no they should wear
sleeves to their coats, or show the sleeves of their waistcoats. No
doubt Madame Fashion saw to it that the changes were rung sufficiently
to make hay while the sun shone on extravagant tastes. The coat was
held at the waist with a sash of silk tied in a bow with short ends.
Towards the end of the reign, foreshadowing the Elizabethan jerkin or
jacket, the custom grew more universal of the coat with sleeves and
the high neck, the bases were cut shorter to show the full trunks, and
the waistcoat was almost entirely done away with, the collar grew in
proportion, and spread, like the tail of an angry turkey, in ruffle
and folded pleat round the man's neck.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF HENRY VIII. (1509-1547)
This is the extreme German-English fashion. In Germany and
Switzerland this was carried to greater lengths.]
The overcoat D is the gown of the previous reign cut, for the dandy,
into a shorter affair, reaching not far below the knee; for the
grave man it remained long, but, for all, the collar had changed to a
wide affair stretching well over the shoulders. It was made, this
collar, of such stuff as lined the cloak, maybe it was of fur, or of
satin, of silk, or of cloth of gold. The tremendous folds of these
overcoats gave to the persons in them a sense of splendour and
dignity; the short sleeves of the fashionable overcoats, puffed and
swollen, barred with rich _appliqué_ designs or bars of fur, reaching
only to the elbow, there to end in a hem of fur or some rich stuff,
the collar as wide as these padded shoulders, all told in effect as
garments which gave a great air of well-being and richness to their
owner.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Henry VIII.}]
Of course, I suppose one must explain, the sleeves varied in every
way: were long, short, full, medium full, according to taste.
Sometimes the overcoats were sleeveless. Beneath these garments the
trunks were worn--loose little breeches, which, in the German style,
were bagged, puffed, rolled, and slashed in infinite varieties. Let it
be noticed that the cutting of slashes was hardly ever a straight
slit, but in the curve of an elongated S or a double S curve. Other
slashes were squared top and bottom.
[Illustration: {Three men of the time of Henry VIII.}]
All men wore tight hose, in some cases puffed at the knee; in fact,
the bagging, sagging, and slashing of hose suggested the separate
breeches or trunks of hose.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF HENRY VIII. (1509-1547)
A plain but rich looking dress. The peculiar head-dress has a pad of
silk in front to hold it from the forehead. The half-sleeves are
well shown.]
The shoes were very broad, and were sometimes stuffed into a mound at
the toes, were sewn with precious stones, and, also, were cut and
puffed with silk.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Henry VIII.}]
The little flat cap will be seen in all its varieties in the drawings.
The Irish were forbidden by law to wear a shirt, smock, kerchor,
bendel, neckerchor, mocket (a handkerchor), or linen cap coloured or
dyed with saffron; or to wear in shirts or smocks above seven yards of
cloth.
To wear black genet you must be royal; to wear sable you must rank
above a viscount; to wear marten or velvet trimming you must be worth
over two hundred marks a year.
Short hair came into fashion about 1521.
[Illustration: {Three men of the time of Henry VIII. (torso only);
three types of shoe; two types of boot; a cod-piece}]
So well known is the story of Sir Philip Calthrop and John Drakes the
shoemaker of Norwich, who tried to ape the fashion, that I must here
allude to this ancestor of mine who was the first of the dandies of
note, among persons not of the royal blood. The story itself, retold
in every history of costume, is to this effect: Drakes, the
shoemaker, seeing that the county talked of Sir Philip's clothes,
ordered a gown from the same tailor. This reached the ears of Sir
Philip, who then ordered his gown to be cut as full of slashes as the
shears could make it. The ruin of cloth so staggered the shoemaker
that he vowed to keep to his own humble fashion in future. No doubt
Sir Philip's slashes were cunningly embroidered round, and the gown
made rich and sparkling with the device of seed pearls so much in use.
This man's son, also Sir Philip, married Amy, daughter of Sir William
Boleyn, of Blickling, Norfolk. She was aunt to Queen Anne Boleyn.
THE WOMEN
One cannot call to mind pictures of this time without, in the first
instance, seeing the form of Henry rise up sharply before us followed
by his company of wives. The fat, uxorious giant comes straight to the
front of the picture, he dominates the age pictorially; and, as a
fitting background, one sees the six women who were sacrificed on the
political altar to pander to his vanity. Katherine of Aragon--the fine
and noble lady--a tool of political desires, cast off after Henry had
searched his precious conscience, after eighteen years of married
life, to find that he had scruples as to the spirituality of the
marriage. Anne Boleyn, tainted with the life of the Court, a pitiful
figure in spite of all her odious crimes; how often must a ghost, in a
black satin nightdress edged with black velvet, have haunted the royal
dreams. And the rest of them, clustered round the vain king, while in
the background the great figures of the time loom hugely as they play
with the crowned puppets.
[Illustration: {Eight stages in the evolution of the hood}]
The note of the time, as we look at it with our eyes keen on the
picture, is the final evolution of the hood. Bit by bit, inch by
inch, the plain fabric has become enriched, each succeeding step in an
elaboration of the simple form; the border next to the face is turned
back, then the hood is lined with fine stuff and the turnover shows
this to advantage; then the sides are split and the back is made more
full; then a tag is sewn on to the sides by which means the cut side
may be fastened off the shoulders. The front is now stiffened and
shaped at an angle, this front is sewn with jewels, and, as the angle
forms a gap between the forehead and the point of the hood, a pad is
added to fill in the vacant space. At last one arrives at the
diamond-shaped head-dress worn in this reign, and, in this reign,
elaborated in every way, elaborated, in fact, out of existence. In
order to make the head-dress in its 1509 state you must make the white
lining with the jewelled turnover as a separate cap. However, I think
that the drawings speak for themselves more plainly than I can write.
[Illustration: {Four types of head-dress for women}]
Every device for crowding jewels together was used, criss-cross, in
groups of small numbers, in great masses. Pendants were worn, hung
upon jewelled chains that wound twice round the neck, once close to
the neck, the second loop loose and passed, as a rule, under the lawn
shift. Large brooches decorated the bodices, brooches with drop
ornaments, the body of the brooch of fine gold workmanship, many of
them wrought in Italy. The shift, delicately embroidered with black
silk, had often a band of jewellery upon it, and this shift was square
cut, following the shape of the bodice.
The bodice of the gown was square cut and much stiffened to a box-like
shape. The sleeves of the gown were narrow at the shoulders, and after
fitting the arm for about six inches down from the shoulders, they
widened gradually until, just below the elbow, they became square and
very full; in this way they showed the false under-sleeve. This
under-sleeve was generally made of a fine rich-patterned silk or
brocade, the same stuff which formed the under-gown; the sleeve was a
binding for the very full lawn or cambric sleeve which showed in a
ruffle at the wrist and in great puffs under the forearm. The
under-sleeve was really more like a gauntlet, as it was generally held
together by buttoned tags; it was puffed with other coloured silk,
slashed to show the shift, or it might be plain.
Now the sleeve of the gown was subject to much alteration. It was, as
I have described, made very square and full at the elbow, and over
this some ladies wore a false sleeve of gold net--you may imagine the
length to which net will go, studied with jewels, crossed in many
ways, twisted into patterns, sewn on to the sleeve in sloping
lines--but, besides this, the sleeve was turned back to form a deep
square cuff which was often made of black or coloured velvet, or of
fur.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Henry VIII.; a head-dress}]
In all this I am taking no account of the German fashions, which I
must describe separately. Look at the drawings I have made of the
German fashion. I find that they leave me dumb--mere man has but a
limited vocabulary when the talk comes to clothes--and these dresses
that look like silk pumpkins, blistered and puffed and slashed, sewn
in ribs, swollen, and altogether so queer, are beyond the furious
dashes that my pen makes at truth and millinery. The costumes of the
people of this age have grown up in the minds of most artists as being
inseparable from the drawings of Holbein and Dürer.
[Illustration: {Two women of the time of Henry VIII.}]
Surely, I say to myself, most people who will read this will know
their Holbein and Dürer, between whom there lies a vast difference,
but who between them show, the one, the estate of England, and the
other, those most German fashions which had so powerful an influence
upon our own. Both these men show the profusion of richness, the
extravagant follies of the dress of their time, how, to use the words
of Pliny: 'We penetrate into the bowels of the earth, digging veins of
gold and silver, and ores of brass and lead; we seek also for gems and
certain little pebbles. Driving galleries into the depths, we draw out
the bowels of the earth, that the gems we seek may be worn on the
finger. How many hands are wasted in order that a single joint may
sparkle! If any hell there were, it had assuredly ere now been
disclosed by the borings of avarice and luxury!'
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF HENRY VIII. (1509-1547)
Notice the wide cuffs covered with gold network, and the rich panel
of the under-skirt.]
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Henry VIII.; three types of
sleeve}]
Or in the writings of Tertullian, called by Sigismund Feyerabendt,
citizen and printer of Frankfort, a 'most strict censor who most
severely blames women:' 'Come now,' says Tertullian, 'if from the
first both the Milesians sheared sheep, and the Chinese spun from the
tree, and the Tyrians dyed and the Phrygians embroidered, and the
Babylonians inwove; and if pearls shone and rubies flashed, if gold
itself, too, came up from the earth with the desire for it; and if
now, too, no lying but the mirror's were allowed, Eve, I suppose,
would have desired these things on her expulsion from Paradise, and
when spiritually dead.'
One sees by the tortured and twisted German fashion that the hair was
plaited, and so, in curves and twists, dropped into coarse gold-web
nets, thrust into web nets with velvet pouches to them, so that the
hair stuck out behind in a great knob, or at the side in two
protuberances; over all a cap like to the man's, but that it was
infinitely more feathered and jewelled. Then, again, they wore those
hideous barbes or beard-like linen cloths, over the chin, and an
infinite variety of caps of linen upon their heads--caps which showed
always the form of the head beneath.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Henry VIII.; three types of
hat for women}]
In common with the men, their overcoats and cloaks were voluminous,
and needed to be so if those great sleeves had to be stuffed into
them; fur collars or silk collars, with facings to match, were rolled
over to show little or great expanses of these materials.
Here, to show what dainty creatures were our lady ancestors, to show
from what beef and blood and bone we come, I give you (keep your eye
meanwhile upon the wonderful dresses) the daily allowance of a Maid of
Honour.
Every morning at breakfast one chyne of beef from the
kitchen, one chete loaf and one maunchet at the pantry
bar, and one gallon of ale at the buttery bar.
For dinner a piece of beef, a stroke of roast and a
reward from the kitchen. A caste of chete bread from the
pantry bar, and a gallon of ale at the buttery bar.
Afternoon--should they suffer the pangs of hunger--a
maunchet of bread from the pantry bar, and a gallon of
ale at the buttery bar.
Supper, a messe of pottage, a piece of mutton and a
reward from the kitchen. A caste of chete bread from the
pantry bar, and a gallon of ale at the buttery bar.
After supper--to insure a good night's rest--a chete
loaf and a maunchet from the pantry bar, and half a
gallon of ale from the seller bar.
Four and a half gallons of ale! I wonder did they drink it all
themselves? All this, and down in the mornings in velvets and silks,
with faces as fresh as primroses.
It is the fate of all articles of clothing or adornment, naturally
tied or twisted, or folded and pinned by the devotees of fashion, to
become, after some little time, made up, ready made, into the shapes
which had before some of the owner's mood and personality about them.
These hoods worn by the women, these wide sleeves to the gowns, these
hanging sleeves to the overcoats, the velvet slip of under-dress, all,
in their time, became falsified into ready-made articles. With the
hoods you can see for yourselves how they lend themselves by their
shape to personal taste; they were made up, all ready sewn; where pins
had been used, the folds of velvet at the back were made steadfast,
the crimp of the white linen was determined, the angle of the
side-flap ruled by some unwritten law of mode. In the end, by a
process of evolution, the diamond shape disappeared, and the cap was
placed further back on the head, the contour being circular where it
had previously been pointed. The velvet hanging-piece remained at the
back of the head, but was smaller, in one piece, and was never pinned
up, and the entire shape gradually altered towards, and finally into,
the well-known Mary Queen of Scots head-dress, with which every reader
must be familiar.
[Illustration: {Two women of the time of Henry VIII.}]
It has often occurred to me while writing this book that the absolute
history of one such head-dress would be of more help than these
isolated remarks, which have to be dropped only to be taken up in
another reign, but I have felt that, after all, the arrangement is
best as it stands, because we can follow, if we are willing, the
complete wardrobe of one reign into the next, without mixing the two
up. It is difficult to keep two interests running together, but I
myself have felt, when reading other works on the subject, that the
way in which the various articles of clothing are mixed up is more
disturbing than useful.
The wide sleeve to the gown, once part and parcel of the gown, was at
last made separate from it--as a cuff more than a sleeve naturally
widening--and in the next reign, among the most fashionable, left out
altogether. The upper part of the dress, once cut low and square to
show the under-dress, or a vest of other stuff, was now made, towards
the end of the reign, with a false top of other stuff, so replacing
the under-dress.
Lacing was carried to extremes, so that the body was pinched into the
hard roll-like appearance always identified with this time; on the
other hand, many, wiser women I should say, were this the place for
morals, preferred to lace loose, and show, beneath the lacing, the
colour of the under-dress.
Many were the varieties of girdle and belt, from plain silk sashes
with tasselled ends to rich jewelled chain girdles ending in heavy
ornaments.
For detail one can do no better than go to Holbein, the master of
detail, and to-day, when photographs of pictures are so cheap, and
lives of painters, copiously illustrated, are so easily attainable at
low prices, it is the finest education, not only in painting, but in
Tudor atmosphere and in matters of dress, to go straightway and study
the master--that master who touched, without intention, on the moral
of his age when he painted a miniature of the Blessed Thomas More on
the back of a playing card.
EDWARD THE SIXTH
Reigned six years: 1547-1553.
Born, 1537.
THE MEN AND WOMEN
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Edward VI.; a type of hat}]
Here we have a reign which, from its very shortness, can hardly be
expected to yield us much in the way of change, yet it shows, by very
slight movements, that form of growth which preludes the great changes
to come.
I think I may call a halt here, and proceed to tell you why this
volume is commenced with Henry VII., called the Tudor and Stuart
volume, and ends with the Cromwells. It is because, between these
reigns, the tunic achieves maturity, becomes a doublet, and dies,
practically just in the middle of the reign of Charles II. of pungent
memory. The peculiar garment, or rather, this garment peculiar to a
certain time, runs through its various degrees of cut. It is, at
first, a loose body garment with skirts; the skirts become arranged in
precise folds, the folds on the skirt are shortened, the shorter they
become the tighter becomes the coat; then we run through with this
coat in its periods of puffings, slashings, this, that, and the other
sleeve, all coats retaining the small piece of skirt or basque, and so
to the straight, severe Cromwellian jerkin with the piece of skirt cut
into tabs, until the volume ends, and hey presto! there marches into
history a Persian business--a frock coat, straight, trim, quite a near
cousin to our own garment of afternoon ceremony.
For a sign of the times it may be mentioned that a boy threw his cap
at the Host just at the time of the Elevation.
To Queen Elizabeth has been given the palm for the wearing of the
first silk stockings in England, but it is known that Sir Thomas
Gresham gave a pair of silk stockings to Edward VI.
We now see a more general appearance in the streets of the flat cap
upon the heads of citizens. The hood, that eminently practical
head-gear, took long to die, and, when at last it went out of fashion,
except among the labouring classes, there came in the cap that now
remains to us in the cap of the Beefeaters at the Tower of London.
[Illustration: {Two men of the time of Edward VI.}]
It is the time of jerkin or jacket, doublet or coat, and
hose--generally worn with trunks, which were puffed, short
knickerbockers.
The flat cap, afterwards the statute cap as ordered by Elizabeth,
became, as I say, the ordinary head-wear, though some, no doubt, kept
hoods upon their heavy travelling cloaks. This cap, which some of the
Bluecoat Boys still wear, was enforced upon the people by Elizabeth
for the encouragement of the English trade of cappers. 'One cap of
wool, knit, thicked, and dressed in England,' was to be worn by all
over six years of age, except such persons as had 'twenty marks by
year in lands, and their heirs, and such as have borne office of
worship.'
Edward, according to the portraits, always wore a flat cap, the base
of the crown ornamented with bands of jewels.
The Bluecoat Boys, and long may they have the sense to keep to their
dress, show us exactly the ordinary dress of the citizen, except that
the modern knickerbocker has taken the place of the trunks. Also, the
long skirts of these blue coats were, in Edward's time, the mark of
the grave man, others wore these same skirts cut to the knee.
That peculiar fashion of the previous reign--the enormously
broad-shouldered appearance--still held in this reign to some extent,
though the collars of the jerkins, or, as one may more easily know
them, overcoats or jackets, open garments, were not so wide, and
allowed more of the puffed shoulder of the sleeve to show. Indeed, the
collar became quite small, as in the Windsor Holbein painting of
Edward, and the puff in the shoulders not so rotund.
The doublet of this reign shows no change, but the collar of the shirt
begins to show signs of the ruff of later years. It is no larger, but
is generally left untied with the ornamental strings hanging.
Antiquarian research has, as it often does, muddled us as to the
meaning of the word 'partlet.' Fairholt, who is very good in many
ways, puts down in his glossary, 'Partlet: A gorget for women.' Then
he goes on to say that a partlet may be goodness knows what else.
Minshein says they are 'part of a man's attire, as the loose collar of
a doublet, to be set on or taken off by itself, without the bodies, as
the picadillies now a daies, or as mens' bands, or womens'
neckerchiefs, which are in some, or at least have been within memorie,
called partlets.'
Sir F. Madden says: 'The partlet evidently appears to have been the
corset or habit-shirt worn at that period, and which so commonly
occurs in the portraits of the time, generally made of velvet and
ornamented with precious stones.'
[Illustration: A MAN AND WOMAN OF THE TIME OF EDWARD VI. (1547-1553)
The change from the dress of the previous reign should be easily
noticed, especially in the case of the woman. This dress is, of
course, of the plainest in this time.]
Hall, the author of 'Satires,' 1598, speaks of a man, an
effeminate dandy, as wearing a partlet strip. It appears to me, who am
unwillingly forced into judging between so many learned persons, that,
from all I have been able to gather from contemporary records and
papers, the partlet is indeed, as Minshein says, 'the loose collar of
a doublet,' in reality the same thing as a shirt band.
[Illustration: {Two men of the time of Edward VI.}]
Henry VIII. wore a band about his neck, the forerunner of the ruff.
Some of his bands were of silver cloth with ruffs to them, others, as
I have shown, were wonderfully embroidered.
In this case, then, the partlet is head of the family tree to our own
collar, 'to be set on or taken off by itself,' and so by way of ruff,
valued at threescore pound price apiece, to plain bands, to falling
bands, laced neckcloth, stock--to the nine pennyworth of misery we
bolt around our necks.
Dress, on the whole, is much plainer, sleeves are not so full of cuts
and slashes, and they fit more closely to the arm. The materials are
rich, but the ornament is not so lavish; the portrait of Edward by
Gwillim Stretes is a good example of ornament, rich but simple. Shoes
are not cut about at the toe quite with the same splendour, but are
still broad in the toe.
For the women, it may be said that the change towards simplicity is
even more marked. The very elaborate head-dress, the folded,
diamond-shaped French hood has disappeared almost entirely, and, for
the rich, the half hoop, set back from the forehead with a piece of
velvet or silk to hang down the back, will best describe the
head-gear. From that to the centre-pointed hoop shows the trend of the
shape. This latest form of woman's head apparel was born, I think, out
of the folds of the linen cap worn in the house, and this, being
repeated in the velvet night-caps, became the extreme of fashion. The
drawing will show how the square end of the linen cap, falling in the
centre of the circular cap-shape, cut the semicircle and overlapped
it, thus giving the appearance later to become exaggerated into a form
cut especially to that shape. (I try to be as lucid as I can manage,
but the difficulties of describing such evolutions in any but tangled
language I leave the reader to imagine.)
[Illustration: {Two women of the time of Edward VI.; two types of
head-dress}]
The women are also wearing cloth hoods, rather baggy cap-like hoods,
with a hanging-piece behind.
The most notable change is the collar of the gown, which suddenly
springs into existence. It is a high collar and very open in front,
showing a piece of the under-dress. On this collar is sewn--what I
shall call--the woman's partlet, as the embroidery is often detachable
and answers the same purpose as the man's partlet; this later became a
separate article, and was under-propped with wires to hold it out
stiffly.
The same stiff-bodied appearance holds good, but in more simple
dresses the skirts were not quite as voluminous as heretofore.
With overcoats in general the hanging sleeve is being worn, the arm of
the wearer coming out just below the puffed shoulder-piece.
With these remarks we may safely go on to the reign of Mary; another
reign which does not yield us much in the way of clothes.
MARY
Reigned five years: 1553-1558.
Born, 1516. Married, 1554, Philip of Spain.
THE MEN AND WOMEN
I cannot do better than commence this chapter by taking you back to
the evening of August 3, 1553. Mary, with her half-sister Elizabeth,
entered London on this date. At Aldgate she was met by the Mayor of
London, who gave her the City sword. From the Antiquarian Repertory
comes this account:
'First, the citizens' children walked before her
magnificently dressed; after followed gentlemen habited
in velvets of all sorts, some black, others in white,
yellow, violet, and carnation; others wore satins or
taffety, and some damasks of all colours, having plenty
of gold buttons; afterwards followed the Mayor, with the
City Companies, and the chiefs or masters of the several
trades; after them, the Lords, richly habited, and the
most considerable knights; next came the ladies, married
and single, in the midst of whom was the Queen herself,
mounted on a small white ambling nag, the housings of
which were fringed with gold thread; about her were six
lacqueys, habited in vests of gold.
'The Queen herself was dressed in violet velvet, and was
then about forty years of age, and rather fresh
coloured.
'Before her were six lords bareheaded, each carrying in
his hand a yellow mace, and some others bearing the arms
and crown. Behind her followed the archers, as well of
the first as the second guard.
'She was followed by her sister, named Madame Elizabeth,
in truth a beautiful Princess, who was also accompanied
by ladies both married and single.'
In the crowds about the city waiting to stare at the new Queen as she
passed by, one could recognise the various professions by their
colours. The trained bands in white doublets with the City arms before
and behind; lawyers in black; sheriffs and aldermen in furred gowns
with satin sleeves; citizens in brown cloaks and workers in cloth or
leather doublets; citizens' servants in blue liveries; gentlemen's
servants in very gorgeous liveries of their masters' colours. Here is
a description of a gentleman's page and his clothes:
'One doublet of yelow million fustian, th'one halfe
buttoned with peche-colour buttons, and the other half
laced downwards; one payer of peche-colour, laced with
smale tawnye lace; a graye hat with a copper edge rounde
about it, with a band p'cell of the same hatt; a payer
of watchet (blue) stockings. Likewise he hath twoe
clokes, th'one of vessey colour, garded with twoe yards
of black clothe and twisted lace of carnacion colour,
and lyned with crymsone bayes; and th'other is a red
shipp russet colour, striped about th'cape and down the
fore face, twisted with two rows of twisted lace, russet
and gold buttons afore and uppon the shoulder, being of
the clothe itself, set with the said twisted lace and
the buttons of russet silk and gold.'
This will give some notion of the elaborate liveries worn, and also it
will show how, having understood the forms of the garments and the
material which may be used, the rest, ornament and fancy, depend on
the sense of the reader.
A change has come over the streets, the town is full of Spaniards
come over with Philip, and these bring with them many innovations in
dress. The most noticeable is the high-peaked Spanish hat, a velvet
bag with a narrow brim, worn on one side of the head. There is, also,
a hard-crowned hat, round the crown-base of which is a gold cord
clasped by a jewel; a feather is stuck into this hat. Yet the mass of
citizens wear the flat cap, some of them, the older men, have a coif
tied under their chins, and over this the flat cap. Again, older men
wear black velvet skull caps.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Mary}]
With these Spaniards comes, also, the first appearance of the ruff,
very neat and small.
Although the overcoats of Henry's and Edward's reigns still form the
principal wear, the short Spanish cloak has come in, cut in full
folds, and reaching not far below the waist. They also brought in the
cloak with a turned up high collar; and some had sleeves to their
cloaks.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF MARY (1553-1558)
The half-way between the dress of 1530 and 1560. A cloak very much
of the period, and a tunic in the state of evolution towards the
doublet.]
One sees more beards and moustaches, short clipped beards, and beards
with two points.
Shoes are now more to the shape of the foot, and high boots strapped
up over the knee, also half-boots with the tops turned over to be
seen. Often, where the hose meet the trunks, these are turned down.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Mary; two types of boot}]
The doublets become shaped more closely to the body, all showing the
gradual change towards the Elizabethan costume, but still retaining
the characteristics of earlier times, as the long skirt to the
doublet, and the opening to show the collar of the shirt, or partlet
strip.
Ladies now show more hair, parted, as before, in the centre, but now
puffed out at the sides.
The new shape of head-dress becomes popular, and the upstanding collar
to the gown is almost universal.
The gowns themselves, though retaining the same appearance as before,
full skirts, no trains, big sleeves, and split to show the
under-gown, have the top part of the gown covering the bosom made of
a separate material, as, for instance, a gown of fine cloth will have
collar and yoke of velvet.
Women wear neat linen caps, made very plain and close to the head,
with small ear-pieces.
[Illustration: {Three men of the time of Mary}]
On the shoulders there is a fashion of wearing kerchiefs of linen or
silk, white as a rule; white, in fact, is frequently used for dresses,
both for men and women.
The custom of carrying small posies of flowers comes in, and it is
interesting to see the Queen, in her portrait by Antonio More,
carrying a bunch of violets arranged exactly as the penny bunches
sold now in our streets.
There was, in most dresses, a great profusion of gold buttons, and the
wearing of gold chains was common--in fact, a gold chain about the
neck for a man, and a gold chain girdle for a woman, were part of the
ordinary everyday dress.
[Illustration: {Two types of head-dress for women; two types of
collar}]
You will realize that to one born in the reign of Henry VIII. the
appearance of people now was very different, and, to anyone as far
away as we are now, the intervening reigns of Edward and Mary are
interesting as showing the wonderful quiet change that could take
place in those few years, and alter man's exterior from the appearance
of a playing-card, stiff, square, blob-footed, to the doublet and hose
person with a cart-wheel of a ruff, which recalls to us Elizabethan
dress.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF QUEEN MARY (1553-1558)
The habit of wearing flowers in the opening of the dress was
frequent at this time, was, in fact, begun about this reign. One can
easily see in this dress the ground-work of the Elizabethan fashion,
the earliest of which was an exaggeration of this costume.]
ELIZABETH
Reigned 45 years: 1558-1603.
THE MEN
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Elizabeth}]
Here we are in the middle of great discoveries with adventurers, with
Calvin and Michael Angelo, living and dying, and Galileo and
Shakespeare seeing light--in the very centre and heart of these
things, and we and they discussing the relations of the law to linen.
How, they and we ask, are breeches, and slop-hose cut in panes, to be
lined? In such writings we are bound to concern ourselves with the
little things that matter, and in this reign we meet a hundred little
things, little fussy things, the like of which we leave alone to-day.
But this is not quite true. To-day a man, whether he cares to admit
it or no, is for ever choosing patterns, colours, shades, styles to
suit his own peculiar personality. From the cradle to the grave we are
decked with useless ornaments--bibs, sashes, frills, little jackets,
neat ties, different coloured boots, clothes of ceremony, clothes
supposed to be in harmony with the country, down, at last, to the
clothes of an old gentleman, keeping a vague reminder of twenty,
thirty years ago in their style, and then--grave clothes.
How well we know the Elizabethan! He is a stock figure in our
imagination; he figured in our first schoolboy romances, he strutted
in the first plays we saw. Because it was an heroic time we hark back
to it to visualize it as best we may so that we can come nearer to our
heroes--Drake, Raleigh, and the rest. The very names of the garments
arouse associations--ruff, trunks, jumper, doublet, jerkin, cloak,
bone-bobbin lace, and lace of Flanders--they almost take one's breath
away.
Here comes a gentleman in a great ruff, yellow-starched, an egg-shaped
pearl dangles from one ear. One hand rests on his padded hip, the
other holds a case of toothpicks and a napkin; he is going to his
tavern to dine. His doublet is bellied like a pea's cod, and his
breeches are bombasted, his little hat is stuck on one side and the
feather in it curls over the brim. His doublet is covered with a
herring-bone pattern in silk stitches, and is slashed all over. He is
exaggerated, monstrous; he is tight-laced; his trunks stick out a foot
all round him, and his walk is, in consequence, a little affected;
but, for all that, he is a gallant figure.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Elizabeth}]
Behind him comes a gentleman in loose knee-breeches barred with
velvet; at the knee he has a frill of lace. His jerkin is not stuffed
out, and his ruff is not starched to stick up round his head. His hair
is cut in three points, one over each ear and the third over the
centre of his forehead, where we see a twisted lock tied with ribbon.
We seem to know these people well--very well. The first, whose clothes
are of white silk sewn with red and blue, whose trunk hose have clocks
of silk sewn on them, reminds us of whom? And the second gentleman in
green and red, with heels of red on his shoes? Suddenly there flashes
across our memory the picture of a lighted stage, a row of shops, a
policeman, and then a well-known voice calling, 'Hello, Joey, here we
are again!'
Here we are again after all these centuries--clown and pantaloon, the
rustic with red health on his face, the old man in Venetian slops--St.
Pantaloone--just as Elizabethan, humour included, as anything can well
be.
Then, enter Harlequin in his clothes of gorgeous patches; the quick,
almost invisible thief, the instigator of all the evil and magic. His
patches and rags have grown to symmetrical pattern, his loose doublet
has become this tight-fitting lizard skin of flashing gold and
colours, but his atmosphere recalls the great days.
To these enter 1830--Columbine--an early Victorian lady, who contrives
to look sweetly modest in the shortest and frilliest of skirts; she
looks like a rose, a rose on two pink stalks. She, being so different,
gives the picture just the air of magic incongruity. Once, years ago,
she was dressed in rags like Harlequin, but I suppose that the age of
sentiment clothed her in her ballet costume rather than see her in her
costly tatters.
We are a conservative nation, and we like our own old jokes so much
that we have kept through the ages this extraordinary pleasing
entertainment straight down, clothes and all, from the days of Queen
Elizabeth.
Even as we dream of this, and the harlequinade dazzles our eyes, the
dream changes--a new sound is heard, a sound from the remote past,
too. We listen eagerly, clown, pantaloon, harlequin, and columbine
vanish to the sound of the pan-pipes and the voice of Punch.
'Root-ti-toot, rootity-toot!' There, by the corner of the quiet
square, is a tall box covered with checkered cloth. Above a man's
height is an opening, and on a tiny stage are two figures, one in a
doublet stiffened out like a pea pod, with a ruff hanging loose about
his neck, bands at his wrists, a cap on his head--Punch. The other
with a linen cap and a ruff round her neck--Judy. Below, on the ground
by the gentleman who bangs a drum and blows on the pan-pipes stuck in
his muffler, is a dog with a ruff round his neck--Toby. And we
know--delightful to think of it--that a box hidden by the check
covering, contains many curiously dressed figures--all friends of
ours. The world is certainly curious, and I suppose that an
Elizabethan revisiting us to-day would find but one thing the same,
the humour of the harlequinade and the Punch and Judy show.
Now let us get to the dull part. If you wish to swim in a sea of
allusions there are a number of books into which you may dive--
'Microcynicon.'
'Pleasant Quippes for Upstart Newfangled Gentlewomen.'
Hall's 'Satires.'
Stubbes' 'Anatomie of Abuses.'
'The Cobbler's Prophesie.'
'The Debate between Pride and Lowliness.'
'The Letting of Humours Blood in the Head Vaine.'
'The Wits Nurserie.'
Euphues' 'Golden Legacie.'
'Every Man out of his Humour.'
If you do not come out from these saturated with detail then you will
never absorb anything.
For the shapes, the doublet was a close-fitting garment, cut, if in
the Italian fashion, down to a long peak in front. They were made
without sleeves, like a waistcoat, and an epaulette overhung the
armhole. The sleeves were tied into the doublet by means of points
(ribbons with metal tags). These doublets were for a long time
stuffed or bombasted into the form known as 'pea's cod bellied' or
'shotten-bellied.'
The jerkin was a jacket with sleeves, and was often worn over the
doublet. The sleeves of the jerkin were often open from shoulder to
wrist to show the doublet sleeve underneath. These sleeves were very
wide, and were ornamented with large buttons.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Elizabeth; a travelling cloak;
a jerkin}]
The jornet was a loose travelling cloak.
The jumper a loose jerkin, worn for comfort or extra clothing in
winter.
Both doublet and jerkin had a little skirt or base.
[Illustration: {Three types of doublet; two types of epaulette}]
The very wide breeches known as trunks were worn by nearly everybody
in the early part of the reign, until they vied with Venetian breeches
for fashion. They were sometimes made of a series of wide bands of
different colours placed alternately; sometimes they were of bands,
showing the stuffed trunk hose underneath. They were stuffed with
anything that came handy--wool, rags, or bran--and were of such
proportions that special seats were put in the Houses of Parliament
for the gentlemen who wore them. The fashion at its height appears to
have lasted about eight years.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF ELIZABETH (1558-1603)
He wears a double linen collar, nearly as usual at this time as
the ruff. His trunk hose will be seen through the openings of his
trunks. His boots are held up by two leather straps. His cloak is
an Italian fashion.]
The Venetian breeches were very full at the top and narrowed to the
knee; they were slashed and puffed, or paned like lattice windows with
bars of coloured stuffs or gold lace.
The French breeches were tight and ruffled in puffs about the thighs.
The stockings were of yarn, or silk, or wool. They were gartered about
the knee, and pulled up over the breeches; but the man most proud of
his leg wore no garters, but depended on the shape of his leg and the
fit of his stocking to keep the position. These stockings were sewn
with clocks at the ankles, and had various patterns on them, sometimes
of gold or silver thread. Openwork stockings were known.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Elizabeth}]
The stockings and breeches were called, if the breeches were short and
the stockings all the way up the leg, trunk hose and trunks; if the
breeches came to the knee and the stockings just came over them, they
were known as upper stocks and nether stocks.
The shoes were shaped to the foot, and made of various leathers or
stuffs; a rose of ribbon sometimes decorated the shoes. There were
shoes with high cork soles called moyles. Of course, there were
gallants who did things no one else thought of doing--wearing very
square-toed shoes, for instance, or cock feathers in their hair.
The sturtops were boots to the ankle.
[Illustration: {Three types of hat for men; three type of breeches
and stockings}]
As for the hair, we have the love-lock tied with ribbons, the very
same that we see caricatured in the wigs of clown and pantaloon. We
have, also, hair left fairly long and brushed straight back from the
forehead, and short-cropped hair. Beards and moustaches are worn by
most.
They wore little cloaks covered with embroidery, lace, sometimes even
with pearls. For winter or for hard travelling the jornet or loose
cloak was worn.
The older and more sedate wore long stuff gowns with hanging sleeves;
these gowns, made to fit at the waist and over the trunks, gave an
absurd Noah's ark-like appearance to the wearers. Those who cared
nothing for the fashions left their gowns open and wore them loose.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Elizabeth}]
The common people wore simple clothes of the same cut as their
lords--trunks or loose trousers, long hose, and plain jerkins or
doublets. In the country the fashions alter, as a rule, but little;
however, in this reign Corydon goes to meet Sylvia in somewhat
fashionable clothes. Lodge says: 'His holiday suit marvellous seemly,
in a russet jacket, welted with the same, and faced with red worsted,
having a pair of blue camblet sleeves, bound at the wrists with four
yellow laces, closed before very richly with a dozen pewter buttons.
His hose of gray kersey, with a large slop barred all across the
pocket holes with three fair guards, stitched on either side with red
thread.' His stockings are also gray kersey, tied with different
coloured laces; his bonnet is green, and has a copper brooch with the
picture of St. Dennis. 'And to want nothing that might make him
amorous in his old days, he had a fair shirt-band of white lockeram,
whipt over with Coventry blue of no small cost.'
[Illustration: {Three men of the time of Elizabeth; a sleeve}]
The hats worn vary in shape from steeple-crowned, narrow-brimmed
hats, to flat, broad-crowned hats; others show the coming tendency
towards the broad-brimmed Jacobean hat. Round these hats were hatbands
of every sort, gold chains, ruffled lace, silk or wool.
[Illustration: {Five types of hat for men}]
I think we may let these gallants rest now to walk among the shades--a
walking geography of clothes they are, with French doublets, German
hose, Spanish hats and cloaks, Italian ruffs, Flemish shoes; and these
with chalked faces, fuzzed periwigs of false hair, partlet strips,
wood busks to keep straight slim waists, will make the shades laugh
perhaps, or perhaps only sigh, for there are many in that dim wardrobe
of fashions who are still more foolish, still more false, than these
Elizabethans.
THE WOMEN
Now this is the reign of the ruff and the monstrous hoop and the wired
hair. As a companion to her lord, who came from the hands of his
barber with his hair after the Italian manner, short and round and
curled in front and frizzed, or like a Spaniard, long hair at his ears
curled at the two ends, or with a French love-lock dangling down his
shoulders, she--his lady--sits under the hands of her maid, and tries
various attires of false _hair_, principally of a yellow colour. Every
now and again she consults the looking-glass hanging on her girdle;
sometimes she dresses her hair with chains of gold, from which jewels
or gold-work tassels hang; sometimes she, too, allows a love-lock to
rest upon her shoulder, or fall negligently on her ruff.
Even the country girl eagerly waits for news of the town fashions, and
follows them as best she may.
In the early part of the reign the simple costume of the previous
reign was still worn, and even the court ladies were quietly, though
richly, dressed.
In the first two years the ruff remained a fairly small size, and was
made of holland, which remained stiff, and held the folds well; but
later, there entered several Dutch ladies, headed by Mistress Dingham
Vander Plasse, of Flanders, in 1564, who taught her pupils the art of
starching cambric, and the art of folding, cutting, and pinching ruffs
at five pounds a head, and the art of making starch, at the price of
one pound.
First, the lady put on her underpropper of wire and holland, and then
she would place with a great nicety her ruff of lace, or linen, or
cambric. One must understand that the ruff may be great or small, that
only the very fashionable wore such a ruff as required an
underpropper, and that the starched circular ruff would stand by
itself without the other appliance.
[Illustration: {Twelve types of head-dress and collar or ruff for
women}]
Before the advent of the heavily-jewelled and embroidered stomacher,
and the enormous spread of skirt, the dress was a modification of that
worn by the ladies in the time of Henry VIII. First, a gown cut square
across the bosom and low over the shoulders, full sleeves ending in
bands of cambric over the hands (these sleeves slit to show puffs of
cambric from the elbow to the wrist), the skirt full and long, but
without any train; the whole fitted well to the figure as far as
the waist, and very stiff in front. Over this a second gown, generally
of plain material, split above in a V-shape, split below at the waist,
and cut away to show the under-gown. The sleeves of this gown were
wide, and were turned back or cut away just by the elbow. Both gowns
were laced up the back. This second gown had, as a rule, a high,
standing collar, which was lined with some rich silk or with lace.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF ELIZABETH (1558-1603)]
[Illustration: {Four women of the time of Elizabeth}]
This shape gave way to a more exaggerated form, and finally to many
varieties of exaggeration. The lady might wear a jerkin like in shape
to a man's, except that often it was cut low and square over the
bosom, and was not stuffed quite so much in front; every variety of
rich material was used for this jerkin, and the sleeves were as varied
as were the man's, split and tied with ribbons. False sleeves
attached at the shoulders, and left to hang loose, puffed, slashed all
over, with or without bands of cambric or lace at the wrists; these
bands sometimes were frills, sometimes stiffened and turned back. No
person except royalty might wear crimson except in under-garments, and
the middle class were not allowed to wear velvet except for sleeves.
This jerkin was sometimes worn buttoned up, like a man's, to the neck,
and when the hoops came into fashion and were worn high up near the
waist, the basque or flounce at the bottom of the jerkin was made
long, and pleated full to the top of the hooped petticoat.
The plainer fashion of this was a gown buttoned high--up to the
ruff--and opened from the waist to the feet to show a full petticoat
of rich material; this was the general wear of the more sober-minded.
Sometimes a cape was worn over the head and shoulders, not a shaped
cape, but a plain, oblong piece of stuff. The ladies sometimes wore
the shaped cape, with the high collar that the men wore. The French
hood with a short liripipe was worn by country ladies; this covered
the hair, showing nothing but a neat parting in front.
The openwork lace bonnet, of the shape so well known by the portraits
of Queen Mary of Scotland, is not possible to exactly describe in
writing; one variety of it may be seen in the line drawing given. It
is made of cambric and cut lace sewn on to wires bent into the shape
required.
[Illustration: {Two women of the time of Elizabeth}]
In such a time of extravagance in fashion the additions one may make
to any form of dress in the way of ribbons, bows, sewn pearls, cuts,
slashes, and puffs are without number, and I can only give the
structure on which such ornamental fripperies can be placed. The hair,
for example, can be dressed with pearls, rings of gold, strings of
pearls, feathers, or glass ornaments. Men and women wore monstrous
earrings, but curiously enough this fashion was more common to men
than women. Hats were interchangeable, more especially the trim hat
with a feather, in shape like those worn by the Yeoman of the Guard,
but smaller.
The shoulder pinions of the jerkins were puffed, slashed, and
beribboned in every way. The wing sleeves, open from the shoulder all
the way down, were so long sometimes as to reach the ground, and were
left hanging in front, or thrown back over the shoulders, the better
to display the rich under-sleeve.
The ladies' shoes were cork-soled, high-heeled, and round-toed. The
girdles were of every stuff, from gold cord, curiously knotted, to
twisted silk; from these hung looking-glasses, and in them were stuck
the embroidered and scented gloves.
Ladies went masked about the streets and in the theatres, or if they
wished to be unconventional, they sat in the playing booths unmasked,
their painted faces exposed to the public gaze.
The shoes with the high cork soles, to which I have just alluded, were
in common use all over Europe, and were of all heights--from two
inches to seven or eight--and they were called _chopines_. They were
not such a foolish custom as might appear, for they protected the
wearer from the appalling filth of the streets. The tall chopines that
Hamlet mentions were really very high-soled slippers, into which the
richly-embroidered shoes were placed to protect them when the ladies
walked abroad. The shoes were made of leather and velvet stitched with
silk, embroidered with gold, or stamped with patterns, slashed
sometimes, and sometimes laced with coloured silk laces.
Some ladies wore bombazines, or a silk and cotton stuff made at
Norwich, and bone lace made at Honiton, both at that time the newest
of English goods, although before made in Flanders; and they imported
Italian lace and Venetian shoes, stuffed their stomachers with
bombast, and wore a frontlet on their French hoods, called a
_bongrace_, to keep their faces from sunburn.
Cambric they brought from Cambrai in France, and calico from Calicut
in India--the world was hunted high and low for spoil to deck these
gorgeous, stiff, buckramed people, so that under all this load of
universal goods one might hardly hope to find more than a clothes
prop; in fact, one might more easily imagine the overdressed figure to
be a marvellous marionette than a decent Englishwoman.
[Illustration: {Four women of the time of Elizabeth}]
[Illustration: {Two women of the time of Elizabeth}]
Falstaff will not wear coarse dowlas shirts, dandies call for ostrich
feathers, ladies must have Coventry blue gowns and Italian flag-shaped
fans; everybody is in the fashion from milkmaids to ladies of the
court, each as best as they may manage it. The Jew moves about the
streets in his long gaberdine and yellow cap, the lady pads about her
garden in tall chopines, and the gentleman sits down as well as he may
in his bombasted breeches and smokes Herbe de la Reine in a pipe of
clay, and the country woman walks along in her stamell red petticoat
guarded or strapped with black, or rides past to market in her
over-guard skirts.
Let us imagine, by way of a picture of the times, the Queen in her
bedchamber under the hands of her tiring-women: She is sitting before
a mirror in her embroidered chemise of fine Raynes linen, in her
under-linen petticoat and her silk stockings with the gold thread
clocks. Over these she wears a rich wrap. Slippers are on her feet. In
front of her, on a table, are rouge and chalk and a pad of
cotton-wool--already she has made up her face, and her bright
bird-like eyes shine in a painted mask, her strong face, her hawk-like
nose and her expressionless mouth reflect back at her from the mirror.
Beside the rouge pot is a Nuremberg egg watch, quietly ticking in its
crystal case. One of the women brings forward a number of attires of
false hair, golden and red, and from these the Queen chooses one. It
is a close periwig of tight red curls, among which pearls and pieces
of burnished metal shine. With great care this wig is fastened on to
the Queen's head, and she watches the process with her bright eyes and
still features in the great mirror.
Then, when this wig is fixed to her mind, she rises, and is helped
into the privie coat of bones and buckram, which is laced tightly by
the women at her back. Now comes the moment when they are about to
fasten on her whalebone hips the great farthingale--over which her
voluminous petticoats and skirts will fall. The wheel of bone is tied
with ribbons about her waist, and there securely fastened. After some
delay in choosing an under-gown, she then puts on several linen
petticoats, one over another, to give the required fulness to her
figure; and then comes the stiffly-embroidered under-gown--in this
case but a petticoat with a linen bodice which has no sleeves.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF ELIZABETH (1558-1603)
Compare this with the other plate showing the opposite fashion.]
With great care she seats herself on a broad chair, and a perfect army
of ruffs is laid before her. As the tire-woman is displaying the ruffs
she talks to the Queen, and tells her that peculiar story, then
current, of the Lady of Antwerp, who was in a great way because she
could not get her ruff to set aright, and when in a passion she
called upon the devil to take it, as if in answer to the summons a
young and handsome gentleman appeared. Together they tried the ruff,
and the young gentleman suddenly strangled the lady and vanished. Now
when they came to carry away the coffin of the lady some days later,
it was found that no one could lift it, so, in the end, it was opened,
and there, to the surprise of everybody, sat a great black cat setting
a ruff. The Queen's eyes twinkle on this story, for she has a great
fund of dry humour--and so, to the business of the ruffs. First one
and then another is discarded; and finally the choice falls between
one of great size, shaped like a catherine-wheel and starched blue,
and the other of three depths but not of such great circumference,
starched yellow, after the receipt of Mrs. Turner, afterwards hung at
Tyburn in a ruff of the same colour.
The Queen wavers, and the tire-woman recommends the smaller bands:
'This, madame, is one of those ruffs made by Mr. Higgins, the tailor
near to St. James's, where he has set up an establishment for the
making of such affairs--it is a picadillie, and would----'
The Queen stops her and chooses the ruff; it is very much purled into
folds, and it bristles with points.
The women approach with a crimson over-gown and slips it over the
Queen's head--it is open in front to show the rich petticoat, and it
has great stuffed wings, epaulettes, or mahoitres on the shoulders.
The tight-fitting bodice of the gown is buttoned up to the throat, and
is stuffed out in front to meet the fall of the hoops; it has falling
sleeves, but the real sleeves are now brought and tied to the points
attached to the shoulders of the gown. They are puffed sleeves of the
same material as the under-gown, and the falling sleeves of the upper
gown are now tied with one or two bows across them so that the effect
of the sleeves is much the same as the effect of the skirts; an
embroidered stuff showing in the opening of a plain material. These
are called virago sleeves.
This done, the strings of pearls are placed around the Queen's neck,
and then the underpropper or supportasse of wire and holland is
fastened on her neck, and the picadillie ruff laid over it. The Queen
exchanges her slippers for cork-soled shoes, stands while her girdle
is knotted, sees that the looking-glass, fan, and pomander are hung
upon it, and then, after a final survey of herself in the glass, she
calls for her muckinder or handkerchief, and--Queen Elizabeth is
dressed.
So in this manner the Queen struts down to posterity, a wonderful
woman in ridiculous clothes, and in her train we may dimly see Mr.
Higgins, the tailor, who named a street without knowing it, a street
known in every part of the civilized world; but, nowadays, one hardly
thinks of connecting Piccadilly with a lace ruff....
SHAKESPEARE AND CLOTHES
There are not so many allusions to Elizabethan dress in the plays of
Shakespeare as one might suppose upon first thought. One has grown so
accustomed to Shakespeare put on the stage in elaborate dresses that
one imagines, or one is apt to imagine, that there is a warrant for
some of the dresses in the plays. In some cases he confounds the
producer and the illustrator by introducing garments of his own date
into historical plays, as, for example, Coriolanus. Here are the
clothes allusions in that play:
'When you cast your stinking greasy caps,
You have made good work,
You and your apron-men.'
'Go to them with this bonnet in your hand.'
'Enter Coriolanus in a gown of humility.'
'Matrons fling gloves, ladies and maids their scarfs and
handkerchers.'
'The kitchen malkin pins her richest lockram[A] 'bout
her reechy neck.'
[A] 'Lockram' is coarse linen.
'Our veiled dames.'
'Commit the war of white and damask in their nicely
gawded cheeks to the wanton and spoil of Phoebus'
burning kisses.'
'Doublets that hangmen would bury with these that wore
them.'
I have not kept the lines in verse, but in a convenient way to show
their allusions.
In 'Pericles' we have mention of ruffs and bases. Pericles says:
'I am provided of a pair of bases.'
Certainly the bases might be made to appear Roman, if one accepts the
long slips of cloth or leather in Roman military dress as being
bases; but Shakespeare is really--as in the case of the
ruffs--alluding to the petticoats of the doublet of his time worn by
grave persons. Bases also apply to silk hose.
In 'Titus Andronicus' we have:
'An idiot holds his bauble for his God.'
Julius Cæsar is mentioned as an Elizabethan:
'He plucked ope his doublet.'
The Carpenter in 'Julius Cæsar' is asked:
'Where is thy leather apron and thy rule?'
The mob have 'sweaty night-caps.'
Cleopatra, in 'Antony and Cleopatra,' says:
'I'll give thee an armour all of gold.'
The 'Winter's Tale,' the action of which occurs in Pagan times, is
full of anachronisms. As, for instance, Whitsun pastorals, Christian
burial, an Emperor of Russia, and an Italian fifteenth-century
painter. Also:
'Lawn as white as driven snow;
Cyprus[B] black as ere was crow;
Gloves as sweet as damask roses;
Masks for faces and for noses;
Bugle-bracelet, necklace amber,
Perfume for a lady's chamber;
Golden quoifs and stomachers,
Pins and polking-sticks of steel.'
[B] Thin stuff for women's veils.
So, you see, Autolycus, the pedlar of these early times, is spoken of
as carrying polking-sticks with which to stiffen ruffs.
Shylock, in 'The Merchant of Venice,' should wear an orange-tawny
bonnet lined with black taffeta, for in this way were the Jews of
Venice distinguished in 1581.
In 'The Tempest' one may hear of rye-straw hats, of gaberdines,
rapiers, and a pied fool's costume.
In 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona' we hear:
'Why, then, your ladyship must cut your hair.'
'No, girl; I'll tie it up in silken strings
With twenty odd conceited true-love knot;
To be fantastic may become a youth
Of greater time than I shall show to be.'
Also:
'Since she did neglect her looking-glass,
And threw her sun-expelling mask away.'
Many ladies at this time wore velvet masks. 'The Merry Wives of
Windsor' gives us a thrummed hat, a muffler or linen to hide part of
the face, gloves, fans. Falstaff says:
'When Mistress Bridget lost the handle of her fan,
I took it up my honour thou had'st it not.'
Also:
'The firm fashion of thy foot would give an excellent
motion to thy fait in a semicircled farthingale.'
'Twelfth Night' is celebrated for us by Malvolio's cross garters. Sir
Toby, who considers his clothes good enough to drink in, says:
'So be these boots too: an they be not, let them hang
themselves in their own straps.'
Sir Toby also remarks to Sir Andrew upon the excellent constitution of
his leg, and Sir Andrew replied that:
'It does indifferent well in a flame-coloured stock.'
The Clown says:
'A sentence is but a cheveril[C] glove to a good wit.'
[C] 'Cheveril' is kid leather.
In 'Much Ado About Nothing' we learn of one who lies awake ten nights,
'carving the fashion of his doublet.' Also of one who is
'in the shape of two countries at once, as a German from
the waist downwards all slops, and a Spaniard from the
hip upward, no doublet.'
Again of a gown:
'Cloth of gold, and cuts, and laced with silver set with
pearls down sides, side sleeves, and skirts, round under
borne with a bluish tinsel.'
In 'As You Like It' one may show a careless desolation by ungartered
hose, unbanded bonnet, unbuttoned sleeve, and untied shoe.
'The Taming of the Shrew' tells of serving-men:
'In their new fustian and their white jackets.... Let
their blue coats be brushed, and their garters of an
indifferent knit.'
Also we have a cap 'moulded on a porringer.'
'Love's Labour's Lost' tells of:
'Your hat penthouse-like o'er the shop of your eyes;
with your arms crossed on your thin belly doublet like a
rabbit on a spit; or your hands in your pocket like a
man after the old painting.'
'All's Well that Ends Well':
'Why dost thou garter up thy arms o' this fashion? Dost
make a hose of thy sleeves?'
'Yonder's my lord your son with a patch of velvet on's
face: whether there be a scar under't or no, the velvet
knows.... There's a dozen of 'em, with delicate fine
hats and most courteous feathers, which bow the head and
nod at every man.'
In 'Henry IV.,' Part II., there is an allusion to the blue dress of
Beadles. Also:
'About the satin for my short cloak and slops.'
'The smooth-pates do now wear nothing but high shoes,
and bunches of keys at their girdles.'
'To take notice how many pair of silk stockings thou
hast, or to bear the inventory of thy shirts.'
There are small and unimportant remarks upon dress in other plays, as
dancing-shoes in 'Romeo and Juliet' and in 'Henry VIII.':
'The remains of fool and feather that they got in France.'
'Tennis and tall stockings,
Short blistered breeches and those types of travel.'
But in 'Hamlet' we find more allusions than in the rest. Hamlet is
ever before us in his black:
''Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black.'
'Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced;
No hat upon his head; his stockings fouled,
Ungartered, and down-goes to his ancle;
Pale as his shirt.'
'Your ladyship is nearer to heaven than when I saw you
last, by the altitude of a chopine.'[D]
[D] Shoes with very high soles.
'O, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious
periwig-pated fellow tear a passion into tatters.'
'With two provincial roses on my ragged shoes,
My sea-gown scarfed about me.'
Having read this, I think it will be seen that there is no such great
difficulty in costuming any play, except perhaps this last. There have
been many attempts to put 'Hamlet' into the clothes of the date of his
story, but even when the rest of the characters are dressed in skins
and cross-gartered trousers, when the Viking element is strongly
insisted upon, still there remains the absolutely Elizabethan figure
in inky black, with his very Elizabethan thoughts, the central figure,
almost the great symbol of his age.
JAMES THE FIRST
Reigned twenty-two years: 1603-1625.
Born 1566. Married 1589, Anne of Denmark.
THE MEN
This couplet may give a little sketch of the man we should now see
before us:
'His ruffe is set, his head set in his ruff;
His reverend trunks become him well enough.'
We are still in the times of the upstanding ruff; we are watching,
like sartorial gardeners, for the droop of this linen flower.
Presently this pride of man, and of woman too, will lose its
bristling, super-starched air, and will hang down about the necks of
the cavaliers; indeed, if we look very carefully, we see towards the
end of the reign the first fruits of elegance born out of Elizabethan
precision.
Now in such a matter lies the difficulty of presenting an age or a
reign in an isolated chapter. In the first place, one must endeavour
to show how a Carolean gentleman, meeting a man in the street, might
say immediately, 'Here comes one who still affects Jacobean clothes.'
Or how an Elizabethan lady might come to life, and, meeting the same
man, might exclaim, 'Ah! these are evidently the new fashions.' The
Carolean gentleman would notice at first a certain air of stiffness, a
certain padded arrangement, a stiff hat, a crisp ornament of feathers.
He would see that the doublet varied from his own in being more
slashed, or slashed in many more degrees. He would see that it was
stiffened into an artificial figure, that the little skirt of it was
very orderly, that the cut of the sleeves was tight. He would notice
also that the man's hair was only half long, giving an appearance not
of being grown long for beauty, but merely that it had not been cut
for some time. He would be struck with the preciseness, the correct
air of the man. He would see, unless the stranger happened to be an
exquisite fellow, that his shoes were plain, that the 'roses' on them
were small and neat. His trunks, he would observe, were wide and full,
but stiff. Mind you, he would be regarding this man with
seventeenth-century eyes--eyes which told him that he was himself an
elegant, careless fellow, dressed in the best of taste and
comfort--eyes which showed him that the Jacobean was a nice enough
person in his dress, but old-fashioned, grandfatherly.
To us, meeting the pair of them, I am afraid that a certain notion we
possess nowadays of cleanliness and such habits would oppress us in
the company of both, despite the fact that they changed their linen on
Sundays, or were supposed to do so. And we, in our absurd clothes,
with hard hats on our heads, and stiff collars tight about our necks,
creases in our trousers, and some patent invention of the devil on our
feet, might feel that the Jacobean gentleman looked and was untidy, to
say the least of it, and had better be viewed from a distance.
To the Elizabethan lady the case would be reversed. The man would show
her that the fashions for men had been modified since her day; she
would see that his hair was not kept in, what she would consider,
order; she would see that his ruff was smaller, and his hat brim was
larger. She would, I venture to think, disapprove of him, thinking
that he did not look so 'smart.'
For ourselves, I think we should distinguish him at once as a man who
wore very large knickerbockers tied at the knee, and, in looking at a
company of men of this time, we should be struck by the padding of
these garments to a preposterous size.
[Illustration: {Three men of the time of James I.; three types of
shoe; one type of boot}]
There has come into fashion a form of ruff cut square in front and
tied under the chin, which can be seen in the drawings better than it
can be described; indeed, the alterations in clothes are not easy to
describe, except that they follow the general movement towards
looseness. The trunks have become less like pumpkins and more like
loose, wide bags. The hats, some of them stiff and hard, show in
other forms an inclination to slouch. Doublets are often made loose,
and little sets of slashes appear inside the elbow of the sleeves,
which will presently become one long slash in Cavalier costumes.
We have still:
'Morisco gowns, Barbarian sleeves,
Polonian shoes, with divers far fetcht trifles;
Such as the wandering English galant rifles
Strange countries for.'
But we have not, for all that, the wild extravaganza of fashions that
marked the foregoing reign. Indeed, says another writer, giving us a
neat picture of a man:
'His doublet is
So close and pent as if he feared one prison
Would not be strong enough to keep his soul in,
But his taylor makes another;
And trust me (for I knew it when I loved Cupid)
He does endure much pain for poor praise
Of a neat fitting suit.'
To wear something abnormally tight seems to be the condition of the
world in love, from James I. to David Copperfield.
Naturally, a man of the time might be riding down the street across a
Scotch plaid saddle cloth and pass by a beggar dressed in clothes of
Henry VIII.'s time, or pass a friend looking truly Elizabethan--but he
would find generally that the short, swollen trunks were very little
worn, and also--another point--that a number of men had taken to
walking in boots, tall boots, instead of shoes.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of James I.; a variation of
breeches}]
As he rides along in his velvet cloak, his puffed and slashed doublet,
his silken hose, his hands gloved with embroidered gloves, or bared to
show his rings, smelling of scents, a chain about his neck, he will
hear the many street cries about him:
'Will you buy any sand, mistress?'
'Brooms, brooms for old shoes! Pouch-rings, boots, or
buskings! Will ye buy any new brooms?'
'New oysters, new oysters! New, new cockles!'
'Fresh herrings, cockels nye!'
'Will you buy any straw?'
'Hay yee any kitchen stuff, maids?'
'Pippins fine! Cherrie ripe, ripe, ripe!'
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF JAMES I. (1603-1625)
He shows the merging of the Elizabethan fashion into the fashion
of Charles I. The stiff doublet and the loose breeches, the plain
collar, and the ribbons at the knees. On his hawking glove is a
hawk, hooded and jessed.]
[Illustration: {Four men of the time of James I.; the bottom of a
doublet; an alternative collar; shoe and stocking}]
And he will pass apprentices, most of them still in flat caps, blue
doublets, and white cloth breeches and stockings, sewn all in one
piece, with daggers on their backs or at their sides. And then,
travelling with his man, he will come to his inn. For the life of me,
though it has little to do with dress, I must give this picture of an
inn from Fynes Moryson, which will do no harm, despite the fact that
Sir Walter Besant quoted some of it.
'As soon as a passenger comes to an Inn, the servants
run to him' (these would be in doublet and hose of some
plain colour, with shirt-collars to the doublets turned
down loose; the trunks would be wide and to the knee,
and there buttoned), 'and one takes his horse and walks
him till he be cool, then rubs him and gives him meat,
yet I must say that they are not much to be trusted in
this last point, without the eye of the Master or his
servant to oversee them. Another servant gives the
passenger his private chamber, and kindles his fire, the
third pulls off his boots and makes them clean' (these
two servants would be wearing aprons). 'Then the Host or
Hostess visits him, and if he will eat with the Host, or
at a common table with the others, his meal will cost
him sixpence, or in some places but fourpence, yet this
course is less honourable and not used by Gentlemen; but
if he will eat in his chamber' (he will retain his hat
within the house), 'he commands what meats he will
according to his appetite, and as much as he thinks fit
for him and his company, yea, the kitchen is open to
him, to command the meat to be dressed as he likes best;
and when he sits at table, the Host or Hostess will
accompany him, if they have many guests, will at least
visit him, taking it for courtesy to be bid sit down;
while he eats, if he have company especially, he shall
be offered music, which he may freely take or refuse,
and if he be solitary the musicians will give him good
day with music in the morning.
'It is the custom and in no way disgraceful to set up
part of supper for his breakfast.
'Lastly, a Man cannot more freely command at home in his
own house than he may do in his Inn, and at parting if
he give some few pence to the Chamberlin and Ostler they
wish him a happy journey.'
Beyond this and the drawings I need say no more.
The drawings will show how the points of a doublet may be varied, the
epaulette left or taken away, the little skirts cut or left plain.
They show you how a hat may be feathered and the correct shape of the
hat; how breeches may be left loose at the knee, or tied, or buttoned;
of the frills at the wrist and the ruffs at the neck--of everything, I
hope, that is necessary and useful.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of James I.}]
THE WOMEN
'What fashion will make a woman have the best body,
tailor?'
'A short Dutch waist, with a round Catherine-wheel
fardingale, a close sleeve, with a cartoose collar, or a
pickadell.'
I think, with a little imagination, we can see the lady: add to our
picture a feather fan, a man's beaver hat with a fine band round it
stuck with a rose or a feather, shoes with ribbons or roses, and
jewels in the hair--and I think the lady walks. Yet so difficult do I
find it to lead her tripping out of the wardrobe into the world, I
would remind myself of the laws for servants in this time:
'And no servant may toy with the maids under pain of
fourpence.'
It is a salutary warning, and one that must be kept in the mind's eye,
and as I pluck the lady from the old print, hold her by the Dutch
waist, and twirl her round until the Catherine-wheel fardingale is a
blurred circle, and the pickadell a mist of white linen, I feel, for
my prying, like one who has toyed under pain of fourpence.
[Illustration: {High collar and head-dress for a woman}]
There are many excellent people with the true historical mind who
would pick up my lady and strip her in so passionless a way as to
leave her but a mass of Latin names--so many bones, tissues, and
nerves--and who would then label and classify her wardrobe under so
many old English and French, Dutch and Spanish names, bringing to bear
weighty arguments several pages long over the derivation of the word
'cartoose' or 'pickadell,' write in notebooks of her little secret
fineries, bear down on one another with thundering eloquence upon the
relation of St. Catherine and her wheel upon seventeenth-century
dressmaking, and so confuse and bewilder the more simple and less
learned folk that we should turn away from the Eve of the seventeenth
century and from the heap of clothes upon the floor no whit the wiser
for all their pains.
Not that I would laugh, even smile, at the diligence of these learned
men who in their day puzzled the father of Tristram Shandy over the
question of breeches, but, as it is in my mind impossible to
disassociate the clothes and the woman, I find it difficult to follow
their dissertations, however enlightening, upon Early English
cross-stitch. And now, after I have said all this, I find myself doing
very nearly the same thing.
You will find, if you look into the lady's wardrobe, that she has
other fashions than the close sleeve: she has a close sleeve as an
under sleeve, with a long hanging sleeve falling from the elbow; she
has ruffs at her wrist of pointed lace, more cuffs than ruffs, indeed.
She does not always follow the fashion of the short Dutch waist as she
has, we can see, a dress with a long waist and a tapering front to
the bodice. Some dresses of hers are divided in the skirts to show a
barred petticoat, or a petticoat with a broad border of embroidery.
Sometimes she is covered with little bows, and at others with much
gold lacing; and now and again she wears a narrow sash round her waist
tied with a bow in front.
She is taking more readily to the man's hat, feathered and banded, and
in so doing is forced to dress her hair more simply and do away with
jewellery on her forehead; but, as is often the case, she dresses her
hair with plumes and jewels and little linen or lace ruffs, and atop
of all wears a linen cap with side wings to it and a peak in the
centre.
Her ruff is now, most generally, in the form of an upstanding collar
to her dress, open in front, finishing on her shoulders with some neat
bow or other ornament. It is of lace of very fine workmanship, edged
plain and square, or in all manner of fancy scallops, circles, and
points.
Sometimes she will wear both ruff and collar, the ruff underneath to
prop up her collar at the back to the required modish angle.
Sometimes her bodice will finish off in a double Catherine-wheel.
Her maid is a deal more simple; her hair is dressed very plainly, a
loop by the ears, a twist at the nape of the neck. She has a shawl
over her shoulders, or a broad falling collar of white linen. She has
no fardingale, but her skirts are full. Her bodice fits, but is not
stiffened artificially; her sleeves are tight and neat, and her cuffs
plain. Upon her head is a broad-brimmed plain hat.
[Illustration: {Comparison of head-dress between a lady and a maid}]
She has a piece of gossip for her mistress: at Chelsea they are making
a satin dress for the Princess of Wales from Chinese silkworm's silk.
On another day comes the news that the Constable of Castile when at
Whitehall subscribed very handsomely to the English fashion, and
kissed the Queen's hands and the cheeks of twenty ladies of honour.
The fashion for dresses of pure white, either in silk, cloth, or
velvet has affected both men and women; and the countries which gave a
name to the cuts of the garments are evidenced in the literature of
the time. How a man's breeches or slops are Spanish; his waist, like
the lady's, Dutch; his doublet French; his and her sleeves and wings
on the shoulders French; their boots Polonian, cloaks German, hose
Venetian, hats from everywhere. These spruce coxcombs, with
looking-glasses set in their tobacco boxes, so that they may privately
confer with them to see--
'How his band jumpeth with his piccadilly,
Whether his band-strings balence equally,
Which way his feather wags,'
strut along on their high-heeled shoes, and ogle any lady as she
passes.
Another fashion common to those in the high mode was to have the
bodice below the ruff cut so low as to show all the breast bare, and
this, together with the painting of the face, gave great offence to
the more sober-minded.
The ruffs and collars of lace were starched in many colours--purple,
goose-green, red and blue, yellow being completely out of the fashion
since the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury by Mrs. Anne Turner, the
friend of the Countess of Somerset; and this because Mrs. Turner
elected to appear at the gallows in a yellow ruff.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF JAMES I. (1603-1625)
Here is seen the wide fardingale, or farthingale, the elaborate
under-skirt, and the long hanging sleeves of the gown. Also, the
very tall upstanding ruff or collar of lace.]
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of James I.; a ruff and hat; an
alternative dress}]
As for the fardingale, it was having its last fling. This absurd
garment had its uses once--so they say who write scandal of a Spanish
Princess, and served to conceal her state upon a certain time; but
when ladies forsook the fashion, they wore a loose, almost shapeless,
gown, open from the waist to the feet, and a plain, unstiffened jerkin
or jacket underneath.
Such a conglomeration is needed (if you remember we are looking over a
lady's wardrobe) to make a lady of the time: such stuffs as rash,
taffeta paropa, novats, shagge, filizetta, damask, mochado. Rash is
silk and stuff, taffeta is thin silk, mochado is mock velvet. There,
again, one may fall into an antiquarian trap; whereas mochado is a
manufacture of silk to imitate velvet, mokkadoe is a woollen cloth,
and so on; there is no end to it. Still, some may read and ask
themselves what is a rebatoe. It is the collar-like ruff worn at this
time. In this medley of things we shall see purles, falles, squares,
buskes, tires, fans, palisadoes (this is a wire to hold the hair next
to the first or duchess knot), puffs, ruffs, partlets, frislets,
fillets, pendulets, bracelets, busk-points, shoe-ties, shoe roses,
bongrace bonnets, and whalebone wheels--Eve!
All this, for what purpose? To turn out one of those extraordinary
creatures with a cart-wheel round the middle of their persons.
As the reign died, so did its fashions die also: padded breeches lost
some of their bombast, ruffs much of their starch, and fardingales
much of their circumference, and the lady became more Elizabethan in
appearance, wore a roll under her hair in front, and a small hood with
a jewelled frontlet on her forehead. It was the last of the Tudor
dress, and came, as the last flicker of a candle, before the new mode,
Fashion's next footstep.
CHARLES THE FIRST
Reigned twenty-four years: 1625-1649.
Born 1600. Married 1625, Henrietta of France.
THE MEN
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Charles I.}]
This surely is the age of elegance, if one may trust such an elegant
and graceful mind as had Vandyck. In all the wonderful gallery of
portraits he has left, these silvery graceful people pose in garments
of ease.
The main thing that I must do is to show how, gradually, the stiff
Jacobean dress became unfrozen from its clutch upon the human form,
how whalebones in men's jackets melted away, breeches no longer
swelled themselves with rags and bran, collars fell down, and shirts
lounged through great open spaces in the sleeves.
It was the time of an immaculate carelessness; the hair was free, or
seemed free, to droop in languid tresses on men's shoulders, curl at
pretty will on men's foreheads. Shirts were left open at the neck,
breeches were loosed at the knee. Do I revile the time if I say that
the men had an air, a certain supercilious air, of being dukes
disguised as art students?
[Illustration: {Six styles of hair and beard}]
We know, all of us, the Vandyck beard, the Carolean moustache brushed
away from the lips; we know Lord Pembroke's tousled--carefully
tousled--hair; Kiligrew's elegant locks.
From the head to the neck is but a step--a sad step in this
reign--and here we find our friend the ruff utterly tamed;
'pickadillies, now out of request,' writes one, tamed into the falling
band, the Vandyck collar, which form of neck-dress has never left the
necks and shoulders of our modern youthful prodigies; indeed, at one
time, no youthful genius dare be without one. The variations of this
collar are too well known; of such lace as edged them and of the
manner of their tying, it would waste time to tell, except that in
some instances the strings are secured by a ring.
[Illustration: {A doublet}]
Such a change has come over the doublet as to make it hardly the same
garment; the little slashes have become two or three wide cuts, the
sleeves are wide and loose with, as a rule, one big opening on the
inside of the arm, with this opening embroidered round. The cuffs are
like little collars, turned back with point-lace edges. The actual cut
of the doublet has not altered a great deal, the ordinary run of
doublet has the pointed front, it is tied round the waist with a
little narrow sash; but there has arrived a new jacket, cut round,
left open from the middle of the breast, sometimes cut so short as to
show the shirt below bulged out over the breeches. Sometimes you will
see one of these new short jackets with a slit in the back, and under
this the man will be wearing the round trunks of his father's time.
[Illustration: {Two men of the time of Charles I.; a type of jacket;
a type of breeches}]
The breeches are mostly in two classes--the long breeches the shape of
bellows, tied at the knee with a number of points or a bunch of
coloured ribbons; or the breeches cut the same width all the way
down, loose at the knee and there ornamented with a row of points
(ribbons tied in bows with tags on them).
A new method of ornamentation was this notion of coloured ribbons in
bunches, on the breeches, in front, at the sides, at the knees--almost
anywhere--and also upon the coats.
For some time the older fashioned short round cape or cloak prevailed,
but later, large silk cloaks used as wraps thrown across the shoulders
were used as well. The other cloaks had straps, like the modern golf
cape, by which the cloak might be allowed to fall from the shoulders.
A custom arrived of wearing boots more frequently, and there was the
tall, square-toed, high-heeled boot, fitting up the leg to just below
the knee, without a turnover; the stiff, thick leather, blacking boot
with broad, stiff tops, also not turned back; and there was also the
result of the extraordinary melting, crumpled dismissal of all
previous stiffness, whereby the old tall boot drooped down until it
turned over and fell into a wide cup, all creases and wrinkles, nearly
over the foot, while across the instep was a wide, shaped flap of
leather. This last falling boot-top was turned in all manner of
ways by those who cared to give thought to it.
[Illustration: {Sixteen types of boot and shoe}]
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF CHARLES I. (1625-1649)
He has wrapped his blue cloak over his arm, a usual method of
carrying the cloak. He is simply dressed, without bunches of ribbons
or points.]
The insides of the tops of these boots were lined with lace or silk,
and the dandy turned them down to give full show to the lining--this
turning of broad tops was such an inconvenience that he was forced to
use a straddled walk when he wore his boots thus.
Canes were carried with gold, silver, or bone heads, and were
ornamented further by bunches of ribbon.
Coming again to the head, we find ribbon also in use to tie up locks
of hair; delicate shades of ribbon belonging to some fair lady were
used to tie up locks to show delicate shades of love. Some men wore
two long love-locks on either side of the face, others wore two
elaborately-curled locks on one side only.
The hats, as the drawings will show, are broad in the brim and of an
average height in the crown, but a dandy, here and there, wore a hat
with next to no brim and a high crown. Most hats were feathered.
There is a washing tally in existence of this time belonging, I think,
to the Duke of Rutland, which is very interesting. It is made of
beech-wood covered with linen, and is divided into fifteen squares. In
the centre of each square there is a circle cut, and in the circle are
numbers. Over the number is a plate with a pin for pivot in the
centre, a handle to turn, and a hole to expose a number. Above each
circle are the names of the articles in this order:
Ruffs. Bandes. Cuffes. Handkercher. Cappes.
Shirtes. Halfshirts. Boote Hose. Topps. Sockes.
Sheetes. Pillowberes. Table Clothes. Napkins. Towells.
Topps are linen boot-frills, and halfshirts are stomachers.
There remains little to be said except that black was a favourite
dress for men, also light blue and cream-coloured satin. Bristol paste
diamonds were in great demand, and turquoise rings were very
fashionable.
For the rest, Vandyck's pictures are available to most people, or good
reproductions of them, and those, with a knowledge of how such dress
came into being, are all that can be needed.
THE WOMEN
There is one new thing you must be prepared to meet in this reign, and
that will best be described by quoting the title of a book written at
this time: 'A Wonder of Wonders, or a Metamorphosis of Fair Faces into
Foul Visages; an invective against black-spotted faces.'
By this you may see at once that every humour was let loose in the
shapes of stars, and moons, crowns, slashes, lozenges, and even a
coach and horses, cut in black silk, ready to be gummed to the faces
of the fair.
Knowing from other histories of such fads that the germ of the matter
lies in a royal indisposition, we look in vain for the conceited
history of the Princess and the Pimple, but no doubt some more earnest
enquirer after truth will hit upon the story--this toy tragedy of the
dressing-table.
For the dress we can do no better than look at the 'Ornatus Muliebris
Anglicanus,' that wonderfully careful compilation by Hollar of all the
dresses in every class of society.
It is interesting to see how the Jacobean costume lost, by degrees,
its formal stiffness, and first fardingale and then ruff vanished.
Early in the reign the high-dressed hair was abandoned, and to take
its place the hair was dressed so that it was gathered up by the ears,
left parted on the crown, and twisted at the back to hold a plume or
feather. Time went on, and hair-dressing again altered; the hair was
now taken in four parts: first the hair was drawn well back off the
forehead, then the two side divisions were curled neatly and dressed
to fall over the ears, the fourth group of hair was neatly twisted and
so made into a small knot holding the front hair in its place. Later
on came the fringe of small curls, as in the portrait of Queen
Henrietta at Windsor by Vandyck.
We see at first that while the ruff, or rather the rebatoe--that
starched lace high collar--remained, the fardingale having
disappeared, left, for the upper gown, an enormous quantity of waste
loose material that had previously been stretched over the fardingale
and parted in front to show the satin petticoat. From this there
sprung, firstly, a wide, loose gown, open all the way down and tied
about the middle with a narrow sash, the opening showing the boned
bodice of the under-dress with its pointed protruding stomacher, the
woman's fashion having retained the form of the man's jerkin. Below
this showed the satin petticoat with its centre strip or band of
embroidery, and the wide border of the same. In many cases the long
hanging sleeves were kept.
Then there came the fall of the rebatoe and the decline of the
protruding figure, and with this the notion of tying back the full
upper skirt to show more plainly the satin petticoat, which was now
losing the centre band of ornament and the border.
With this revolution in dress the disappearing ruff became at first
much lower and then finally vanished, and a lace collar, falling over
the shoulders, took its place. This gave rise to two distinct fashions
in collars, the one as I have described, the other a collar from the
neck, like a large edition of the man's collar of that time. This
collar came over the shoulders and in two points over the breast,
sometimes completely hiding the upper part of the dress.
The stiff-boned bodice gave place to one more easily cut, shorter,
with, in place of the long point, a series of long strips, each strip
ornamented round the hem.
At this time the sleeves, different from the old-fashioned tight
sleeves, were very full indeed, and the sleeve of the loose over-gown
was made wider in proportion, and was tied across the under-sleeve
above the elbow by a knot of ribbons, the whole ending in a deep cuff
of lace. Then the over-gown disappeared, the bodice became a short
jacket laced in front, openly, so as to show the sleeveless bodice of
the same material and colour as the petticoat; the sleeves were not
made so wide, and they were cut to come just below the elbow, leaving
the wrists and forearm bare.
In winter a lady often wore one of those loose Dutch jackets, round
and full, with sleeves just long enough to cover the under-sleeves,
the whole lined and edged with fur; or she might wear a short circular
fur-lined cape with a small turned-over collar. In summer the little
jacket was often discarded, and the dress was cut very simply but very
low in the bust, and they wore those voluminous silk wraps in common
with the men.
The little sashes were very much worn, and ornaments of knots of
ribbon or points (that is, a ribbon with a metal tag at either end)
were universal.
The change of fashion to short full sleeves gave rise to the turned
back cuff of the same material as the sleeve, and some costumes show
this short jacket with its short sleeves with cuffs, while under it
shows the dress with tight sleeves reaching to the wrists where were
linen or lace cuffs, a combination of two fashions.
Part of the lady's equipment now was a big feather fan, and a big fur
muff for winter; also the fashion of wearing long gloves to reach to
the elbow came in with the advent of short sleeves.
Naturally enough there was every variety of evolution from the old
fashion to the new, as the tight sleeves did not, of course, become
immediately wide and loose, but by some common movement, so curious in
the history of such revolutions, the sleeve grew and grew from puffs
at the elbow to wide cuffs, to wide shoulders, until the entire sleeve
became swollen out of all proportion, and the last little pieces of
tightness were removed.
The form of dress with cuffs to the jackets, lacing, sashes, bunches
of ribbon, and looped up skirts, lasted for a great number of years.
It was started by the death of the fardingale, and it lived into the
age of hoops.
These ladies wore shoe-roses upon their shoes, and these bunches of
ribbon, very artificially made up, cost sometimes as much as from
three to thirty pounds a pair, these very expensive roses being
ornamented with jewels. From these we derive the saying, 'Roses worth
a family.'
In the country the women wore red, gray, and black cloth homespun, and
for riding they put on safeguards or outer petticoats. The
wide-brimmed beaver hat was in general wear, and a lady riding in the
country would wear such a hat or a hood and a cloak and soft top
boots.
Women's petticoats were called plackets as well as petticoats.
With the careless air that was then adopted by everybody, which was to
grow yet more carefully careless in the reign of Charles II., the hair
was a matter which must have undivided attention, and centuries of
tight dressing had not improved many heads, so that when the loose
love-locks and the dainty tendrils became the fashion, many good
ladies and gentlemen had recourse to the wigmaker. From this time
until but an hundred years ago, from the periwig bought for Sexton,
the fool of Henry VIII., down to the scratches and bobs of one's
grandfather's youth, the wigmaker lived and prospered. To-day, more
secretly yet more surely, does the maker of transformations live and
prosper, but in the days when to be wigless was to be undressed the
perruquier was a very great person.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF CHARLES I. (1625-1649)
Notice the broad collar and deep cuffs. The dress is simple but
rich. The bodice is laced with the same colour as the narrow sash.
The hair is arranged in a series of elaborate curls over the
forehead.]
This was the day, then, of satins, loosened hair, elbow sleeves, and
little forehead curls. The stiffness of the older times will pass
away, but it had left its clutch still on these ladies; how far it
vanished, how entirely it left costume, will be seen in the next royal
reign, when Nell Gwynne was favourite and Sir Peter Lely painted her.
ENGRAVINGS BY HOLLAR
These excellent drawings by Hollar need no explanation. They are
included in this book because of their great value as accurate
contemporary drawings of costume.
[Illustration: {Four women}]
[Illustration: {Four women}]
[Illustration: {Four women}]
[Illustration: {Four women}]
[Illustration: {Four women}]
[Illustration: {Four women}]
[Illustration: {Four women}]
[Illustration: {Four women}]
THE CROMWELLS
1649-1660.
THE MEN AND WOMEN
'I left my pure mistress for a space,
And to a snip-snap barber straight went I;
I cut my hair, and did my corps uncase
Of 'parel's pride that did offend the eye;
My high crowned hat, my little beard also,
My pecked band, my shoes were sharp at toe.
'Gone was my sword, my belt was laid aside,
And I transformed both in looks and speech;
My 'parel plain, my cloak was void of pride,
My little skirts, my metamorphosed breech,
My stockings black, my garters were tied shorter,
My gloves no scent; thus marched I to her porter.'
[Illustration: {A man of the time of the Cromwells; a type of jacket}]
It is a question, in this time of restraint, of formalism, where
anything could be made plain, cut in a cumbrous fashion, rendered
inelegant, it was done. The little jackets were denuded of all forms
of frippery, the breeches were cut straight, and the ornaments, if
any, were of the most severe order. Hats became broader in the brim,
boots wider in the tops, in fact, big boots seemed almost a sign of
heavy religious feeling. The nice hair, love-locks, ordered negligence
all vanished, and plain crops or straight hair, not over long, marked
these extraordinary people. It was a natural revolt against
extravagance, and in some more sensible minds it was not carried to
excess; points and bows were allowable, though of sombre colours.
Sashes still held good, but of larger size, ruffs at the wrists were
worn, but of plain linen. The bands or collars varied in size
according to the religious enthusiasm of the wearers, but all were
plain without lace edgings, and were tied with plain strings. Black,
dark brown, and dull gray were the common colours, relieved sometimes,
if the man was wearing a sleeveless coat, by the yellow and red-barred
sleeves of the under-jacket, or possibly by coloured sleeves sewn
into the coat under the shoulder-wings. Overcoats were cut as
simply as possible, though they did not skimp the material but made
them wide and loose.
[Illustration: A CROMWELLIAN MAN (1649-1660)
Notice the careful plainness of his dress, and his very wide-topped
boots.]
[Illustration: {Three men of the time of the Cromwells; a type of
sleeve; two types of breeches and boot; a type of collar}]
The women dressed their hair more plainly, the less serious retained
the little bunches of side curls, but the others smoothed their hair
away under linen caps or black hoods tied under their chins. Another
thing the women did was to cut from their bodices all the little
strips but the one in the middle of the back, and this they left, like
a tail, behind. Some, of course, dressed as before with the
difference in colour and in ornament that made for severity. It had an
effect on the country insomuch as the country people ceased to be
extravagant in the materials for garments and in many like ways, and
so lay by good fortunes for their families--these families coming
later into the gay court of Charles II. had all the more to lavish on
the follies of his fashions.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of the Cromwells; a type of coat}]
The Puritan is as well-known a figure as any in history; an
intelligent child could draw you a picture or describe you a Puritan
as well as he could describe the Noah of Noah's Ark. He has become
part of the stock for an Academy humourist, a thousand anecdote
pictures have been painted of him; very often his nose is red,
generally he has a book in his hand, laughing maids bring him jacks of
ale, jeering Cavaliers swagger past him: his black cloak, board shoes,
wide Geneva bands are as much part of our national picture as
Punch or Harlequin.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF THE CROMWELLS (1649-1660)
This is not one of the most Puritanical dresses, but shows how the
richness of the reign of Charles I. was toned down. She carries a
muff in her hand, wears a good wide collar and cuffs, and neat roses
on her shoes.]
[Illustration: {Two women of the time of the Cromwells; a type of
jacket; two types of head-dress for women}]
The Puritaness is also known. She is generally represented as a sly
bird in sombre clothes; her town garments, full skirts, black hood,
deep linen collar are shown to hide a merry-eyed lady, her country
clothes, apron, striped petticoat, bunched up skirt, linen cap, her
little flaunt of curls show her still mischievous. The pair of them,
in reality religious fanatics, prepared a harvest that they little
dreamt of--a harvest of extravagant clothes and extravagant manners,
when the country broke loose from its false bondage of texts,
scriptural shirts, and religious petticoats, and launched into a
bondage, equally false, of low cut dresses and enormous periwigs.
In the next reign you will see an entirely new era of clothes--the
doublet and jerkin, the trunks and ruffs have their last eccentric
fling, they become caricatures of themselves, they do all the foolish
things garments can do, and then, all of a sudden, they vanish--never
to be taken up again. Hair, long-neglected, is to have its full sway,
wigs are the note for two centuries, so utterly different did the man
become in the short space of thirty-five years, that the buck of the
Restoration and the beau of the Jacobean order would stare helplessly
at each other, wondering each to himself what manner of fool this was
standing before him.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF THE CROMWELLS (1649-1660)
This shows the modification of the dress of the time of Charles I.
Not an extreme change, but an endeavour towards simplicity.]
CHARLES THE SECOND
Reigned twenty-five years: 1660-1685.
Born 1630. Married, 1662, Katherine of Portugal.
THE MEN AND WOMEN
[Illustration: {Two men of the time of Charles II.}]
England, apparently with a sigh of relief, lays aside her hair shirt,
and proves that she has been wearing a silk vest under it.
Ribbon-makers and wig-makers, lace-makers, tailors, and shoemakers,
pour out thankful offerings at the altar of Fashion. One kind of folly
has replaced another; it is only the same goddess in different
clothes. The lamp that winked and flickered before the stern black
figure in Geneva bands and prim curls is put to shame by the flare of
a thousand candles shining on the painted face, the exposed bosom, the
flaunting love-locks of this Carolean deity.
[Illustration: {Two men of the time of Charles II.}]
We have burst out into periwigs, monstrous, bushy; we have donned
petticoat breeches ruffled like a pigeon; we have cut our coats till
they are mere apologies, serving to show off our fine shirts; and we
have done the like with our coat-sleeves, leaving a little cuff
glittering with buttons, and above that we have cut a great slit, all
to show the marvel of our linen.
Those of us who still wear the long wide breeches adorn them with
heavy frills of deep lace, and sew bunches of ribbons along the seams.
We tie our cravats in long, stiff bows or knot them tight, and allow
the wide lace ends to float gracefully.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF CHARLES II. (1660-1685)
This shows the dress during the first half of the reign. The feature
of groups of ribboning is shown, with the short sleeve, the full
shirt, and the petticoat.]
Our hats, broad-brimmed and stiff, are loaded with feathers; our
little cloaks are barred with silk and lace and gold cord; our shoes
are square-toed and high-heeled, and are tied with a long-ended
bow of ribbon.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Charles II.; a type of sleeve;
the back of a coat}]
Ribbon reigns triumphant: it ties our periwigs into bunches at the
ends; it hangs in loops round our waists; it ties our shirt-sleeves up
in several places; it twists itself round our knees. It is on our hats
and heads, and necks and arms, and legs and shoes, and it peers out of
the tops of our boots. Divines rave, moralists rush into print, to no
purpose. The names seem to convey a sense of luxury: dove-coloured
silk brocade, Rhingrave breeches, white lutestring seamed all over
with scarlet and silver lace, sleeves whipt with a point lace, coat
trimmed and figured with silver twist or satin ribbon; canvas,
camblet, galloon and shamey, vellam buttons and taffety ribbons. The
cannons, those bunches of ribbons round our knees, and the confidents,
those bunches of curls by our ladies' cheeks, do not shake at the
thunderings of Mr. Baxter or other moral gentlemen who regard a
Maypole as a stinking idol. Mr. Hall writes on 'The Loathsomeness of
Long Hair,' Mr. Prynne on 'The Unloveliness of Lovelocks,' and we do
not care a pinch of rappe.
Little moustaches and tiny lip beards grow under careful treatment,
and the ladies wear a solar system in patches on their cheeks.
The ladies soon escaped the bondage of the broad Puritan collars, and
all these had hid was exposed. The sleeves left the arms bare to the
elbow, and, being slit above and joined loosely by ribbons, showed the
arm nearly to the shoulder. The sleeves of these dresses also followed
the masculine fashion of little cuffs and tied-up linen under-sleeves.
The bodices came to a peak in front and were round behind. The skirts
were full, satin being favoured, and when held up showed a satin
petticoat with a long train. The ladies, for a time, indulged in a
peculiar loop of hair on their foreheads, called a 'fore-top,' which
gave rise to another fashion, less common, called a 'taure,' or bull's
head, being an arrangement of hair on the forehead resembling the
close curls of a bull. The loose curls on the forehead were
called 'favorites'; the long locks arranged to hang away from the
face over the ears were called 'heart-breakers'; and the curls close
to the cheek were called 'confidents.' Ladies wore cloaks with baggy
hoods for travelling, and for the Mall the same hats as men, loaded
with feathers.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF CHARLES II. (1660-1685)
This is the change which came over men's dress on or about October,
1666. It is the new-fashioned vest or body-coat introduced to the
notice of Charles by John Evelyn.]
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Charles II.}]
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Charles II.}]
I am going to leave the change in dress during this reign to the next
chapter, in which you will read how it struck Mr. Pepys. This change
separates the old world of dress from the new; it is the advent of
frocked coats, the ancestor of our frock-coat. It finishes completely
the series of evolutions beginning with the old tunic, running through
the gown stages to the doublet of Elizabethan times, lives in the half
coat, half doublet of Charles I., and ends in the absurd little
jackets of Charles II., who, sartorially, steps from the end of the
Middle Ages into the New Ages, closes the door on a wardrobe of
brilliant eccentricity, and opens a cupboard containing our first
frock-coat.
PEPYS AND CLOTHES
It is not really necessary for me to remind the reader that one of the
best companions in the world, Samuel Pepys, was the son of a tailor.
Possibly--I say possibly because the argument is really absurd--he may
have inherited his great interest in clothes from his father. You see
where the argument leads in the end: that all men to take an interest
in clothes must be born tailors' sons. This is no more true of Adam,
who certainly did interest himself, than it is of myself.
Pepys was educated at St. Paul's School, went to Trinity College,
Cambridge, got drunk there, and took a scholarship. He married when he
was twenty-two a girl of fifteen, the daughter of a Huguenot. He was
born in 1633, three years after the birth of Charles II., of
outrageous but delightful memory, and he commenced his Diary in 1660,
the year in which Charles entered London, ending it in 1669, owing to
his increasing weakness of sight. He was made Secretary to the
Admiralty in 1672, in 1673 he became a member of Parliament, was sent
to the Tower as a Papist in 1679, and released in 1680. In 1684 he
became President of the Royal Society, and he died in 1703, and is
buried in St. Olave's, Crutched Friars.
Pepys mentions, in 1660, his coat with long skirts, fur cap, and
buckles on his shoes. The coat was, doubtless, an old-fashioned
Cromwellian coat with no waist.
Later he goes to see Mr. Calthrop, and wears his white suit with
silver lace, having left off his great skirt-coat. He leaves Mr.
Calthrop to lay up his money and change his shoes and stockings.
He mentions his scarlet waistclothes, presumably a sash, and regards
Mr. John Pickering as an ass because of his feathers and his new suit
made at the Hague. He mentions his linning stockings and wide cannons.
This mention of wide cannons leads me to suppose that at this time any
ornament at the knee would be called cannons, whether it was a part of
the breeches or the stockings, or a separate frill or bunch of ribbons
to put on.
On July 1, still in the same year, comes home his fine camlett cloak
and gold buttons; also a silk suit. Later he buys a jackanapes coat
with silver buttons. Then he and Mr. Pin, the tailor, agree upon a
velvet coat and cap ('the first I ever had'). He buys short black
stockings to wear over silk ones for mourning.
[Illustration: {Two women of the time of Charles II.}]
On October 7 he says that, long cloaks being out of fashion, he must
get a short one. He speaks of a suit made in France for My Lord
costing £200. He mentions ladies' masks.
In 1662 his wife has a pair of peruques of hair and a new-fashioned
petticoat of sancenett with black, broad lace. Smocks are mentioned,
and linen petticoats.
He has a riding-suit with close knees.
His new lace band is so neat that he is resolved they shall be his
great expense. He wears a scallop. In 1663 he has a new black cloth
suit, with white linings under all--as the fashion is--to appear under
the breeches.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF CHARLES II. (1650-1685)
You will notice her hair in ringlets tied with a ribbon, and dressed
over a frame at the sides.]
The Queen wears a white-laced waistcoat and a crimson short
petticoat. Ladies are wearing hats covered with feathers.
[Illustration: {Three types of wig for men}]
God willing, he will begin next week to wear his three-pound periwig.
He has spent last month (October) £12 on Miss Pepys, and £55 on his
clothes. He has silk tops for his legs and a new shag gown. He has a
close-bodied coat, light-coloured cloth with a gold edge. He sees Lady
Castlemaine in yellow satin with a pinner on.
In 1664 his wife begins to wear light-coloured locks.
In 1665 there is a new fashion for ladies of yellow bird's-eye hood.
There is a fear of the hair of periwigs during the Plague. Even in the
middle of the Plague Pepys ponders on the next fashion.
In 1666 women begin to wear buttoned-up riding-coats, hats and
periwigs.
On October 8 the King says he will set a thrifty fashion in clothes.
At this momentous date in history we must break for a minute from our
friend Pepys, and hear how this came about. Evelyn had given the King
his pamphlet entitled 'Tyrannus, or the Mode.' The King reads the
pamphlet, and is struck with the idea of the Persian coat. A long
pause may be made here, in which the reader may float on a mental
cloud back into the dim ages in the East, and there behold a
transmogrified edition of his own frock-coat gracing the back of some
staid philosopher. Evelyn had also published 'Mundus Muliebris; or,
the Ladies' Dressing-Room Unlocked.'
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Charles II.}]
So, only one month after the Great Fire of London, only a short time
before the Dutch burnt ships in the Medway, only a year after the
Plague, King Charles decides to reform the fashion. By October 13 the
new vests are made, and the King and the Duke of York try them on. On
the fifteenth the King wears his in public, and says he will never
change to another fashion. 'It is,' says Pepys, 'a long cassocke close
to the body, of black cloth and pinked with white silk under it, and a
coat over it, and the legs ruffled with black ribband like a pigeon's
legs.'
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Charles II.}]
The ladies, to make an alteration, are to wear short skirts. Nell
Gwynne had a neat ankle, so I imagine she had a hand in this fashion.
On October 17 the King, seeing Lord St. Alban in an all black suit,
says that the black and white makes them look too much like magpies.
He bespeaks one of all black velvet.
Sir Philip Howard increases in the Eastern fashion, and wears a
nightgown and a turban like a Turk.
On November 2 Pepys buys a vest like the King's.
On November 22 the King of France, Louis XIV., who had declared war
against England earlier in the year, says that he will dress all his
footmen in vests like the King of England. However, fashion is beyond
the power of royal command, and the world soon followed in the matter
of the Persian coat and vest, even to the present day.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Charles II.}]
Next year, 1667, Pepys notes that Lady Newcastle, in her velvet cap
and her hair about her ears, is the talk of the town. She wears a
number of black patches because of the pimples about her mouth, she is
naked-necked (no great peculiarity), and she wears a _just au corps_,
which is a close body-coat.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Charles II.}]
Pepys notices the shepherd at Epsom with his wool-knit stockings of
two colours, mixed. He wears a new camlett cloak. The shoe-strings
have given place to buckles, and children wear long coats.
In 1668 his wife wears a flower tabby suit ('everybody in love with
it'). He is forced to lend the Duke of York his cloak because it
rains. His barber agrees to keep his periwig in order for £1 a year.
He buys a black bombazin suit.
In 1669 his wife wears the new French gown called a sac; he pays 55s.
for his new belt. His wife still wears her old flower tabby gown. So
ends the dress note in the Diary.
JAMES THE SECOND
Reigned four years: 1685-1689.
Born 1633. Married, 1661, Anne Hyde; 1673, Mary of
Modena.
THE MEN AND WOMEN
[Illustration: {Two men of the time of James II.; a type of sleeve}]
In such a short space of time as this reign occupies it is not
possible to show any great difference in the character of the dress,
but there is a tendency, shown over the country at large, to discard
the earlier beribboned fashions, and to take more seriously to the
long coat and waistcoat. There is a tendency, even, to become more
buttoned up--to present what I can only call a frock-coat figure. The
coat became closer to the body, and was braided across the front
in many rows, the ends fringed out and held by buttons. The waistcoat,
with the pockets an arm's length down, was cut the same length as the
coat. Breeches were more frequently cut tighter, and were buttoned up
the side of the leg. The cuffs of the sleeves were wide, and were
turned back well over the wrist.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF JAMES II. (1685-1689)
The body-coat has now become the universal fashion, as have also the
wide knee-breeches. Buckles are used on the shoes instead of
strings.]
[Illustration: {A man of the time of James II.}]
Of course the change was gradual, and more men wore the transitional
coat than the tight one. By the coat in its changing stages I mean
such a coat as this: the short coat of the early Charles II. period
made long, and, following the old lines of cut, correspondingly loose.
The sleeves remained much the same, well over the elbow, showing the
white shirt full and tied with ribbons. The shoe-strings had nearly
died out, giving place to a buckle placed on a strap well over the
instep.
There is a hint of growth in the periwig, and of fewer feathers round
the brim of the hat; indeed, little low hats with broad brims, merely
ornamented with a bunch or so of ribbons, began to become
fashionable.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of James II.}]
Swords were carried in broad baldricks richly ornamented.
The waistclothes of Mr. Pepys would, by now, have grown into broad
sashes, with heavily fringed ends, and would be worn round the outside
coat; for riding, this appears to have been the fashion, together with
small peaked caps, like jockey caps, and high boots.
The ladies of this reign simplified the dress into a gown more tight
to the bust, the sleeves more like the men's, the skirt still very
full, but not quite so long in the train.
Black hoods with or without capes were worn, and wide collars coming
over the shoulders again came into fashion. The pinner, noticed by
Pepys, was often worn.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF JAMES II. (1685-1689)
Notice the broad collar again in use, also the nosegay. The sleeves
are more in the mannish fashion.]
But the most noticeable change occurs in the dress of countryfolk and
ordinary citizens. The men began to drop all forms of doublet, and
take to the long coat, a suit of black grogram below the knees, a
sash, and a walking-stick; for the cold, a short black cloak. In the
country the change would be very noticeable. The country town, the
countryside, was, until a few years back, distinctly Puritanical in
garb; there were Elizabethan doublets on old men, and wide Cromwellian
breeches, patched doubtless, walked the market-place. Hair was worn
short. Now the russet brown clothes take a decided character in the
direction of the Persian coat and knickerbockers closed at the knee.
The good-wife of the farmer knots a loose cloth over her head, and
pops a broad-brimmed man's hat over it. She has the sleeves of her
dress made with turned-back cuffs, like her husband's, ties her shoes
with strings, laces her dress in front, so as to show a
bright-coloured under-bodice, and, as like as not, wears a green
pinner (an apron with bib, which was pinned on to the dress), and
altogether brings herself up to date.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of James II.}]
One might see the farmer's wife riding to market with her eggs in a
basket covered with a corner of her red cloak, and many a red cloak
would she meet on the way to clep with on the times and the fashions.
The green apron was a mark of a Quaker in America, and the Society of
Friends was not by any means sad in colour until late in their
history.
Most notable was the neckcloth in this unhappy reign, which went by
the name of Judge Jeffreys' hempen cravat.
WILLIAM AND MARY
Reigned thirteen years: 1689-1702.
The King born in 1650; the Queen born in 1662; married
in 1677.
THE MEN
[Illustration: {A man of the time of William and Mary}]
First and foremost, the wig. Periwig, peruke, campaign wig with
pole-locks or dildos, all the rage, all the thought of the first
gentlemen. Their heads loaded with curl upon curl, long ringlets
hanging over their shoulders and down their backs, some brown, some
covered with meal until their coats looked like millers' coats;
scented hair, almost hiding the loose-tied cravat, 'most agreeably
discoloured with snuff from top to bottom.'
[Illustration: {A man of the time of William and Mary; a type of
cuff}]
My fine gentleman walking the street with the square-cut coat open to
show a fine waistcoat, his stick hanging by a ribbon on to his wrist
and rattling on the pavement as it dragged along, his hat carefully
perched on his wig, the crown made wide and high to hold the two wings
of curls, which formed a negligent central parting. His pockets, low
down in his coat, show a lace kerchief half dropping from one of them.
One hand is in a small muff, the other holds a fine silver-gilt box
filled with Vigo snuff. He wears high-heeled shoes, red heeled,
perhaps, and the tongue of his shoe sticks up well above the instep.
Probably he is on his way to the theatre, where he will comb his
periwig in public, and puff away the clouds of powder that come from
it. The fair lady in a side box, who hides her face behind a mask, is
delighted if Sir Beau will bow to her.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF WILLIAM AND MARY (1689-1702)
Strings again in use on the shoes. Cuffs much broader; wigs more
full; skirts wider. Coat left open to show the long waistcoat.]
We are now among most precise people. One must walk here with just
such an air of artificiality as will account one a fellow of high
tone. The more enormous is our wig, the more frequently we take a
pinch of Violet Strasburg or Best Brazil, Orangery, Bergamotte, or
Jassamena, the more shall we be followed by persons anxious to learn
the fashion. We may even draw a little silver bowl from our pocket,
place it on a seat by us, and, in meditative mood, spit therein.
We have gone completely into skirted coats and big flapped waistcoats;
we have adopted the big cuff buttoned back; we have given up
altogether the wide knee-breeches, and wear only breeches not tight to
the leg, but just full enough for comfort.
The hats have altered considerably now; they are cocked up at all
angles, turned off the forehead, turned up one side, turned up all
round; some are fringed with gold or silver lace, others are crowned
with feathers.
We hear of such a number of claret-coloured suits that we must imagine
that colour to be all the rage, and, in contrast to other times not
long gone by, we must stiffen ourselves in buckram-lined skirts.
These powdered Absaloms could change themselves into very fine
fighting creatures, and look twice as sober again when occasion
demanded. They rode about the country in periwigs, certainly, but not
quite so bushy and curled; many of them took to the travelling or
campaign wig with the dildos or pole-locks. These wigs were full over
the ears and at the sides of the forehead, but they were low in the
crown, and the two front ends were twisted into single pipes of hair;
or the pipes of hair at the side were entirely removed, and one single
pipe hung down the back. The custom of thus twisting the hair at the
back, and there holding it with a ribbon, gave rise to the later
pigtail. The periwigs so altered were known as short bobs, the bob
being the fullness of the hair by the cheeks of the wig.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of William and Mary}]
The cuffs of the coat-sleeve varied to the idea and taste of the owner
of the coat; sometimes the sleeve was widened at the elbow to 18
inches, and the cuffs, turned back to meet the sleeves, were wider
still. Two, three, or even more buttons held the cuff back.
The pockets on the coats were cut vertically and horizontally, and
these also might be buttoned up. Often the coat was held by only two
centre buttons, and the waistcoat flaps were not buttoned at all. The
men's and women's muffs were small, and often tied and slung with
ribbons.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of William and Mary}]
Plain round riding-coats were worn, fastened by a clasp or a couple of
large buttons.
The habit of tying the neckcloth in a bow with full hanging ends was
dying out, and a more loosely tied cravat was being worn; this was
finished with fine lace ends, and was frequently worn quite long.
[Illustration: {Three men of the time of William and Mary}]
Stockings were pulled over the knee, and were gartered below and
rolled above it.
The ordinary citizen wore a modified edition of these clothes--plain
in cut, full, without half the number of buttons, and without the
tremendous periwig, wearing merely his own hair long.
For convenience in riding, the skirts of the coats were slit up the
back to the waist; this slit could be buttoned up if need be.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of William and Mary; a shoe}]
Now, let us give the dandy of this time his pipe, and let him go in
peace. Let us watch him stroll down the street, planting his high
heels carefully, to join two companions outside the tobacco shop.
Here, by the great carved wood figure of a smoking Indian with his
kilt of tobacco leaves, he meets his fellows. From the hoop hung by
the door one chooses a pipe, another asks for a quid to chew and a
spittoon, the third calls for a paper of snuff newly rasped. Then they
pull aside the curtains and go into the room behind the shop, where,
seated at a table made of planks upon barrels, they will discuss the
merits of smoking, chewing, and snuffing.
'We three are engaged in one cause,
I snuffs, I smokes, and I chaws.'
THE WOMEN
Let me picture for you a lady of this time in the language of those
learned in dress, and you will see how much it may benefit.
'We see her coming afar off; against the yew hedge her weeds shine for
a moment. We see her figuretto gown well looped and puffed with the
monte-la-haut. Her échelle is beautiful, and her pinner exquisitely
worked. We can see her commode, her top-not, and her fontage, for she
wears no rayonné. A silver pin holds her meurtriers, and the fashion
suits better than did the crève-coeurs. One hand holds her Saxon
green muffetee, under one arm is her chapeau-bras. She is beautiful,
she needs no plumpers, and she regards us kindly with her watchet
eyes.'
A lady of this date would read this and enjoy it, just as a lady of
to-day would understand modern dress language, which is equally
peculiar to the mere man. For example, this one of the Queen of
Spain's hats from her trousseau (curiously enough a trousseau is a
little bundle):
'The hat is a paille d'Italie trimmed with a profusion of pink roses,
accompanied by a pink chiffon ruffle fashioned into masses
bouillonnée arranged at intervals and circled with wreaths of shaded
roses.'
[Illustration: {Two women of the time of William and Mary}]
The modern terms so vaguely used are shocking, and the descriptive
names given to colours by dress-artists are horrible beyond
belief--such as Watteau pink and elephant grey, not to speak of
Sèvres-blue cherries.
However, the female mind delights in such jargon and hotch-potch.
Let me be kind enough to translate our William and Mary fashion
language. 'Weeds' is a term still in use in 'widow's weeds,' meaning
the entire dress appearance of a woman. A 'figuretto gown looped and
puffed with the monte-la-haut' is a gown of figured material gathered
into loops over the petticoat and stiffened out with wires
'monte-la-haut.' The 'échelle' is a stomacher laced with ribbons in
rungs like a ladder. Her 'pinner' is her apron. The 'commode' is the
wire frame over which the curls are arranged, piled up in high masses
over the forehead. The 'top-not' is a large bow worn at the top of the
commode; and the 'fontage' or 'tower' is a French arrangement of
alternate layers of lace and ribbon raised one above another about
half a yard high. It was invented in the time of Louis XIV., about
1680, by Mademoiselle Fontage. The 'rayonné' is a cloth hood pinned in
a circle. The 'meurtriers,' or murderers, are those twists in the hair
which tie or unloose the arrangements of curls; and the
'crève-coeurs' are the row of little forehead curls of the previous
reign. A 'muffetee' is a little muff, and a 'chapeau-bras' is a hat
never worn, but made to be carried under the arm by men or women; for
the men hated to disarrange their wigs.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of William and Mary}]
'Plumpers' were artificial arrangements for filling out the cheeks,
and 'watchet' eyes are blue eyes.
The ladies have changed a good deal by the middle of this reign: they
have looped up the gown till it makes side-panniers and a bag-like
droop at the back; the under-gown has a long train, and the bodice is
long-waisted. The front of the bodice is laced open, and shows either
an arrangement of ribbon and lace or a piece of the material of the
under-gown.
[Illustration: {Two hair arrangements and necklines for women}]
Black pinners in silk with a deep frill are worn as well as the white
lace and linen ones.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of William and Mary}]
The ladies wear short black capes of this stuff with a deep frill.
Sometimes, instead of the fontage, a lady wears a lace shawl over her
head and shoulders, or a sort of lace cap bedizened with coloured
ribbons.
Her sleeves are like a man's, except that they come to the elbow only,
showing a white under-sleeve of lace gathered into a deep frill of
lace just below the elbow.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF WILLIAM AND MARY (1689-1702)
Here you see the cap called the 'fontage,' the black silk apron, the
looped skirt, and the hair on the high frame called a 'commode.']
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of William and Mary}]
[Illustration: Country Folk.]
She is very stiff and tight-laced, and very long in the waist; and at
the waist where the gown opens and at the loopings of it the richer
wear jewelled brooches.
Later in the reign there began a fashion for copying men's clothes,
and ladies wore wide skirted coats with deep-flapped pockets, the
sleeves of the coats down below the elbow and with deep-turned
overcuffs. They wore, like the men, very much puffed and ruffled linen
and lace at the wrists. Also they wore men's waistcoat fashions,
carried sticks and little arm-hats--chapeau-bras. To complete the
dress the hair was done in a bob-wig style, and the cravat was tied
round their necks and pinned. For the winter one of those loose Dutch
jackets lined and edged with fur, having wide sleeves.
The general tendency was to look Dutch, stiff, prim, but very
prosperous; even the country maid in her best is close upon the heel
of fashion with her laced bodice, sleeves with cuffs, apron, and
high-heeled shoes.
QUEEN ANNE
Reigned twelve years: 1702-1714.
Born 1665. Married, 1683, Prince George of Denmark.
THE MEN AND WOMEN
When I turn to the opening of the eighteenth century, and leave Dutch
William and his Hollands and his pipe and his bulb-gardens behind, it
seems to me that there is a great noise, a tumultuous chattering. We
seem to burst upon a date of talkers, of coffee-houses, of snuff and
scandal. All this was going on before, I say to myself--people were
wearing powdered wigs, and were taking snuff, and were talking
scandal, but it did not appeal so forcibly.
We arrive at Sedan-chairs and hoops too big for them; we arrive at
red-heeled shoes. Though both chairs and red heels belong to the
previous reign, still, we arrive at them now--they are very much in
the picture. We seem to see a profusion, a confused mass of bobbins
and bone lace, mourning hatbands, silk garters, amber canes correctly
conducted, country men in red coats, coxcombs, brass and looking-glass
snuff-boxes.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Anne}]
Gentlemen walk past our mental vision with seals curiously fancied and
exquisitely well cut. Ladies are sighing at the toss of a wig or the
tap on a snuff-box, falling sick for a pair of striped garters or a
pair of fringed gloves. Gentlemen are sitting baldheaded in elegant
dressing-gowns, while their wigs are being taken out of roulettes. The
peruquier removes the neat, warm clay tube, gives a last pat to the
fine pipes of the hair, and then gently places the wig on the waiting
gentlemen. If you can look through the walls of London houses you will
next see regiments of gentlemen, their faces pressed into glass cones,
while the peruquier tosses powder over their newly-put-on periwigs.
The bow at the end of the long pigtail on the Ramillies wig is
tied--that is over.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF QUEEN ANNE (1702-1714)
The coat has become still more full at the sides. The hat has a more
generous brim. Red heels in fashion.]
Running footmen, looking rather like Indians from the outsides of
tobacco shops, speed past. They are dressed in close tunics with a
fringed edge, which flicks them just above the knee. Their legs are
tied up in leather guards, their feet are strongly shod, their wigs
are in small bobs. On their heads are little round caps, with a
feather stuck in them. In one hand they carry a long stick about 5
feet high, in the top knob of which they carry some food or a message.
A message to whom?
[Illustration: A Running Footman.]
The running footman knocks on a certain door, and delivers to the
pretty maid a note for her ladyship from a handsome, well-shaped youth
who frequents the coffee-houses about Charing Cross. There is no
answer to the note: her ladyship is too disturbed with household
affairs. Her Welsh maid has left her under suspicious circumstances,
and has carried off some articles. The lady is even now writing to
Mr. Bickerstaff of the _Tatler_ to implore his aid.
This is the list of the things she has missed--at least, as much of
the list as my mind remembers as it travels back over the years:
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Anne}]
A thick wadded Calico Wrapper.
A Musk-coloured Velvet Mantle lined with Squirrels'
Skins.
Eight night shifts, four pairs of stockings curiously
darned.
Six pairs of laced Shoes, new and old, with the heels of
half 2 inches higher than their fellows.
A quilted Petticoat of the largest size, and one of
Canvas, with whalebone hoops.
Three pairs of Stays boulstered below the left shoulder.
Two pairs of Hips of the newest fashion.
Six Roundabout Aprons, with Pockets, and four strip'd
Muslin night rails very little frayed.
A silver Cheese toaster with three tongues.
A silver Posnet to butter eggs.
A Bible bound in Shagreen, with guilt Leaves and Clasps,
never opened but once.
Two Leather Forehead Cloathes, three pair of oiled
Dogskin Gloves.
Two brand new Plumpers, three pair of fashionable
Eyebrows.
Adam and Eve in Bugle work, without Fig-leaves, upon
Canvas, curiously wrought with her Ladyship's own hand.
Bracelets of braided Hair, Pomander, and Seed Pearl.
A large old Purple Velvet Purse, embroidered, and
shutting with a spring, containing two Pictures in
Miniature, the Features visible.
A Silver gilt box for Cashu and Carraway Comfits to be
taken at long sermons.
A new Gold Repeating Watch made by a Frenchman.
Together with a Collection of Receipts to make Pastes
for the Hands, Pomatums, Lip Salves, White Pots, and
Water of Talk.
Of these things one strikes the eye most curiously--the canvas
petticoat with whalebone hoops. It dates the last, making me know that
the good woman lost her things in or about the year 1710. We are just
at the beginning of the era of the tremendous hoop skirt.
This gentleman from the country will tell me all about it. I stop him
and remark his clothes; by them I guess he has ridden from the
country. He is wearing a wide-skirted coat of red with deep flap
pockets; his coat has buttons from neck to hem, but only two or
three--at the waist--are buttoned. One hand, with the deep cuff pushed
back from the wrist to show his neat frilled shirt, is thrust into his
unbuttoned breeches pocket, the two pockets being across the top of
his breeches. Round his neck is a black Steenkirk cravat (a black silk
tie knotted and twisted or allowed to hang over loose). His hat is of
black, and the wide brim is turned back from his forehead. His wig is
a short black periwig in bobs--that is, it is gathered into bunches
just on the shoulders, and is twisted in a little bob at the back of
the neck. I have forgotten whether he wore red or blue stockings
rolled above the knee, but either is likely. His shoes are strong,
high-heeled, and have a big tongue showing above the buckle.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Anne}]
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF QUEEN ANNE (1702-1714)
Notice that the fontage has become much lower, and the hoop of the
skirt has become enormous. The hair is more naturally dressed.]
He tells me that in Norfolk, where he has come from, the hoop has not
come into fashion; that ladies there dress much as they did before
Queen Anne came to the throne. The fontage is lower, perhaps, the
waist may be longer, but skirts are full and have long trains, and are
gathered in loops to show the petticoat of silk with its deep
double row of flounces. Aprons are worn long, and have good pockets.
Cuffs are deep, but are lowered to below the elbow. The bodice of the
gown is cut high in the back and low in front, and is decked with a
deep frill of lace or linen, which allows less bare neck to show than
formerly. A very observant gentleman! 'But you have seen the new
hoop?' I ask him. Yes, he has seen it. As he rode into town he noticed
that the old fashions gave way to new, that every mile brought the
fontage lower and the hair more hidden, until short curls and a little
cap of linen or lace entirely replaced the old high head-dress and the
profusion of curls on the shoulders. The hoop, he noticed, became
larger and larger as he neared the town, and the train grew shorter,
and the patterns on the under-skirt grew larger with the hoop.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Anne}]
I leave my gentleman from the country and I stroll about the streets
to regard the fashions. Here, I see, is a gentleman in one of the new
Ramillies wigs--a wig of white hair drawn back from the forehead and
puffed out full over the ears. At the back the wig is gathered into a
long queue, the plaited or twisted tail of a wig, and is ornamented at
the top and bottom of the queue with a black bow.
[Illustration: {Ramillies wig; Black Steenkirk; a hat for men}]
I notice that this gentleman is dressed in more easy fashion than
some. His coat is not buttoned, the flaps of his waistcoat are not
over big, his breeches are easy, his tie is loose. I know where this
gentleman has stepped from; he has come straight out of a sampler of
mine, by means of which piece of needlework I can get his story
without book. I know that he has a tremendous periwig at home covered
with scented powder; I know that he has an elegant suit with fullness
of the skirts, at his sides gathered up to a button of silver gilt;
there is plenty of lace on this coat, and deep bands of it on the
cuffs. He has also, I am certain, a cane with an amber head very
curiously clouded, and this cane he hangs on to his fifth button by a
blue silk ribbon. This cane is never used except to lift it up at a
coachman, hold it over the head of a drawer, or point out the
circumstances of a story. Also, he has a single eyeglass, or
perspective, which he will advance to his eye to gaze at a toast or an
orange wench.
There is another figure on the sampler--a lady in one of those wide
hoops; she has a fan in her hand. I know her as well as the gentleman,
and know that she can use her fan as becomes a prude or a coquette. I
know she takes her chocolate in bed at nine in the morning, at eleven
she drinks a dish of bohea, tries a new head at her twelve o'clock
toilette, and at two cheapens fans at the Change.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Anne}]
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Anne}]
I have seen her at her mantua-makers; I have watched her embroider a
corner of her flower handkerchief, and give it up to sit before her
glass to determine a patch. She is a good coachwoman, and puts her
dainty laced shoe against the opposite seat to balance herself against
the many jolts; meanwhile she takes her mask off for a look at the
passing world. If only I could ride in the coach with her! If only I
could I should see the fruit wenches in sprigged petticoats and flat,
broad-brimmed hats; the ballad-sellers in tattered long-skirted coats;
the country women in black hoods and cloaks, and the men in frieze
coats. The ladies would pass by in pearl necklaces, flowered
stomachers, artificial nosegays, and shaded furbelows: one is noted by
her muff, one by her tippet, one by her fan. Here a gentleman bows to
our coach, and my lady's heart beats to see his open waistcoat, his
red heels, his suit of flowered satin. I should not fail to notice the
monstrous petticoats worn by ladies in chairs or in coaches, these
hoops stuffed out with cordage and stiffened with whalebone, and,
according to Mr. Bickerstaff, making the women look like
extinguishers--'with a little knob at the upper end, and widening
downward till it ends in a basis of a most enormous circumference.'
To finish. I quite agree with Mr. Bickerstaff, when he mentions the
great shoe-shop at the St. James's end of Pall Mall, that the shoes
there displayed, notably the slippers with green lace and blue heels,
do create irregular thoughts in the youth of this nation.
GEORGE THE FIRST
Reigned thirteen years: 1714-1727.
Born 1660. Married, 1682, Sophia of Brunswick.
THE MEN AND WOMEN
[Illustration: {1720: A woman of the time of George I.; a shoe}]
We cannot do better than open Thackeray, and put a finger on this
passage:
'There is the Lion's Head, down whose jaws the
Spectator's own letters were passed; and over a great
banker's in Fleet Street the effigy of the wallet, which
the founder of the firm bore when he came into London a
country boy. People this street, so ornamented with
crowds of swinging chairmen, with servants bawling to
clear the way, with Mr. Dean in his cassock, his lacquey
marching before him; or Mrs. Dinah in her sack,
tripping to chapel, her footboy carrying her ladyship's
great prayer-book; with itinerant tradesmen, singing
their hundred cries (I remember forty years ago, as a
boy in London city, a score of cheery, familiar cries
that are silent now).
'Fancy the beaux thronging to the chocolate-houses,
tapping their snuff-boxes as they issue thence, their
periwig appearing over the red curtains. Fancy
Saccharissa beckoning and smiling from the upper
windows, and a crowd of soldiers bawling and bustling at
the door--gentlemen of the Life Guards, clad in scarlet
with blue facings, and laced with gold at the seams;
gentlemen of the Horse Grenadiers, in their caps of
sky-blue cloth, with the garter embroidered on the front
in gold and silver; men of the Halberdiers, in their
long red coats, as bluff Harry left them, with their
ruffs and velvet flat-caps. Perhaps the King's Majesty
himself is going to St. James's as we pass.'
_The Four Georges._
[Illustration: {A man of the time of George I.}]
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of George I.}]
We find ourselves, very willingly, discussing the shoes of the King of
France with a crowd of powdered beaux; those shoes the dandyism of
which has never been surpassed, the heels, if you please, painted by
Vandermeulen with scenes from Rhenish victories! Or we go to the
toy-shops in Fleet Street, where we may make assignations or buy us a
mask, where loaded dice are slyly handed over the counter.
Everywhere--the beau. He rides the world like a cock-horse, or like Og
the giant rode the Ark of Noah, steering it with his feet, getting his
washing for nothing, and his meals passed up to him out by the
chimney. Here is the old soldier begging in his tattered coat of red;
here is a suspicious-looking character with a black patch over his
eye; here the whalebone hoop of a petticoat takes up the way, and
above the monstrous hoop is the tight bodice, and out of that comes
the shoulders supporting the radiant Molly--patches, powder, paint,
and smiles. Here a woman passes in a Nithsdale hood, covering her from
head to foot--this great cloak with a piquant history of
prison-breaking; here, with a clatter of high red heels, the beau, the
everlasting beau, in gold lace, wide cuffs, full skirts, swinging
cane. A scene of flashing colours. The coats embroidered with flowers
and butterflies, the cuffs a mass of fine sewing, the three-cornered
hats cocked at a jaunty angle, the stockings rolled above the knee.
Wigs in three divisions of loops at the back pass by, wigs in long
queues, wigs in back and side bobs. Lacquer-hilted swords, paste
buckles, gold and silver snuff-boxes flashing in the sun, which
struggles through the mass of swinging signs.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF GEORGE I. (1714-1727)
The buckles on the shoes are now much larger; the stockings are
loosely rolled above the knee. The great periwig is going out, and
the looped and curled wig, very white with powder, is in fashion.]
[Illustration: {A hat; coat tails; a wig}]
There is a curious sameness about the clean-shaven faces surmounted by
white wigs; there is--if we believe the pictures--a tendency to fat
due to the tight waist of the breeches or the buckling of the belts.
The ladies wear little lace and linen caps, their hair escaping in a
ringlet or so at the side, and flowing down behind, or gathered close
up to a small knob on the head. The gentlemen's coats fall in full
folds on either side; the back, at present, has not begun to stick out
so heavily with buckram. Aprons for ladies are still worn. Silks and
satins, brocades and fine cloths, white wigs powdering velvet
shoulders, crowds of cut-throats, elegant gentlemen, patched Aspasias,
tavern swindlers, foreign adventurers, thieves, a highwayman, a
footpad, a poor poet--and narrow streets and mud.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of George I.}]
Everywhere we see the skirted coat, the big flapped waistcoat; even
beggar boys, little pot-high urchins, are wearing some old laced
waistcoat tied with string about their middles--a pair of
heel-trodden, buckleless shoes on their feet, more likely bare-footed.
Here is a man snatched from the tripe-shop in Hanging Sword Alley by
the King's men--a pickpocket, a highwayman, a cut-throat in hiding. He
will repent his jokes on Jack Ketch's kitchen when he feels the lash
of the whip on his naked shoulders as he screams behind the cart-tail;
ladies in flowered hoops will stop to look at him, beaux will lift
their quizzing glasses, a young girl will whisper behind a fan,
painted with the loves of Jove, to a gorgeous young fop in a
light-buttoned coat of sky-blue.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of George I.}]
There is a sadder sight to come, a cart on the way to Tyburn, a poor
fellow standing by his coffin with a nosegay in his breast; he is full
of Dutch courage, for, as becomes a notorious highwayman, he must show
game before the crowd, so he is full of stum and Yorkshire stingo.
Maybe we stop to see a pirate hanging in chains by the river, and we
are jostled by horse officers and watermen, revenue men and jerkers,
and, as usual, the curious beau, his glass to his eye. Never was such
a time for curiosity: a man is preaching mystic religion; there is a
new flavour to the Rainbow Tavern furmity; there is a fellow who can
sew with his toes; a man is in the pillory for publishing Jacobite
ballads--and always there is the beau looking on.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of George I.}]
Country ladies, still in small hoops, even in full dresses innocent
of whalebone, are bewildered by the noise; country gentlemen, in
plain-coloured coats and stout shoes, have come to London on South Sea
Bubble business. They will go to the Fair to see the Harlequin and
Scaramouch dance, they will buy a new perfume at The Civet Cat, and
they will go home--the lady's head full of the new hoop fashion, and
she will cut away the sleeve of her old dress and put in fresh lace;
the gentleman full of curses on tavern bills and the outrageous price
of South Sea shares.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of George I.}]
'And what,' says country dame to country dame lately from town--'what
is the mode in gentlemen's hair?' Her own goodman has an old periwig,
very full, and a small bob for ordinary wear.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of George I.}]
'The very full periwig is going out,' our lady assures her; 'a tied
wig is quite the mode, a wig in three queues tied in round bobs, or in
hair loops, and the long single queue wig is coming in rapidly, and
will soon be all the wear.' So, with talk of flowered tabbies and
fine lutestring, are the fashions passed on.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF GEORGE I. (1714-1727)
You will see that the fontage has given way to a small lace cap. The
hair is drawn off the forehead. The hoop of the skirt is still
large.]
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of George I.}]
Just as Sir Roger de Coverley nearly called a young lady in
riding-dress 'sir,' because of the upper half of her body, so the
ladies of this day might well be taken for 'sirs,' with their
double-breasted riding-coats like the men, and their hair in a queue
surmounted by a cocked hat.
Colours and combinations of colours are very striking: petticoats of
black satin covered with large bunches of worked flowers, morning gown
of yellow flowered satin faced with cherry-coloured bands, waistcoats
of one colour with a fringe of another, bird's-eye hoods, bodices
covered with gold lace and embroidered flowers--all these gave a gay,
artificial appearance to the age; but we are to become still more
quaintly devised, still more powdered and patched, in the next reign.
GEORGE THE SECOND
Reigned thirty-three years: 1727-1760.
Born 1683. Married, 1705, Caroline of Anspach.
THE MEN
Just a few names of wigs, and you will see how the periwig has gone
into the background, how the bob-wig has superseded the campaign wig;
you will find a veritable confusion of barbers' enthusiasms,
half-forgotten designs, names dependent on a twist, a lock, a careful
disarrangement--pigeon's-wing wigs with wings of hair at the sides,
comets with long, full tails, cauliflowers with a profusion of curls,
royal bind-wigs, staircase wigs, ladders, brushes, Count Saxe wigs,
cut bobs, long bobs, negligents, chain-buckles, drop-wigs, bags. Go
and look at Hogarth; there's a world of dress for you by the grim
humorist who painted Sarah Malcolm, the murderess, in her cell; who
painted 'Taste in High Life.' Wigs! inexhaustible subject--wigs
passing from father to son until they arrived at the second-hand
dealers in Monmouth Street, and there, after a rough overhauling,
began a new life. There was a wig lottery at sixpence a ticket in
Rosemary Lane, and with even ordinary wigs--Grizzle Majors at
twenty-five shillings, Great Tyes at a guinea, and Brown Bagwigs at
fifteen shillings--quite a considerable saving might be made by the
lucky lottery winner.
[Illustration: {Back view of a man's coat; seven types of hat for
men}]
On wigs, hats cocked to suit the passing fashion, broad-brimmed,
narrow-brimmed, round, three-cornered, high-brimmed, low-brimmed,
turned high off the forehead, turned low in front and high at the
back--an endless crowd. Such a day for clothes, for patches, and
politics, Tory side and Whig to your face, Tory or Whig cock to your
hat; pockets high, pockets low, stiff cuffs, crushable cuffs, a
regular jumble of go-as-you-please. Let me try to sort the jumble.
[Illustration: {1739: Two views of a coat for men}]
[Illustration: {A man of the time of George II.; a sleeve; a
waistcoat}]
Foremost, the coat. The coat is growing more full, more spread; it
becomes, on the beau, a great spreading, flaunting, skirted affair
just buttoned by a button or two at the waist. It is laced or
embroidered all over; it is flowered or plain. The cuffs are huge;
they will, of course, suit the fancy of the owner, or the tailor.
About 1745 they will get small--some will get small; then the fashions
begin to run riot; by the cut of coat you may not know the date
of it, then, when you pass it in the street. From 1745 there begins
the same jumble as to-day, a hopeless thing to unravel; in the next
reign, certainly, you may tell yourself here is one of the new
Macaronis, but that will be all you will mark out of the crowd of
fashions--one more remarkable, newer than the rest, but perhaps you
have been in the country for a week, and a new mode has come in and is
dying out.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF GEORGE II. (1727-1760)
Notice the heavy cuffs, and the very full skirts of the coat. He
carries a _chapeau bras_ under his arm--a hat for carrying only,
since he will not ruffle his wig. He wears a black satin tie to his
wig, the ends of which tie come round his neck, are made into a bow,
and brooched with a solitaire.]
[Illustration: {A man of the time of George II.}]
From coat let us look at waistcoat. Full flaps and long almost to the
knees; but again, about 1756, they will be shorter. They are fringed,
flowered, laced, open to show the lace cravat fall so daintily, to
show the black velvet bow-tie that comes over from the black velvet,
or silk, or satin tie of the queue. Ruffles of lace, of all qualities,
at the wrists, the beau's hand emerging with his snuff-box from a
filmy froth of white lace.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of George II.; a wig; breeches and
stockings}]
In this era of costume--from George I. to George IV.--the great thing
to remember is that the coat changes more than anything else; from
the stiff William and Mary coat with its deep, stiff cuffs, you see
the change towards the George I. coat, a looser cut of the same
design, still simple in embroideries; then the coat skirts are
gathered to a button at each side of the coat just behind the pockets.
Then, in George II.'s reign, the skirt hangs in parallel folds free
from the button, and shapes to the back more closely, the opening of
the coat, from the neck to the waist, being so cut as to hang over the
buttons and show the cravat and the waistcoat. Then, later in the same
reign, we see the coat with the skirts free of buckram and very full
all round, and the cuffs also free of stiffening and folding with the
crease of the elbow. Then, about 1745, we get the coat left more open,
and, for the beau, cut much shorter--this often worn over a
double-breasted waistcoat. Then, arriving at George III., we get a
long series of coat changes, with a collar on it, turned over and
standing high in the neck, with the skirts buttoned back, then cut
away; then the front of the coat cut away like the modern dress-coat.
[Illustration: {Four men of the time of George II.}]
In following out these really complicated changes, I have done my best
to make my meaning clear by placing dates against those drawings where
dates are valuable, hoping by this means to show the rise and fall of
certain fashions more clearly than any description would do.
It will be noticed that, for ceremony, the periwig gave place to the
tie-wig, or, in some few cases, to natural hair curled and powdered.
The older men kept to the periwig no doubt from fondness of the old
and, as they thought, more grave fashion; but, as I showed at the
beginning of the chapter, the beau and the young man, even the quite
middle-class man, wore, or had the choice of wearing, endless
varieties of false attires of hair.
The sporting man had his own idea of dress, even as to-day he has a
piquant idea in clothes, and who shall say he has not the right? A
black wig, a jockey cap with a bow at the back of it, a very
resplendent morning gown richly laced, a morning cap, and very
comfortable embroidered slippers, such mixtures of clothes in his
wardrobe--his coat, no doubt, a little over-full, but of good cloth,
his fine clothes rather over-embroidered, his tie-wig often pushed too
far back on his forehead, and so showing his cropped hair underneath.
Muffs must be remembered, as every dandy carried a muff in winter,
some big, others grotesquely small. Bath must be remembered, and the
great Beau Nash in the famous Pump-Room--as Thackeray says, so say I:
'I should like to have seen the Folly,' he says, meaning Nash. 'It was
a splendid embroidered, beruffled, snuff-boxed, red-heeled,
impertinent Folly, and knew how to make itself respected. I should
like to have seen that noble old madcap Peterborough in his boots (he
actually had the audacity to walk about Bath in boots!), with his blue
ribbon and stars, and a cabbage under each arm, and a chicken in his
hand, which he had been cheapening for his dinner.'
It was the fashion to wear new clothes on the Queen's birthday, March
1, and then the streets noted the loyal people who indulged their
extravagance or pushed a new fashion on that day.
Do not forget that no hard-and-fast rules can be laid down; a man's a
man for all his tailor tells him he is a walking fashion plate. Those
who liked short cuffs wore them, those who did not care for solitaires
did without; the height of a heel, the breadth of a buckle, the sweep
of a skirt, all lay at the taste of the owner--merely would I have you
remember the essentials.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of George II.; four styles of hair
for men}]
There was a deal of dressing up--the King, bless you, in a Turkish
array at a masque--the day of the Corydon and Sylvia: mock shepherd,
dainty shepherdess was here; my lord in silk loose coat with paste
buttons, fringed waistcoat, little three-cornered hat under his arm,
and a pastoral staff between his fingers, a crook covered with cherry
and blue ribbons; and my lady in such a hoop of sprigged silk or some
such stuff, the tiniest of straw hat on her head, high heels tapping
the ground, all a-shepherding--what? Cupids, I suppose, little Dresden
loves, little comfit-box jokes, little spiteful remarks about the
Germans.
[Illustration: {1745: Two men of the time of George II.; 1758: Three
men of the time of George II.}]
Come, let me doff my Kevenhuller hat with the gold fringe, bring my
red heels together with a smart tap, bow, with my hand on the third
button of my coat from which my stick dangles, and let me introduce
the ladies.
THE WOMEN
I will introduce the fair, painted, powdered, patched, perfumed sex
(though this would do for man or woman of the great world then) by
some lines from the _Bath Guide_:
'Bring, O bring thy essence-pot,
Amber, musk, and bergamot;
Eau de chipre, eau de luce,
Sanspareil, and citron juice.
* * * * *
In a band-box is contained
Painted lawns, and chequered shades,
Crape that's worn by love-lorn maids,
Watered tabbies, flowered brocades;
Straw-built hats, and bonnets green,
Catgut, gauzes, tippets, ruffs;
Fans and hoods, and feathered muffs,
Stomachers, and Paris nets,
Earrings, necklaces, aigrets,
Fringes, blouses, and mignionets;
Fine vermillion for the cheek,
Velvet patches à la grecque.
Come, but don't forget the gloves,
Which, with all the smiling loves,
Venus caught young Cupid picking
From the tender breast of chicken.'
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF GEORGE II. (1727-1760)
She is wearing a large pinner over her dress. Notice the large
panniers, the sleeves without cuffs, the tied cap, and the shortness
of the skirts.]
[Illustration: {Three women of the time of George II.}]
Now I think it will be best to describe a lady of quality. In the
first years of the reign she still wears the large hoop skirt, a
circular whalebone arrangement started at the waist, and, at
intervals, the hoops were placed so that the petticoat stood out all
round like a bell; over this the skirt hung stiff and solemn. The
bodice was tight-laced, cut square in front where the neckerchief of
linen or lace made the edge soft. The sleeves still retained the cuff
covering the elbow, and the under-sleeve of linen with lace frills
came half-way down the forearm, leaving bare arm and wrist to show.
[Illustration: {Four women of the time of George II.}]
Over the skirt she would wear, as her taste held her, a long, plain
apron, or a long, tucked apron, or an apron to her knees. The bodice
generally formed the top of a gown, which gown was very full-skirted,
and was divided so as to hang back behind the dress, showing, often,
very little in front. This will be seen clearly in the illustrations.
The hair is very tightly gathered up behind, twisted into a small knob
on the top of the head, and either drawn straight back from the
forehead or parted in the middle, allowing a small fringe to hang on
the temples. Nearly every woman wore a small cap or a small round
straw hat with a ribbon round it.
The lady's shoes would be high-heeled and pointed-toed, with a little
buckle and strap.
About the middle of the reign the sacque became the general town
fashion, the sacque being so named on account of the back, which fell
from the shoulders into wide, loose folds over the hooped petticoat.
The sacque was gathered at the back in close pleats, which fell open
over the skirt part of this dress. The front of the sacque was
sometimes open, sometimes made tight in the bodice.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of George II.; four types of
shoe}]
Now the lady would puff her hair at the sides and powder it; if she
had no hair she wore false, and a little later a full wig. She would
now often discard her neat cap and wear a veil behind her back, over
her hair, and falling over her shoulders.
In 1748, so they say, and so I believe to be true, the King, walking
in the Mall, saw the Duchess of Bedford riding in a blue riding-habit
with white silk facings--this would be a man's skirted coat,
double-breasted, a cravat, a three-corned hat, and a full blue skirt.
He admired her dress so much and thought it so neat that he
straightway ordered that the officers of the navy, who, until now, had
worn scarlet, should take this coat for the model of their new
uniform. So did the navy go into blue and white.
The poorer classes were not, of course, dressed in hooped skirts, but
the bodice and gown over the petticoat, the apron, and the turned back
cuff to the short sleeve were worn by all. The orange wench laced her
gown neatly, and wore a white cloth tied over her head; about her
shoulders she wore a kerchief of white, and often a plain frill of
linen at her elbows. There were blue canvas, striped dimity, flannel,
and ticken for the humble; for the rich, lustrings, satins, Padesois,
velvets, damasks, fans and Leghorn hats, bands of Valenciennes and
Point de Dunquerque--these might be bought of Mrs. Holt, whose card
Hogarth engraved, at the Two Olive Posts in the Broad part of the
Strand.
[Illustration: {Two women of the time of George II.}]
Seventeen hundred and fifty-five saw the one-horse chairs introduced
from France, called cabriolets, the first of our own extraordinary
wild-looking conveyances contrived for the minimum of comfort and the
maximum of danger. This invention captivated the hearts of both men
and women. The men painted cabriolets on their waistcoats, they
embroidered them on their stockings, they cut them out in black silk
and patched their cheeks with them, horse and all; the women began to
take up, a little later, the cabriolet caps with round sides like
linen wheels, and later still, at the very end of the reign, there
began a craze for such head-dresses--post-chaises, chairs and
chairmen, even waggons, and this craze grew and grew, and hair
grew--in wigs--to meet the cry for hair and straw men-of-war, for
loads of hay, for birds of paradise, for goodness knows what forms of
utter absurdity, all of which I put down to the introduction of the
cab.
I think that I can best describe the lady of this day as a swollen,
skirted figure with a pinched waist, little head of hair, or tiny cap,
developing into a loose sacque-backed figure still whaleboned out,
with hair puffed at the sides and powdered, getting ready to develop
again into a queer figure under a tower of hair, but that waits for
the next reign.
One cannot do better than go to Hogarth's prints and
pictures--wonderful records of this time--one picture especially,
'Taste in High Life,' being a fine record of the clothes of 1742; here
you will see the panier and the sacque, the monstrous muff, the huge
hoop, the long-tailed wig, the black boy and the monkey. In the 'Noon'
of the 'Four Parts of the Day' there are clothes again satirized.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of George II.; a shawl}]
I am trusting that the drawings will supply what my words have failed
to picture, and I again--for the twenty-first time--repeat that, given
the cut and the idea of the time, the student has always to realize
that there can be no hard-and-fast rule about the fashions; with the
shape he can take liberties up to the points shown, with colour he can
do anything--patterns of the materials are obtainable, and Hogarth
will give anything required in detail.
GEORGE THE THIRD
Reigned sixty years: 1760-1820.
Born 1738. Married, 1761, Charlotte Sophia of
Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
THE MEN AND WOMEN
Throughout this long reign the changes of costume are so frequent, so
varied, and so jumbled together, that any precise account of them
would be impossible. I have endeavoured to give a leading example of
most kind of styles in the budget of drawings which goes with this
chapter.
Details concerning this reign are so numerous: Fashion books, fashion
articles in the _London Magazine_, the _St. James's Chronicle_, works
innumerable on hair-dressing, tailors' patterns--these are easily
within the reach of those who hunt the second-hand shops, or are
within reasonable distance of a library.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF GEORGE III. (1760-1820)
The full-skirted coat, though still worn, has given way, in general,
to the tail-coat. The waistcoat is much shorter. Black silk
knee-breeches and stockings are very general.]
Following my drawings, you will see in the first the ordinary
wig, skirted coat, knee-breeches, chapeau-bras, cravat or waistcoat,
of the man about town. I do not mean of the exquisite about town, but,
if you will take it kindly, just such clothes as you or I might have
worn.
[Illustration: {Eleven types of head-dress for women; three types
of shoe}]
In the second drawing we see a fashionable man, who might have
strutted past the first fellow in the Park. His hair is dressed in a
twisted roll; he wears a tight-brimmed little hat, a frogged coat, a
fringed waistcoat, striped breeches, and buckled shoes.
In the third we see the dress of a Macaroni. On his absurd wig he
wears a little Nevernoise hat; his cravat is tied in a bow; his
breeches are loose, and beribboned at the knee. Many of these
Macaronis wore coloured strings at the knee of their breeches, but the
fashion died away when Jack Rann, 'Sixteen String Jack,' as he was
called after this fashion, had been hung in this make of breeches.
In number four we see the development of the tail-coat and the
high-buttoned waistcoat. The tail-coat is, of course, son to the
frock-coat, the skirts of which, being inconvenient for riding, had
first been buttoned back and then cut back to give more play.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF GEORGE III. (1760-1820)
In the earlier half of the reign. Notice her sack dress over a satin
dress, and the white, elaborately made skirt. Also the big cap and
the curls of white wig.]
In the fifth drawing we see the double-breasted cut-away coat.
Number six is but a further tail-coat design.
Number seven shows how different were the styles at one time. Indeed,
except for the Macaroni and other extreme fashions, the entire budget
of men as shown might have formed a crowd in the Park on one day about
twenty years before the end of the reign. There would not be much
powdered hair after 1795, but a few examples would remain.
A distinct change is shown in the eighth drawing of the long-tailed,
full coat, the broad hat, the hair powdered, but not tied.
Number nine is another example of the same style.
The tenth drawing shows the kind of hat we associate with Napoleon,
and, in fact, very Napoleonic garments.
In eleven we have a distinct change in the appearance of English
dress. The gentleman is a Zebra, and is so-called from his striped
clothes. He is, of course, in the extreme of fashion, which did not
last for long; but it shows a tendency towards later Georgian
appearance--the top-hat, the shorter hair, the larger neckcloth,
the pantaloons--forerunners of Brummell's invention--the open sleeve.
[Illustration: {Fourteen styles of hair and hats for men}]
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF GEORGE III. (1760-1820)
The cuffs have gone, and now the sleeve is left unbuttoned at the
wrist. The coat is long and full-skirted, but not stiffened. The
cravat is loosely tied, and the frilled ends stick out. These frills
were, in the end, made on the shirt, and were called chitterlings.]
Number twelve shows us an ordinary gentleman in a coat and waistcoat,
with square flaps, called dog's ears.
As the drawings continue you can see that the dress became more and
more simple, more like modern evening dress as to the coats, more like
modern stiff fashion about the neck.
The drawings of the women's dresses should also speak for themselves.
You may watch the growth of the wig and the decline of the hoop--I
trust with ease. You may see those towers of hair of which there are
so many stories. Those masses of meal and stuffing, powder and
pomatum, the dressing of which took many hours. Those piles of
decorated, perfumed, reeking mess, by which a lady could show her
fancy for the navy by balancing a straw ship on her head, for sport by
showing a coach, for gardening by a regular bed of flowers. Heads
which were only dressed, perhaps, once in three weeks, and were then
rescented because it was necessary. Monstrous germ-gatherers of
horse-hair, hemp-wool, and powder, laid on in a paste, the cleaning
of which is too awful to give in full detail. 'Three weeks,' says my
lady's hairdresser, 'is as long as a head can go well in the summer
without being opened.'
[Illustration: {1772: A woman of the time of George III.; two types
of hat; 1775: A woman of the time of George III.; 1794: A woman
of the time of George III.}]
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF GEORGE III. (1760-1820)
This shows the last of the pannier dresses, which gave way in 1794
or 1795 to Empire dresses. A change came over all dress after the
Revolution.]
Then we go on to the absurd idea which came over womankind that it was
most becoming to look like a pouter pigeon. She took to a buffon,
a gauze or fine linen kerchief, which stuck out pigeon-like in front,
giving an exaggerated bosom to those who wore it. With this fashion of
1786 came the broad-brimmed hat.
Travel a little further and you have the mob cap.
All of a sudden out go hoops, full skirts, high hair, powder, buffons,
broad-brimmed hats, patches, high-heeled shoes, and in come willowy
figures and thin, nearly transparent dresses, turbans, low shoes,
straight fringes.
I am going to give a chapter from a fashion book, to show you how
impossible it is to deal with the vagaries of fashion in the next
reign, and if I chose to occupy the space, I could give a similar
chapter to make the confusion of this reign more confounded.
DRAWINGS TO ILLUSTRATE THE COSTUME OF THE REIGN OF GEORGE THE THIRD
THE FIRST FORTY-EIGHT DRAWINGS BY THE AUTHOR, AND THE REMAINING TWELVE
BY THE DIGHTONS, FATHER AND SON
[Illustration: {Four men}]
[Illustration: {Five men}]
[Illustration: {Four men}]
[Illustration: {Four men}]
[Illustration: {Four men and a boy}]
[Illustration: {A man and three women}]
[Illustration: {Four women}]
[Illustration: {Four women}]
[Illustration: {Four women}]
[Illustration: {Four women}]
[Illustration: {Four women}]
[Illustration: {Four women}]
[Illustration: The King.]
[Illustration: The Navy.]
[Illustration: The Army.]
[Illustration: Pensioners.]
[Illustration: The Church.]
[Illustration: The Law.]
[Illustration: The Stage.]
[Illustration: The Universities.]
[Illustration: The Country.]
[Illustration: The Duke of Norfolk.]
[Illustration: The City.]
[Illustration: The Duke of Queensberry.]
GEORGE THE FOURTH
Reigned ten years: 1820-1830.
Born 1762. Married, 1795, Caroline of Brunswick.
Out of the many fashion books of this time I have chosen, from a
little brown book in front of me, a description of the fashions for
ladies during one part of 1827. It will serve to show how mere man,
blundering on the many complexities of the feminine passion for
dress--I was going to say clothes--may find himself left amid a froth
of frills, high and dry, except for a whiff of spray, standing in his
unromantic garments on the shore of the great world of gauze and
gussets, while the most noodle-headed girl sails gracefully away upon
the high seas to pirate some new device of the Devil or Paris.
Our wives--bless them!--occasionally treat us to a few bewildering
terms, hoping by their gossamer knowledge to present to our gaze a
mental picture of a new, adorable, ardently desired--hat. Perhaps
those nine proverbial tailors who go to make the one proverbial man,
least of his sex, might, by a strenuous effort, confine the history of
clothes during this reign into a compact literature of forty volumes.
It would be indecent, as undecorous as the advertisements in ladies'
papers, to attempt to fathom the language of the man who endeavoured
to read the monumental effigy to the vanity of human desire for
adornment. But is it adornment?
Nowadays to be dressed well is not always the same thing as to be well
dressed. Often it is far from it. The question of modern clothes is
one of great perplexity. It seems that what is beauty one year may be
the abomination of desolation the next, because the trick of that
beauty has become common property. You puff your hair at the sides,
you are in the true sanctum of the mode; you puff your hair at the
sides, you are for ever utterly cast out as one having no
understanding. I shall not attempt to explain it: it passes beyond the
realms of explanation into the pure air of Truth. The Truth is simple.
Aristocracy being no longer real, but only a cult, one is afraid of
one's servants. Your servant puffs her hair at the sides, and, hang
it! she becomes exactly like an aristocrat. Our servant having dropped
her _g's_ for many years as well as her _h's_, it behoved us to
pronounce our _g's_ and our _h's_. Our servants having learned our
English, it became necessary for us to drop our _g's_; we seem at
present unwilling in the matter of the _h_, but that will come.
To cut the cackle and come to the clothes-horse, let me say that the
bunglement of clothes which passes all comprehension in King George
IV.'s reign is best explained by my cuttings from the book of one who
apparently knew. Let the older writer have his, or her, fling in his,
or her, words.
'CUROSY REMARKS ON THE LAST NEW FASHIONS.
'The City of London is now, indeed, most splendid in its
buildings and extent; London is carried into the
country; but never was it more deserted.
'A very, very few years ago, and during the summer, the
dresses of the wives and daughters of our opulent
tradesmen would furnish subjects for the investigators
of fashion.
'Now, if those who chance to remain in London take a
day's excursion of about eight or ten miles distance
from the Metropolis, they hear the innkeepers
deprecating the steamboats, by which they declare they
are almost ruined: on Sundays, which would sometimes
bring them the clear profits of ten or twenty pounds,
they now scarce produce ten shillings.
'No; those of the middle class belonging to _Cockney
Island_ must leave town, though the days are short, and
even getting cold and comfortless; the steamboats
carrying them off by shoals to Margate and its vicinity.
'The pursuit after elegant and superior modes of dress
must carry us farther; it is now from the rural
retirement of the country seats belonging to the noble
and wealthy that we must collect them.
'Young ladies wear their hair well arranged, but not
quite with the simplicity that prevailed last month;
during the warmth of the summer months, the braids
across the forehead were certainly the best; but now,
when neither in fear of heat or damp, the curls again
appear in numerous clusters round the face; and some
young ladies, who seem to place their chief pride in a
fine head of hair, have such a multitude of small
ringlets that give to what is a natural charm all the
_poodle-like_ appearance of a wig.
'The bows of hair are elevated on the summit of the
head, and confined by a comb of tortoise-shell.
'Caps of the cornette kind are much in fashion, made of
blond, and ornamented with flowers, or puffs of coloured
gauze; most of the cornettes are small, and tie under
the chin, with a bow on one side, of white satin ribbon;
those which have ribbons or gauze lappets floating loose
have them much shorter than formerly.
'A few dress hats have been seen at dinner-parties and
musical amateur meetings in the country, of transparent
white crape, ornamented with a small elegant bouquet of
marabones.
'When these dress hats are of coloured crape, they are
generally ornamented with flowers of the same tint as
the hat, in preference to feathers.
'Printed muslins and chintzes are still very much worn
in the morning walks, with handsome sashes, having three
ends depending down each side, not much beyond the hips.
With one of these dresses we saw a young lady wear a
rich black satin pelerine, handsomely trimmed with a
very beautiful black blond; it had a very neat effect,
as the dress was light.
'White muslin dresses, though they are always worn
partially in the country till the winter actually
commences, are now seldom seen except on the young: the
embroidery on these dresses is exquisite. Dresses of
Indian red, either in taffety or chintz, have already
made their appearance, and are expected to be much in
favour the ensuing winter; the chintzes have much black
in their patterns; but this light material will, in
course, be soon laid aside for silks, and these, like
the taffeties which have partially appeared, will no
doubt be plain: with these dresses was worn a Canezon
spencer, with long sleeves of white muslin, trimmed with
narrow lace.
'Gros de Naples dresses are very general, especially for
receiving dinner-parties, and for friendly evening
society.
'At private dances, the only kind of ball that has at
present taken place, are worn dresses of the
white-figured gauze over white satin or gros de Naples;
at the theatricals sometimes performed by noble
amateurs, the younger part of the audience, who do not
take a part, are generally attired in very clear muslin,
over white satin, with drapery scarves of lace, barêge,
or thick embroidered tulle.
'Cachemire shawls, with a white ground, and a pattern of
coloured flowers or green foliage, are now much worn in
outdoor costumes, especially for the morning walk; the
mornings being rather chilly, these warm envelopes are
almost indispensable. We are sorry, however, to find our
modern belles so tardy in adopting those coverings,
which ought now to succeed to the light appendages of
summer costume.
'The muslin Canezon spencer, the silk fichu, and even
the lighter barêge, are frequently the sole additions to
a high dress, or even to one but partially so.
'We have lately seen finished to the order of a lady of
rank in the county of Suffolk, a very beautiful pelisse
of jonquil-coloured gros de Naples. It fastens close
down from the throat to the feet, in front, with large
covered buttons; at a suitable distance on each side of
this fastening are three bias folds, rather narrow,
brought close together under the belt, and enlarging as
they descend to the border of the skirt. A large
pelerine cape is made to take on and off; and the bust
from the back of each shoulder is ornamented with the
same bias folds, forming a stomacher in front of the
waist. The sleeves, _à la Marie_, are puckered a few
inches above the wrist, and confined by three straps;
each with a large button. Though long ends are very much
in favour with silk pelerines, yet there are quite as
many that are quite round; such was the black satin
pelerine we cited above.
'Coloured bonnets are now all the rage; we are happy to
say that some, though all too large, are in the charming
cottage style, and are modestly tied under the chin.
Some bonnets are so excessively large that they are
obliged to be placed quite at the back of the head; and
as their extensive brims will not support a veil, when
they are ornamented with a broad blond, the edge of that
just falls over the hair, but does not even conceal the
eyes. Leghorn hats are very general; their trimmings
consist chiefly of ribbons, though some ladies add a few
branches of green foliage between the bows or puffs:
these are chiefly of the fern; a great improvement to
these green branches is the having a few wild roses
intermingled.
'The most admired colours are lavender, Esterhazy,
olive-green, lilac, marshmallow blossom, and Indian red.
'At rural fêtes, the ornaments of the hats generally
consist of flowers; these hats are backward in the
Arcadian fashion, and discover a wreath of small flowers
on the hair, _ex bandeau_. In Paris the most admired
colours are ethereal-blue, Hortensia,
cameleopard-yellow, pink, grass-green, jonquil, and
Parma-violet.'--_September 1, 1827._
Really this little fashion book is very charming: it recreates, for
me, the elegant simpering ladies; it gives, in its style, just that
artificial note which conjures this age of ladies with hats--'in the
charming cottage style, modestly tied under the chin.'
They had the complete art of languor, these dear creatures; they
lisped Italian, and were fine needlewomen; they painted weak little
landscapes: nooks or arbours found them dreaming of a Gothic
revival--they were all this and more; but through this sweet envelope
the delicate refined souls shone: they were true women, often great
women; their loops of hair, their cameleopard pelerines, shall not rob
them of immortality, cannot destroy their softening influence, which
permeated even the outrageous dandyism of the men of their time and
steered the three-bottle gentlemen, their husbands and our
grandfathers, into a grand old age which we reverence to-day, and
wonder at, seeing them as giants against our nerve-shattered,
drug-taking generation.
As for the men, look at the innumerable pictures, and collect, for
instance, the material for a colossal work upon the stock ties of the
time, run your list of varieties into some semblance of order;
commence with the varieties of macassar-brown stocks, pass on to
patent leather stocks, take your man for a walk and cause him to pass
a window full of Hibernian stocks, and let him discourse on the stocks
worn by turf enthusiasts, and, when you are approaching the end of
your twenty-third volume, give a picture of a country dinner-party,
and end your work with a description of the gentlemen under the table
being relieved of their stocks by the faithful family butler.
POWDER AND PATCHES
'The affectation of a mole, to set off their beauty,
such as Venus had.'
'At the devill's shopps you buy
A dresse of powdered hayre.'
From the splendid pageant of history what figures come to you most
willingly? Does a great procession go by the window of your mind?
Knights bronzed by the sun of Palestine, kings in chains, emperors in
blood-drenched purple, poets clothed like grocers with the souls of
angels shining through their eyes, fussy Secretaries of State,
informers, spies, inquisitors, Court cards come to life, harlequins,
statesmen in great ruffs, wives of Bath in foot-mantles and white
wimples, sulky Puritans, laughing Cavaliers, Dutchmen drinking gin and
talking politics, men in wide-skirted coats and huge black
periwigs--all walking, riding, being carried in coaches, in
sedan-chairs, over the face of England. Every step of the procession
yields wonderful dreams of colour; in every group there is one who, by
the personality of his clothes, can claim the name of beau.
Near the tail of the throng there is a chattering, bowing, rustling
crowd, dimmed by a white mist of scented hair-powder. They are headed,
I think--for one cannot see too clearly--by the cook of the Comte de
Bellemare, a man by name Legros, the great hairdresser. Under his arm
is a book, the title of which reads, 'Art de la Coiffure des Dames
Françaises.' Behind him is a lady in an enormous hoop; her hair is
dressed _à la belle Poule_; she is arguing some minute point of the
disposition of patches with Monsieur Léonard, another artist in hair.
'What will be the next wear?' she asks. 'A heart near the
eye--_l'assassine_, eh? Or a star near the lips--_la friponne_? Must I
wear a _galante_ on my cheek, an _enjouée_ in my dimple, or _la
majestueuse_ on my forehead?' Before we can hear the reply another
voice is raised, a guttural German voice; it is John Schnorr, the
ironmaster of Erzgebinge. 'The feet stuck in it, I tell you,' he
says--'actually stuck! I got from my saddle and looked at the ground.
My horse had carried me on to what proved to be a mine of wealth.
Hair-powder! I sold it in Dresden, in Leipsic; and then, at Meissen,
what does Böttcher do but use my hair-powder to make white porcelain!'
And so the chatter goes on. Here is Charles Fox tapping the ground
with his red heels and proclaiming, in a voice thick with wine, on the
merits of blue hair-powder; here is Brummell, free from hair-powder,
free from the obnoxious necessity of going with his regiment to
Manchester.
The dressy person and the person who is well dressed--these two
showing everywhere. The one is in a screaming hue of woad, the other a
quiet note of blue dye; the one in excessive velvet sleeves that he
cannot manage, the other controlling a rich amplitude of material with
perfect grace. Here a liripipe is extravagantly long; here a gold
circlet decorates curled locks with matchless taste. Everywhere the
battle between taste and gaudiness. High hennins, steeples of
millinery, stick up out of the crowd; below these, the towers of
powdered hair bow and sway as the fine ladies patter along. What a
rustle and a bustle of silks and satins, of flowered tabbies, rich
brocades, cut velvets, superfine cloths, woollens, cloth of gold!
See, there are the square-shouldered Tudors; there are the steel
glints of Plantagenet armour; the Eastern-robed followers of Coeur
de Lion; the swaggering beribboned Royalists; the ruffs, trunks, and
doublets of Elizabethans; the snuffy, wide-skirted coats swaying about
Queen Anne. There are the soft, swathed Norman ladies with bound-up
chins; the tapestry figures of ladies proclaiming Agincourt; the
dignified dames about Elizabeth of York; the playmates of Katherine
Howard; the wheels of round farthingales and the high lace collars of
King James's Court; the beauties, bare-breasted, of Lely; the
Hogarthian women in close caps. And, in front of us, two posturing
figures in Dresden china colours, rouged, patched, powdered, perfumed,
in hoop skirts, flirting with a fan--the lady; in gold-laced wide
coat, solitaire, bagwig, ruffles, and red heels--the gentleman. 'I
protest, madam,' he is saying, 'but you flatter me vastly.' 'La, sir,'
she replies, 'I am prodigiously truthful.'
'And how are we to know that all this is true?' the critics ask,
guarding the interest of the public. 'We see that your book is full of
statements, and there are no, or few, authorities given for your
studies. Where,' they ask, 'are the venerable anecdotes which are
given a place in every respectable work on your subject?'
To appease the appetites which are always hungry for skeletons, I give
a short list of those books which have proved most useful:
MS. Cotton, Claudius, B. iv.
MS. Harl., 603. Psalter, English, eleventh century.
The Bayeaux Tapestry.
MS. Cotton, Tiberius, C. vi. Psalter.
MS. Trin. Coll., Camb., R. 17, 1. Illustrated by
Eadwine, a monk, 1130-1174.
MS. Harl. Roll, Y. vi.
MS. Harl., 5102.
Stothard's 'Monumental Effigies.'
MS. C. C. C., Camb., xvi.
MS. Cott., Nero, D. 1.
MS. Cott., Nero, C. iv. Full of drawings.
MS. Roy., 14, C. vii.
Lansdowne MS., British Museum.
Macklin's 'Monumental Brasses.'
_Journal of the Archæological Association._
MS. Roy., 2, B. vii.
MS. Roy., 10, E. iv. Good marginal drawings.
The Loutrell Psalter. Invaluable for costume.
MS. Bodl. Misc., 264. 1338-1344. Very full of useful
drawings.
Dr. Furnivall's edition of the Ellesmere MS. of
Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales.'
Boutell's 'Monumental Brasses.'
MS. Harl., 1819. Metrical history of the close of
Richard II.'s reign. Good drawings for costume.
MS. Harl., 1892.
MS. Harl., 2278.
Lydgate's 'Life of St. Edmund.'
MS. Roy., 15, E. vi. Fine miniatures.
The Bedford Missal, MS. Add., 18850.
MS. Harl., 2982. A Book of Hours. Many good drawings.
MS. Harl., 4425. The Romance of the Rose. Fine and
useful drawings.
MS. Lambeth, 265.
MS. Roy., 19, C. viii.
MS. Roy., 16, F. ii.
Turberville's 'Book of Falconrie' and 'Book of Hunting.'
Shaw's 'Dresses and Decorations.'
Jusserand's 'English Novel' and 'Wayfaring Life.' Very
excellent books, full of reproductions from illuminated
books, prints, and pictures.
The Shepherd's Calendar, 1579, British Museum.
Harding's 'Historical Portraits.'
Nichols's 'Progresses of Queen Elizabeth.'
Stubbes's 'Anatomie of Abuses,' 1583.
Braun's 'Civitates orbis terrarum.'
'Vestusta Monumenta.'
Hollar's 'Ornatus Muliebris Anglicanus.'
Hollar's 'Aula Veneris.'
Pepys's Diary.
Evelyn's Diary.
Tempest's 'Cries of London.' Fifty plates.
Atkinson's 'Costumes of Great Britain.'
In addition to these, there are, of course, many other books, prints,
engravings, sets of pictures, and heaps of caricatures. The excellent
labours of the Society of Antiquaries and the Archæological
Association have helped me enormously; these, with wills, wardrobe
accounts, 'Satires' by Hall and others, 'Anatomies of Abuses,'
broadsides, and other works on the same subject, French, German, and
English, have made my task easier than it might have been.
It was no use to spin out my list of manuscripts with the
numbers--endless numbers--of those which proved dry ground, so I have
given those only which have yielded a rich harvest.
BEAU BRUMMELL AND CLOTHES
_'A person, my dear, who will probably come and speak to
us; and if he enters into conversation, be careful to
give him a favourable impression of you, for,' and she
sunk her voice to a whisper, 'he is the celebrated Mr.
Brummell.'_--'Life of Beau Brummell,' Captain Jesse.
Those who care to make the melancholy pilgrimage may see, in the
Protestant Cemetery at Caen, the tomb of George Bryan Brummell. He
died, at the age of sixty-two, in 1840.
It is indeed a melancholy pilgrimage to view the tomb of that once
resplendent figure, to think, before the hideous grave, of the witty,
clever, foolish procession from Eton to Oriel College, Oxford; from
thence to a captaincy in the 10th Hussars, from No. 4 Chesterfield
Street to No. 13 Chapel Street, Park Lane; from Chapel Street a flight
to Calais; from Calais to Paris; and then, at last, to Caen, and the
bitter, bitter end, mumbling and mad, to die in the Bon Sauveur.
Place him beside the man who once pretended to be his friend, the man
of whom Thackeray spoke so truly: 'But a bow and a grin. I try and
take him to pieces, and find silk stockings, padding, stays, a coat
with frogs and a fur coat, a star and a blue ribbon, a pocket
handkerchief prodigiously scented, one of Truefitt's best nutty-brown
wigs reeking with oil, a set of teeth, and a huge black stock,
under-waistcoats, more under-waistcoats, and then nothing.'
Nothing! Thackeray is right; absolutely nothing remains of this King
George of ours but a sale list of his wardrobe, a wardrobe which
fetched £15,000 second-hand--a wardrobe that had been a man. He
invented a shoe-buckle 1 inch long and 5 inches broad. He wore a pink
silk coat with white cuffs. He had 5,000 steel beads on his hat. He
was a coward, a good-natured, contemptible voluptuary. Beside him, in
our eyes, walks for a time the elegant figure of Beau Brummell. I have
said that Brummell was the inventor of modern dress: it is true. He
was the Beau who raised the level of dress from the slovenly, dirty
linen, the greasy hair, the filthy neckcloth, the crumbled collar, to
a position, ever since held by Englishmen, of quiet, unobtrusive
cleanliness, decent linen, an abhorrence of striking forms of dress.
He made clean linen and washing daily a part of English life.
See him seated before his dressing-glass, a mahogany-framed sliding
cheval glass with brass arms on either sides for candles. By his side
is George IV., recovering from his drunken bout of last night. The
Beau's glass reflects his clean-complexioned face, his grey eyes, his
light brown hair, and sandy whiskers. A servant produces a shirt with
a 12-inch collar fixed to it, assists the Beau into it, arranges it,
and stands aside. The collar nearly hides the Beau's face. Now, with
his hand protected with a discarded shirt, he folds his collar down to
the required height. Now he takes his white stock and folds it
carefully round the collar; the stock is a foot high and slightly
starched. A supreme moment of artistic decision, and the stock and
collar take their perfect creases. In an hour or so he will be ready
to partake of a light meal with the royal gentleman. He will stand up
and survey himself in his morning dress, his regular, quiet suit. A
blue coat, light breeches fitting the leg well, a light waistcoat over
a waistcoat of some other colour, never a startling contrast, Hessian
boots, or top-boots and buckskins. There was nothing very peculiar
about his clothes except, as Lord Byron said, 'an exquisite
propriety.' His evening dress was a blue coat, white waistcoat, black
trousers buttoned at the ankle--these were of his own invention, and
one may say it was the wearing of them that made trousers more popular
than knee-breeches--striped silk stockings, and a white stock.
He was a man of perfect taste--of fastidious taste. On his tables lay
books of all kinds in fine covers. Who would suspect it? but the
Prince is leaning an arm on a copy of Ellis's 'Early English Metrical
Romances.' The Beau is a rhymer, an elegant verse-maker. Here we see
the paper-presser of Napoleon--I am flitting for the moment over some
years, and see him in his room in Calais--here we notice his passion
for buhl, his Sèvres china painted with Court beauties.
In his house in Chapel Street he saw daily portraits of Nelson and
Pitt and George III. upon his walls. This is no Beau as we understand
the term, for we make it a word of contempt, a nickname for a feeble
fellow in magnificent garments. Rather this is the room of an educated
gentleman of 'exquisite propriety.'
He played high, as did most gentlemen; he was superstitious, as are
many of the best of men. That lucky sixpence with the hole in it that
you gave to a cabman, Beau Brummell, was that loss the commencement of
your downward career?
There are hundreds of anecdotes of Brummell which, despite those of
the 'George, ring the bell' character, and those told of his heavy
gaming, are more valuable as showing his wit, his cleanliness, his
distaste of display--in fact, his 'exquisite propriety.'
A Beau is hardly a possible figure to-day; we have so few
personalities, and those we have are chiefly concerned with trade--men
who uphold trusts, men who fight trusts, men who speak for trade in
the House of Commons. We have not the same large vulgarities as our
grandfathers, nor have we the same wholesome refinement; in killing
the evil--the great gambler, the great men of the turf, the great
prize-fighters, the heavy wine-drinkers--we have killed, also, the
good, the classic, well-spoken civil gentleman. Our manners have
suffered at the expense of our morals.
Fifty or sixty years ago the world was full of great men, saying,
writing, thinking, great things. To-day--perhaps it is too early to
speak of to-day. Personalities are so little marked by their clothes,
by any stamp of individuality, that the caricaturist, or even the
minute and truthful artist, be he painter or writer, has a difficult
task before him when he sets out to point at the men of these our
times.
George Brummell came into the world on June 7, 1778. He was a year or
so late for the Macaroni style of dress, many years behind the
Fribbles, after the Smarts, and must have seen the rise and fall of
the Zebras when he was thirteen. During his life he saw the
old-fashioned full frock-coat, bagwig, solitaire, and ruffles die
away; he saw the decline and fall of knee-breeches for common wear,
and the pantaloons invented by himself take their place. From these
pantaloons reaching to the ankle came the trousers, as fashionable
garments, open over the instep at first, and joined by loops and
buttons, then strapped under the boot, and after that in every manner
of cut to the present style. He saw the three-cornered hat vanish from
the hat-boxes of the polite world, and he saw fine-coloured clothes
give way to blue coats with brass buttons or coats of solemn black.
It may be said that England went into mourning over the French
Revolution, and has not yet recovered. Beau Brummell, on his way to
Eton, saw a gay-coloured crowd of powdered and patched people, saw
claret-coloured coats covered with embroidery, gold-laced hats,
twinkling shoe-buckles. On his last walks in Caen, no doubt, he
dreamed of London as a place of gay colours instead of the drab place
it was beginning to be.
To-day there is no more monotonous sight than the pavements of
Piccadilly crowded with people in dingy, sad clothes, with silk tubes
on their heads, their black and gray suits being splashed by the mud
from black hansoms, or by the scatterings of motor-cars driven by
aristocratic-looking mechanics, in which mechanical-looking
aristocrats lounge, darkly clad. Here and there some woman's dress
enlivens the monotony; here a red pillar-box shines in the sun; there,
again, we bless the Post-Office for their red mail-carts, and perhaps
we are strengthened to bear the gloom by the sight of a blue or red
bus.
But our hearts are not in tune with the picture; we feel the lack of
colour, of romance, of everything but money, in the street. Suddenly a
magnificent policeman stops the traffic; there is a sound of jingling
harness, of horses' hoofs beating in unison. There flashes upon us an
escort of Life Guards sparkling in the sun, flashing specks of light
from swords, breastplates, helmets. The little forest of waving
plumes, the raising of hats, the polite murmuring of cheers, warms us.
We feel young, our hearts beat; we feel more healthy, more alive, for
this gleam of colour.
Then an open carriage passes us swiftly as we stand with bared heads.
There is a momentary sight of a man in uniform--a man with a wonderful
face, clever, dignified, kind. And we say, with a catch in our voices:
'THE KING--GOD BLESS HIM!'
THE END
BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD, ENGLAND
* * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Illustration captions in {curly brackets} have been added by the
transcriber for the convenience of the reader.
Hyphenation has been made consistent. Minor errors in punctuation have
been corrected.
The following items were noted by the transcriber:
Page 361--the text reads, "Another thing the women did
was to cut from their bodices all the little strips but
the in the middle of the back, ..." which seems to be
missing the word 'one' between 'the' and 'in'. It has
been added in this etext.
Page 442--the word CUROSY may be an error for CURSORY,
or it may be the pen-name of the quoted writer. However,
as the transcriber was unable to confirm either way, it
has been preserved as printed.
Archaic spelling is preserved as printed. Variable spelling has been
made consistent where there was a prevalence of one form over the
other, and typographic errors have been repaired, as follows:
Page 38 (plate facing)--whimple amended to wimple--"She
has a wimple in her hands which she may wind about her
head."
Page 52 (plate facing)--whimple amended to
wimple--"There is a chin-band to be seen passing under
the wimple; ..."
Page 54--Fontevfaud amended to Fontevraud--"The effigy
of the Queen at Fontevraud shows her dress ..."
Page 73--wode amended to woad--"... by staining
themselves blue with woad and yellow with ochre, ..."
Page 74 (plate facing)--whimple amended to wimple--"...
a plain cloak, a plain gown, and a wimple over the
head."
Page 82--kaleidscope amended to kaleidoscope--"... like
the symmetrical accidents of the kaleidoscope, ..."
Page 87--head-hankerchief amended to head-handkerchief--"...
as was the gown and head-handkerchief of his wife."
Page 92--repeated 'new' deleted--"... for, although men
followed the new mode, ladies adhered to their earlier
fashions."
Page 94--tieing amended to tying--"Every quaint thought
and invention for tying up this liripipe was used: ..."
Page 96--tow amended to two--"Then there were two
distinct forms of cape: ..."
Page 123--Ploughman amended to Plowman--"... William
Langland, or Piers the Plowman."
Page 142--Louttrell amended to Loutrell--"... together
with the artist of the Loutrell Psalter, ..."
Page 142--repeated 'British' removed--"... are cheap to
obtain and the British Museum is free to all."
Page 154--waistcoast amended to waistcoat--"Over his
tunic he wears a quilted waistcoat, ..."
Page 189--excresences amended to excrescences--"...
surmounted by minarets, towers, horns, excrescences of
every shape ..."
Page 247--Katharine amended to Katherine--"Married,
1509, Katherine of Aragon; ..." and "... 1540, Katherine
Howard; ..."
Page 259--martin amended to marten--"... to wear marten
or velvet trimming you must be worth over two hundred
marks a year."
Page 291--anp amended to and (typesetting error)--"How,
they and we ask, are breeches, ..."
Page 296--Nuserie amended to Nurserie--"'The Wits
Nurserie.'"
Page 305--underproper amended to underpropper--"First,
the lady put on her underpropper of wire ..." and "...
wore such a ruff as required an underpropper, ..."
Page 313--choses amended to chooses--"... and from these
the Queen chooses one."
Page 334--fardingle amended to fardingale--"... and
twirl her round until the Catherine-wheel fardingale is
a blurred circle, ..."
Page 337--Castille amended to Castile--"On another day
comes the news that the Constable of Castile ..."
Page 417--Macaronies amended to Macaronis--"... you may
tell yourself here is one of the new Macaronis, ..."
The frontispiece illustration has been moved to follow the title page.
Other illustrations have been moved where necessary so that they are
not in the middle of a paragraph.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "English Costume" ***
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