Chats on Costume. G. Woolliscroft Rhead
had tenne diverse gownes & as mani cotes; & thou wost welle lesse myghte have suffised her after the lawe of God; … & he toke all her juellys and rynges, … & also the false langage that she had saide … & caste hem in the balaunce with her evelle dedes." The "evelle dedes passed the good, & weyed downe & overcame her good dedes. & there the develle toke her, & bare her away, & putte her clothes & aray brennyng in the flawme on her with the fire of helle, & kist her doune into the pitte of helle; … & the pore soul cried, & made moche sorughe & pite … but it boted not."
Lydgate, the famous monk of Bury, and one of the foremost poets of his time, was unwearying in his condemnation of the extravagances of dress, his pet aversion being the horned head-dresses which obtained during the York and Lancastrian period. In a "Ditty of Women's Horns," he unbosoms himself as follows:—
"Clerkys recorde, by gret auctoryté,
Hornes wer yove to bestys for dyffence;
A thing contrarye to femynté,
To be maad sturdy of resystence.
But arche wives, egre in ther vyolence,
Fers as tygres for to make affray
They have despit, and ageyn concyence
Lyst nat of pryde, then hornes cast away."
But the most insistent of all the satirists was Philip Stubbes, who wrote his "Anatomy of Abuses" in the reign of Elizabeth. In lampooning the feminine habit of aping masculine dress, he says: "The women have doublets and jerkins as the men have, buttoned up to the breast, and made with wings, welts, and pinions on the shoulder-points, as man's apparel in all respects; and although this be a kind of attire proper only to a man, yet they blush not to wear it."
Artists also, as well as writers, joined in the general chorus of condemnation of the extravagances of fashion. Strutt gives a cut from the MS. copy of Froissart in the Harleian Library, of a pig walking upon stilts playing the harp, and crowned with the high steeple head-dress which prevailed during the reign of Edward IV.
In the Cotton MS. (Nero, C4) there is an illustration of a winged devil arrayed in a costume with elongated sleeves tied in knots, the prevailing fashion of the period.
It must be confessed that the satirists were occasionally a little too severe in their strictures, for while doubtless extravagance prevailed at most periods—indeed, must always prevail—the dress of such a period as that of the Plantagenets, as well as that of Elizabeth, was sumptuous to a degree. In fact, it is difficult for us moderns, so surrounded as we are by commonness, cheapness, and vulgarity, to realise the extreme splendour of the Middle Ages, either as regards their dress or their surroundings. Plenty of extravagance there is at the present time, but no real magnificence, either as to invention or material.
With respect to material, by far the most sumptuous fabric employed for purposes of adornment in past times is undoubtedly cloth of gold. This truly regal fabric has been in use from the earliest periods. "And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple, of scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cunning work. And the curious girdle of the ephod, which is upon it, shall be of the same, according to the work thereof; even of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen."[5]
It is recorded of the wife of the Emperor Honorius, who died about the year 400, upon the re-opening of her grave in 1544, the golden tissues which formed the shroud were melted, and amounted in weight to 36 lbs.
About the body of the Frankish King Childeric, when his grave was discovered in 1653, were found numerous strips of pure gold, pointing to the fact that the body must have been wrapped in a mantle of golden stuff for burial.
The sumptuary laws which were enacted at various periods of English history, regulating and restricting the wearing of this precious fabric to persons of estate, have already been referred to, and serve to show in what high estimation this fabric was held.
It will readily be imagined that cloth of gold was necessarily costly. The Princess Mary (afterwards Queen), thirteen years before she came to the throne, "Payed to Peycocke, of London, for xix yerds iii qrt of clothe of golde at xxxviijs. the yerde. xxxvijli. xs. vjd." and for "a yerde & dr qrt of clothe of silver xls." In later times the use of the pure gold thread was discontinued except for very costly garments, and tissues were made of silver-gilt or copper-gilt thread. The thin paper which we now know by the name of tissue paper was originally made for the purpose of being placed between the pieces of stuff to prevent tarnishing when laid by.
Silk, like the sun, and so many other good things comes to us from the "sacred East." The earliest mention of it is in Aristotle, who refers to the importation into the Western world of raw silk. Silken garments were brought to Rome from a very early period, but on account of their costliness were worn only by a very few. Heliogabalus was the first Emperor who wore silk for clothing. By the revised code of laws issued for the Roman Empire in 533 A.D., a monopoly of silk weaving was given to the Court, looms being set up in the imperial palace and worked by women. The raw material, however, had still to be brought from abroad. The story of the introduction of the silkworm into Constantinople will serve to show how jealously the secret of the rearing of the worm was kept by the peoples of the East. The eggs of the silkworm were brought, hidden in their walking staves, by two Greek monks, who had lived many years amongst the Chinese and learnt the process of rearing the worm, and who carried them to Constantinople and presented them to the Emperor. Very soon afterwards the Western world reared its own silk.
Silk was known under different names at various periods, according to its colour, texture, or design. Samite, Samit, Examitum, is a six-threaded tissue, and consequently costly. The hand which grasped the sword Excalibur when it was thrown into the lake was clothed in white samite—
"Launcelot and the Queen were cledde
In robes of a rich wede,
Of samyte white, with silver shredde."
Ciclatoun was a substance of light texture, and was used both for ecclesiastical purposes and for the more stately dresses of a secular character. Chaucer, in his "Rime of Sire Thopas," says:—
"Of Brugges were his hosen broun
His robe was of ciclatoun."
Cendal was a less costly fabric, and was also used largely in ecclesiastical vestments.
Taffeta was a thin transparent textile, and was used, as well as cendal, during the Middle Ages for linings.
Sarcenet also is a light webbed silk, and by degrees supplanted cendal.
Satin was also used in the Middle Ages, and is mentioned by Chaucer in his "Man of Lawe's Tale," but was not brought into general use until later. The beauties of the Court of Charles II., as pictured by Sir Peter Lely, are usually clad in satin.
Velvet, that most sumptuous material, has always been held in high estimation on account of the richness of its texture and fold. It has always been used, since its introduction into the West, for robes of state and for the more sumptuous kind of dress. The place of its origin is not known, but it probably comes from China.
DUCHESS OF ANCASTER (AFTER HUDSON).
In a letter preserved in the Record Office (circa 1505) to Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, from his steward Killingworth (De la Pole had been indicted of homicide and murder, "for slaying of a mean person in his rage and fury," and had fled to Flanders), conveying excuses from some person un-named, mentioned only as "your friend," for not having communicated with De la Pole earlier, as he had hoped, to send him news from England, the writer continues:—
"For your gown he axked me howe many elles velvet wold serve you. I told hym xiiij Englishe yerdis, and