_Black as a mourning Colour_ (Vol. viii., p. 411.).--Mourning habits are
said first to appear in England in the time of Edward III. Chaucer and
Froissart are the first who mention them. The former, in _Troylus and
Creseyde_, says:
"Creseyde was in widowe's habit _black_."
Again:
"My clothes everichone
Shall _blacke_ ben, in tolequyn, herte swete,
That I am as out of this world gone."