_material_ of the cloak. The Queen was ill of the spotted fever, and,
upon hearing that she had grown worse, he sends to his tailor to stop
the making of his velvet cloak (presumably coloured) "till I see
whether she lives or dies."
The velvet, however, referred to the lining of the cloak, which was
often richer than the outside. On the 29th of the following month (the
Queen had recovered and was about again) he dons his best black cloth
suit, trimmed with scarlet ribbon, very neat, and his "cloak lined with
velvet, and a new beaver, which altogether is very noble."
In the reign of William III. the long skirted coats of the men,
with waistcoats reaching to the knees, rendered any outer clothing
unnecessary, except for the coldest weather, when long cloaks were
worn, together with muffs, by the beaux.
Muffs were at this period worn as commonly by men as by women, and this
fashion continued for nearly a century.
The beau with his muff is thus satirised in the comic opera "Lionel and
Clarissa," by Isaac Bickerstaff, _c._ 1768:--
"A coxcomb, a fop, a dainty milk-sop;
Who, essenc'd and dizen'd from bottom to top,
Looks just like a doll for a milliner's shop.
A thing full of prate, and pride and conceit;
All fashion, no weight;
Who shrugs and takes snuff; and carries a muff;
A minnikin, finicking, French powder-puff!"
[Illustration: EARL OF ROCHESTER, 1641-1711.
_Kneller, National Portrait Gallery._
_Photo by Walker & Cockerell._]
The mantle does not appear to have particularly excited the wrath of
the satirists. It is, indeed, so entirely reasonable a garment both
for men and women, that it is difficult to see how it could possibly
provide material for satire.
Broadly speaking, there are three conditions necessary to beautiful
dress, namely, beauty of material, excellence of workmanship, and
variety of fold. If ornament be introduced, it should be of a good
character, and employed rather in accordance with those well understood
laws of contrast than an indiscriminate covering of the whole field; in
fact, this defeats its own purpose, as richness of effect depends upon
concentration, as a painter focusses light, colour, or other interest
in a particular part of his work and allows nothing to detract from it.
As a general rule, plain spaces are best adapted for ornamentation,
although in the rich brocades of the fine periods the foldings of the
material give an added richness and variety to the patterning.
The mantle, therefore, is usually bare of ornament or simply bordered,
except for occasions of high ceremony; certainly plain if worn loosely,
and many foldings ensue; and any richness of ornament is confined
to the more closely fitting portions of the dress. In a word, the
decorative conditions of dress are as well defined, as absolute, as in
any other of the ornamental arts.
[Illustration: DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.]
FOOTNOTES:
[7] Scott's "Kenilworth."
[8] "The Four Sons of Aymon," Caxton's version.
[9] This chivalrous monarch not only founded the Order of the Garter,
but even contemplated the revival of the Round Table.
[10] Pilch or pilcher, a scabbard, a _covering_ for the sword.
IV
THE
DOUBLET
AND HOSE
"Monsieur, the King's elder brother, has set up for a kind
of wit; and leans towards the Philosophe side. Monseigneur
d'Artois pulls the mask from a fair impertinent; fights a duel
in consequence,--almost drawing blood. He has breeches of a kind
new in this world;--a fabulous kind, 'four tall lackeys,' says
Mercier, as if he had seen it, 'hold him in the air, that he may
fall into the garment without vestige of wrinkle; from which
rigorous encasement the same four, in the same way, and with more
effort, have to deliver him at night.'"--CARLYLE, _French
Revolution_, Book II., Chap. I.
[Illustration: ITALIAN CASSONE (FIFTEENTH CENTURY).
_South Kensington Museum._]
IV
THE DOUBLET AND HOSE
The absence of wrinkle or fold, alluded to in the above quotation,
is commonly suggestive of the modern spirit in dress. The first
thing an artist does in painting a figure in hose is to indicate the
little wrinkles or folds at the knee and ankle. This, as serving two
purposes, first as a decorative enrichment to the limb, and secondly
as indicating, together with the colour of the material, the fact that
the limb is clothed. There are, however, such things as "fleshings,"
which are made of some material possessing elasticity, and so reducing
the wrinkles and folds to a minimum; but if there is one thing more
than another which is characteristic of clothing or drapery, it is its
_folds_--their constant and endless change varying with every movement.
The ideal of modern tailoring appears to be something which shall have
as near as possible the appearance of a deal board, to eliminate as far
as possible the foldings of drapery with their infinite variety and
almost endless play of light and shade.
With the doublet and hose we deal with a comparatively recent period,
when dress generally assumed a more formal character, and the loose
tunic gave place to the more closely fitting doublet.
Long before this, however, the sleeves had developed in various ways,
in strange and fantastic shapes. In the reign of Richard II.--
"Cut worke was great both in Court and townes,
Bothe in men's hoodes and also in their gownes,
Broudur[11] and furre and goldsmith's worke all newe
In many a wyse each day they did renewe."
HARDING'S _Chronicle_.
The tight sleeves of the reigns of the three Edwards had given place
to a sleeve of more ample proportions. The monk of Evesham speaks of
"pokys" shaped like a bagpipe: "The devil's receptacles, for whatever
was stolen could be popped into them."
The "cut work" above alluded to was extremely fantastic, the jagged
edgings of the sleeves, and, indeed, the rest of the costume, taking
the shape of the serrations of leaves, as well as other ornamental
devices.
In the reign of Edward IV. the short jackets, doublets, or pourpoints,
were provided with closely fitting sleeves, which were divided at the
elbow and shoulder, allowing the shirt or under-garment to appear as
puffing, tied with ribbons at these points, and laced underneath up the
whole length of the arm.
[Illustration: FIGURE FROM THE MIRACLE OF ST. BERNARD.
_By Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, Pinacoteca, Perugia._]
Another development of the sleeve, which lasted for a long period, was
the addition of an outer sleeve with a slit in the middle to allow of
the arm with its tight sleeve being passed through, the rest of the
sleeve hanging down. This was ornamented in a variety of ways, either
by edgings of fur or by embroidery.
Hose, that is, the more or less tightly fitting nether garments,
be they breche, hosen, or what not, have been worn from a very
early period. An illustration is given, from Hope's "Costume of the
Ancients," of Paris on Mount Ida, in which he is figured as wearing a
closely fitting garment which covers the whole body and limbs, being
buttoned all the way up the legs and arms; a short tunic, also buttoned
up the front, being worn over this dress. A similar tightly fitting
dress was, in fact, worn by the Amazonian women.
The cross-gartering, worn by the Goths, Franks, Anglo-Saxons, and other
nations, is referred to under the "shoe," of which it usually formed
a part. Some kind of hose, stockings, or bandages was invariably worn
underneath the gartering, which often extended the whole length of the
leg. This cross-gartering probably originated with the practice among
the peasants of enswathing the legs with hay-bands.
The short trouser of the Normans, or tunic and trouser in one, with
short sleeves attached, of which so many examples occur in the Bayeux
tapestry, is a garment which has puzzled many writers, on account of
the apparent difficulty of putting it on. It appears to have been put
on from below upwards, by being drawn on the thighs, and afterwards
putting the arms in the sleeves. In the illustration given of a similar
dress (p. 116), the metal plates or pieces of leather which serve as
armour are added to the front of the dress only. The cross-gartering in
this instance would probably not reach above the knees.
[Illustration: PARIS ON MOUNT IDA.
_From Hope's "Costume of the Ancients."_]
From the Norman period onwards, tight hose continued to be worn, and
presented little variation except in the matter of colour and material.
The parti-coloured hose of the Plantagenet period and later called
forth many strictures from the satirists and moralists, chiefly
clerical, of the time. "The red side of a gentleman, they declared,
gave them the idea of his having been half roasted, or that he and his
dress were afflicted by _St. Anthony's fire_!"[12]
[Illustration: ANGLO-SAXON RETAINER.]
This parti-colouring presented many variations. The legs were either
plain, dark and light alternately, of various colours, black and red,
black and yellow; or a variation of one colour, red, yellow, or grey,
as the case may be; or one leg was striped in various ways; or the
parti-colouring would assume various forms, as a zig-zag on the thigh,
or calf, or both; in fact, the leg was regarded as a field for the
dress designer to exercise his ingenuity in the matter of contrast,
upon the principle of what is known in ornament as counterchange.
In Field's play of "A Woman is a Weathercock," 1612, one of the
characters exclaims, "Indeed, there's reason there should be some
difference in my legs, for one cost me twenty pounds more than the
other."
At the beginning of the sixteenth century a new development appears,
which began as an upper garment reaching only to the knees, also at
this period called hose, upper stocks, and "trawses," which were
puffed, slashed, and embroidered in various ways; this was the
precursor of the _breeches_, or trunk-hose, which by the end of the
century had developed to such enormous proportions.
Numerous examples of the "slashed" period will be found in the drawings
by Holbein and Durer, and the engravings by Hans Burgkmair. The
"slashings," which may be regarded as ornament _in relief_, presented
as many variations as did the flat ornament of the earlier period on
the plain surface of the leg. The garment was either slashed downwards,
horizontally, or diagonally, and occasionally slashed to such an extent
that it appeared merely as a system of ribbons. Variety of colour was
arrived at either by the under-garment, stocking, or hose being of a
different hue to the upper; or by a system of puffing, in which another
or third colour was introduced. The puffing was also of a different
material, either of silk or other light material, while the upper or
slashing was of cloth or velvet.
It was an exceedingly rich, ornate, and fantastic period; the _jerkin_,
or body garment, together with the sleeves, were also cut and slashed
on the same principle as the lower garment, or _vice versâ_, the
slashings on the body usually appearing diagonally on either side.
In two female portraits, however, by Holbein at Basle, the slashings
appear perpendicularly underneath the breast, the sleeve being slashed
on the same principle.
The greatest richness of slashing always appears in the sleeve, a
common form being to slash the sleeve in ribbons, which hang loose from
the shoulder to the elbow. In the instances of several of the foot
soldiers in Hans Burgkmair's "Triumphs of Maximilian," the outer sleeve
is simply cut to ribbons, which stream loosely from the shoulder; and
it seems, indeed, a little curious that at present, when all sorts of
devices are employed for the purpose of producing variety, that some
fashion of this sort has not been adopted for women. It represents,
however, the most extreme development of the slash; it would be
impossible to carry the principle farther.
We now arrive at the period of the enormous trunk-hose, _temp._
Elizabeth and James I., of which an example of their highest
development appears in the illustration of "Knightly Pastimes--Hawking,
1575," and in which the middle of the body appears inflated like a
balloon, the "bombasting" of the breeches being carried to its utmost
limit. Their gipcieres are well in evidence in each instance. This
article of costume was, no doubt, originally a game bag, but was
afterwards generally used as a pocket or pouch--
"An anlas and a gipser al of silke
Heng at his gerdul white as morne mylke."
CHAUCER.
[Illustration: KNIGHTLY PASTIMES: HAWKING, 1575.]
The trunk-hose are, according to Stubbes ("Anatomy of Abuse"), of three
kinds--the French, the Gallic, and the Venetian hosen. The French hose
"are of two divers making; the common sort contain length, breadth,
and sideness sufficient, and they are made very round; the other sort
contain neither length, breadth, nor sideness proportionable, being not
past a quarter of a yard on the side, whereof some be paned or striped,
cut and drawn out with costly ornaments, with _canions_ adjoined,
reaching down beneath the knees.
"The Gallic hosen are made very large and wide, reaching down to the
knees only, with three or four gardes apiece laid down along the thigh
of either hose. The Venetian hosen reach beneath the knee to the
gartering-place of the leg, where they are tied finely with silken
points, and laid on also with rows or gardes, as the other before. And
yet notwithstanding, all this is not sufficient, except they be made
of silk, velvet, satin, damask, and other precious stuffs besides;
so that it is a small matter to bestow twenty nobles, ten pounds,
twenty pounds, forty pounds, yea, an hundred pounds, upon one pair of
breeches; and yet this is thought no abuse neither."
It has been stated by various writers that silk hose, _i.e._, stockings
of silk, were unknown in England prior to the middle of the sixteenth
century. However this may be, silk stockings were, in the reign of
Edward VI., considered as a gift worthy of a king's acceptance; it is
recorded that Sir Thomas Gresham (whose portrait appears on p. 121)
presented this monarch with a pair of long Spanish silk hose.
[Illustration: SIR THOMAS GRESHAM, 1519-1579.
_Sir Antonio More, National Portrait Gallery._
_Photo by Emery Walker._]
In the inventory of the wardrobe of Henry VIII., taken after his
decease, appears: "One pair of short hose, of black silk and gold woven
together; one pair of hose, of purple silk and Venice gold, woven
like unto a cawl, and lined with blue silver sarsenet, edged with a
passemain of purple silk and of gold, wrought at Milan; one pair of
hose of white silk and gold knit, bought of Christopher Millener; six
pair of black silk hose knit."
We learn from Stow that Mistress Montague, the Queen's silk-woman,
presented Elizabeth with "a pair of black knit silk stockings,
which pleased her so well, that she would never wear any cloth hose
afterwards."
The "bombasting" of the trunk-hose (the word is usually applied to
the doublet, but may be applied equally well to the trunk-hose) was
effected by means of a stuffing of rags, wool, tow, hair, and even
bran. Holinshed relates a story of a man "who is said to have exhibited
the whole of his bed and table furniture, taken from these extensive
receptacles." The name trunk-hose would seem a peculiarly appropriate
one! The story is probably apocryphal (although quite plausible) of
the young man who, engaged in animated, and apparently rather excited
conversation with several ladies, caught his trunk-hose in a nail, and
let out the bran, the hose collapsing suddenly, to the consternation of
their wearer and the corresponding amusement of the ladies.
[Illustration: PHILIP II. OF SPAIN, 1527-1598.
_National Portrait Gallery._
_Photo by Emery Walker._]
Ben Jonson, "Every Man out of his Humour," thus recounts a misfortune
which happened to Fastidio in a duel: "I had on a gold cable hatband,
then new come up, of massie goldsmith's work, which I wore about a
murrey French hat, the brims of which were thick embroidered with
gold twist and spangles; I had an Italian cut-work band, ornamented
with pearls, which cost three pounds at the Exchange.... He, making
a reverse blow, falls upon my embossed girdle--I had thrown off the
hangers a little before; strikes off a skirt of a thick satin doublet
I had, lined with four taffataes; cuts off two panes of embroidered
pearls; rends through the drawings out of tissue; enters the lining,
and skips the flesh; and not having leisure to put off my silver
spurs, one of the rowels catched hold of the ruffle of my boot, it
being Spanish leather, and subject to tear; overthrows me, and rends
me two pairs of stockings, that I had put on being a raw morning--a
peach-colour and another."
In the same play, Fungoso, reckoning up the price of Fastidio's dress,
says: "Let me see; the doublet--say fifty shillings the doublet--and
between three and four pounds the hose,--then the boots, hat, and
band;--some ten or eleven pounds will do it all."
By the year 1583 the trunks are rifled of their contents in order to
provide stuffing for the doublet. It will be noticed in the cut of
knightly pastimes that the girdle meets at a point in front. This shape
was emphasised, the doublet protruded in front, and hung down for some
distance, and the peas-cod bellied doublet was developed. We must again
turn to our old "anatomist" Stubbes: "Certain I am there was never any
kind of apparel invented that could more disproportion the body of a
man than their doublets with great bellies do, hanging down beneath the
groin, as I have said, and stuffed with four or five, or six pounde
of bombast at the least. I say nothing of what their doublets be
made; some of satin, taffata, silk, grograine, chamlet, gold, silver,
and what not; slashed, jagged, cut, carved, pinched, and laced with
all kinds of costly lace of divers and sundry colours, of all which,
if I could stand upon particularly, rather time than matter would be
wanting." The peas-cod bellied doublet is still perpetuated in the
person of our esteemed contemporary, Mr. Punch.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRISSIMI GENEROSISSIMIQUE PRI. HENRICI MAGNÆ
BRITANNIÆ ET HYBERNIÆ PRINCIPIS,
Vera Effigies.
HENRY, PRINCE OF WALES.
_Engraved by Simon Passe, 1612._]
An excellent example of the trunk-hose of the latter part of the reign
of James I. appears in the engraved portrait of Henry, Prince of Wales.
The hose consists of a series of richly embroidered straps discovering
the silk or velvet trunk in the narrow intervals between.
With the reign of the "martyr King" Charles, both peas-cod bellied
doublets and trunk-hose disappear, and the costume of this period is
strikingly picturesque. Charles was a man of cultivated taste, and
handsome to boot; he undoubtedly influenced the costume of his time.
The earliest engraved portraits, by Francis Delaram and William Hole,
exhibit him in long, loose breeches reaching to the knees, with the
doublet still pointed at the waist. The more familiar costume of this
monarch is, however, that which is seen in the various portraits by
Vandyke. The costume of the Cavaliers is well described in a little
book on British costume published in the "Library of Entertaining
Knowledge" in 1834: "It consisted of a doublet of silk, satin, or
velvet, with large loose sleeves, slashed up the front; the collar,
covered by a falling band of the richest point lace, with that
peculiar edging now called Vandyke; a short cloak was worn carelessly
on one shoulder. The long breeches, fringed or pointed, as we have
already mentioned, met the tops of the wide boots, which were also
ruffled with lace or lawn. A broad-leafed Flemish beaver hat, with a
rich hatband and plume of feathers, was set on one side of the head,
and a Spanish rapier, hung from a magnificent baldrick or sword-belt,
worn sashwise over the right shoulder."
We now arrive at the period of the dandiacal Pepys, who describes
with great unction the various changes and details of his costume.
On September 13, 1660, the Duke of Gloucester died of the small-pox
"by the great negligence of the doctors." He was buried on the 21st
at Westminster, and on the 22nd our chronicler "purchased a pair of
short black stockings to wear over a pair of silk ones for mourning."
On April 23, 1661, the occasion of the King's going from the Tower to
Whitehall, he rose with the lark, made himself as fine as he could, and
put on his velvet coat, the first day that he put it on, "though made
half a year ago."
"_September 29th, 1661._--This day I put on my half cloth black
stockings, and my new coate of the fashion, which pleases me well, and
with my beaver I was (after office was done) ready to go to my Lord
Mayor's feast, as we were all invited."
The long laced coats, familiar during the latter part of the reign of
the "Merry Monarch" and the succeeding reign, had already come into
vogue. On May 11, 1662, Pepys repaired in the afternoon to Whitehall,
and "walked in the parke," where he saw the King, "now out of mourning
in a suit laced with gold and silver, which it was said was out of
fashion."
The costume of the masses during the Commonwealth and Restoration, was
the well-known knee breeches and stockings, with doublet or jerkin.
In a poem called "Wit Restored," _c._ 1658, is described the holiday
dress of a countryman when courting:--
"And first chill put on my Zunday parell
That's lac't about the Quarters;
With a pair of buckram slopps,
And a vlanting pair of garters.
With a sword tide vast to my side,
And my grandfather's dugen and dagger,
And a peacock's veather in my capp,
Then, oh, how I shall swagger!"
About the year 1658 petticoat breeches crossed the silver streak
from Versailles, and became the vogue at the Court of Charles II.
Randal Holme, writing in 1659, describes the dress as follows:--"A
short-waisted doublet and petticoat breeches, the lining being lower
than the breeches and tied above the knees; the breeches are ornamented
with ribands up to the pocket, and half their breadth upon the thigh;
the waistband is set about with ribands, and the shirt hanging out over
them." The petticoat breeches were not ridiculous in themselves--the
modern Scotch kilt, which is an extremely picturesque and even
reasonable costume, is made upon precisely the same principle; it was
the absurd lace ruffles, which hung drooping below the knee, which
were worn with the petticoats during the earlier period, and in which
Charles II. is figured in Heath's Chronicle, 1662, which made the
costume a banality. The figure of the exquisite of 1670 from Jacquemin
wears the petticoat breeches, but without the ruffles or frills at the
knees. It must be confessed, however, that the gentleman possesses a
sufficiency of frill!
[Illustration: AN EXQUISITE.
_From Jacquemin._]
Petticoat breeches had disappeared by the end of the reign of Charles
II., and we have now to deal with another distinct change in the
national costume. In an inventory of apparel of Charles II. in 1679
appears a suit of clothes of one material, and consisting of _coat_,
waistcoat, and breeches. William III. is figured in 1694 in a long
laced coat with enormous sleeve cuffs, the waistcoat almost as long as
the coat, with large flaps and pockets also richly laced, the nether
garments being knee breeches and stockings with buckled shoes, the hat
cocked according to the fancy of the wearer. This coat, indeed, has,
with variations, existed up to the present time. The gold lacings,
the rows of buttons down the front, the huge cuffs, indeed, have
vanished; but the modern coat is, fundamentally, the same as its
earliest prototype. The two buttons at the back, which now serve no
purpose other than an ornamental one, once buttoned up the flaps, and
constitute the last remains of the coat's former glories.
Towards the middle of the eighteenth century the coat fits tightly
to the body, the skirts being long and ample, and made to stand out
stiffly by being lined with buckram; the large Kevenhuller hat has
given place to one of much more moderate proportions.
[Illustration: PHILIPPE DE VENDÔME, GRAND PRIEUR DE FRANCE.
_From an old print in the British Museum._]
The fop of the day is thus ridiculed by Diana in the play of "Lionel
and Clarissa," by Isaac Bickerstaff, 1768:--