REIGNS OF JOHN AND OF CHARLES V.
1350 TO 1380.
The States of Languedoc—A young French lady in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries—Low dresses—Saying of
a mercer—_Damoiselles_—_Garnaches_ and _garde-corps_—_Le
Parement des dames_—Social distinctions—High character is worth
more than gilded belt—Precious stones—The castles and other
dwellings of the middle ages—Splendid furniture—Humble abodes
of the poor—Evening assemblies.
Notwithstanding the efforts of legislation, extravagant expenditure on
dress continued as great as ever, while the large majority of the French
nation was suffering from great poverty. In 1356 the States of Languedoc
forbade the use of rich clothes until the release of King John, who was
a prisoner of war in England. But noble lords and ladies insulted the
nation in its hour of misfortune by their prodigality, and defied the
regulations that forbade them to wear gold, silver, or fur on their
garments or open hoods, or any other sort of ornamentation.
As for widows, they found themselves unable to oppose the established
custom. They therefore conformed to the regulation forbidding them to
wear voilettes, crépines, and couvre-chefs. In like manner with nuns,
they never appeared in public without a guimpe that entirely concealed
the head, ears, chin, and throat. There seems, however, to have been no
particular etiquette for the nobility as to mourning, before the reign of
Charles V.
We may endeavour to sketch the portrait of a lady as she existed in
feudal times, by means of the scanty materials in our possession, for
we have no paintings, and very few sculptures of the time, only a few
learned writers who supply us with valuable hints.
We know, however, that the gowns of the fourteenth century were of the
same shape as those of the thirteenth; we also know that the Frenchwoman
of the period began to discover the beauty of a small waist, and
endeavoured to compress her own by means of lacing, and, finally, we know
that, dating from the later years of the reign of Charles VI. a habit of
uncovering the shoulders to an extent that at times became immodest was
adopted.
Their “couvre-chefs” of silk were made by a special class of workwomen,
called “makers of couvre-chefs.” The couvre-chefs of Rheims were
specially renowned.
There were no milliners in Paris either in the thirteenth or the
fourteenth centuries. The haberdashers, of whom I have already spoken,
sold articles of dress, scents, and elegant finery. In the “Dit d’un
Mercier” we find the following lines:—
“J’ai les mignotes ceinturêtes,
J’ai beaux ganz à damoiselêtes,
J’ai ganz forrez, doubles et sangles,
J’ai de bonnes boucles à angles;
J’ai chaînêtes de fer bèles,
J’ai bonnes cordes à vièles;
J’ai les guimpes ensafranées,
J’ai aiguilles encharnelées,
J’ai escrins à mêtre joiax,
J’ai borses de cuir à noiax,”[5] etc.
At mercers’ shops, besides, ladies bought molekin, fine cambric, ruffs
for the neck with gold buttons, the tressons or tressoirs that they were
fond of twisting in their hair, and gold or pearl embroideries used for
head-dresses, or for ornament generally, the silken or velvet gown being
even bordered with them sometimes.
Lay figures, called “damoiselles,” were used for fitting on ladies’
dresses and other garments.
A young Frenchwoman in the fourteenth century wore her hair twisted
round her head, with a black ribbon; a white dress embroidered in silver,
bordered at the throat, shoulders, and elbows, and at the edge of the
skirt with a fillet of gold. Small sleeves reaching from elbow to wrist
were in red and white check, bordered with a double fillet of gold. Her
shoes were black.
Sometimes her hair was confined by a white veil, mingled with
pearl-embroidered ribbon; at other times she wore a coronet of beads, and
her hair flowed loose over her shoulders. She frequently appeared in a
short sleeveless tunic, called “corset fendu.” Frequently, too, her hair
was parted simply in two, and the long plaits arranged on the forehead.
To this she would add a “fronteau,” that is to say, either a tiara of
beads or a circlet of gold. She made “atours” for herself, or pads
stuffed in the shape of hearts, clubs, or horns.
A young girl of high birth wore the arms of her family; a married woman
wore both her husband’s and her own. Montfaucon, in his “Antiquités de la
Couronne de France,” gives us a drawing of an emblazoned gown belonging
to a noble lady; and in an ancient Bible we find a picture of a woman on
whose hair is a ribbon of gold tissue, and above it a small yellow cap
with gold buttons. The upper dress is bordered on the bosom with ermine
and gold bands, the skirt is of silver cloth, bearing a lion rampant and
three red stars. The under garment, of a dull yellow, is confined by a
gold band. The National Library contains the miniature of a French lady
of the fifteenth century. She wears a head-dress of silken material, the
white upper gown is bordered with fur, the under garment is yellow, and
ornamented at the throat with gold embroidery. The shoes are black.
Long narrow white gowns without any ornament were worn by great ladies
at home, when there was no occasion for ceremony; and they remained
in fashion for a considerable length of time. There were also short
sleeveless garments like the “sarreaux,” probably called “garnaches,” and
short ones with half sleeves called “garde-corps.”
Peasant women wore blue gowns, beneath which was a woollen petticoat
bordered with velvet. Their hats were of straw, and a becoming white
guimpe encircled the face.
Hoods or “aumusses” protected the head in bad weather. The chaperon or
hood was much like a domino. It was made during the reign of Philippe
le Bel in a peak, which fell on the nape of the neck, and was called a
“cornette;” there was an opening or “visagière” for the face. As for the
aumusse, made either of cloth or velvet, it resembled a pocket, and fell
over on one side or other of the neck. On fine days ladies would carry
their aumusse on their arm, as is done with a shawl or mantle.
In “Le Parement des Dames,” by Oliver de la Marche, the poet and
chronicler of the fifteenth century, he mentions slippers, shoes (of
black leather probably), boots, hose, garters, chemises, cottes,
stomachers, stay-laces, pinholders, aumônières, portable knives,
mirrors, coifs, combs, ribbons, and “templettes,” so-called, because
they encircled the temples and followed the edge of the coif with an
undulating line. To these we must add the “gorgerette,” gloves of chamois
and of dogskin, and the hood, and we shall understand the “under” dress
of a noble lady in the earlier half of the fifteenth century. With regard
to the “outer” dress, we must remember that the material nearly always
bore a large brocaded pattern. The paternoster or rosary put a finishing
touch to the costume. These rosaries were either of coral or of gold, and
were considered as ornaments taking the place of bracelets.
Notwithstanding legislative prohibitions and social distinctions, the
desire of attracting attention led all women to dress alike. From this
resulted a confusion of ranks absolutely incompatible with mediæval ideas.
St. Louis forbade certain women to wear mantles, or gowns with
turned-down collars, or with trains, or gold belts. He wished that both
in Paris and throughout his whole kingdom the distinction of class should
be defined and obvious.
Afterwards, in 1420, the Parliament of Paris renewed the same
prohibitions with no greater success. It is said that women of high
character comforted themselves by saying: “_Bonne renommée vaut mieux
que ceinture dorée._”[6] This, whether true or not, has passed into a
proverb.
A great number of jewellers existed in Paris in the fourteenth century.
Yet real pearls were little known. The Government thought they had
provided against every danger by forbidding the sale of coloured glass
in the place of real stones. Trade with the Levant initiated us into the
science of precious stones, and at first they were regarded with general
reverence, supernatural virtues being attributed to them. People imagined
that rubies, sapphires, and sardonyx produced certain marvellous effects.
The second period of the Middle Ages was full of artistic instincts, and
beautiful castles and dwellings rose up on every side. Meanwhile, home
life had become more refined in some classes of the population.
Every man who had acquired wealth, or even a modest competence only,
built himself a residence according to his taste, and frequently
displayed magnificence far beyond his means. Dressers, cupboards, carved
chests, ivory, bronze, enamelled copper, miniature statues, reliquaries,
and a quantity of other articles, hitherto unknown, were to be seen in
palaces and wealthy houses, and even in humbler abodes.
But among the poor there was no such change. Their homes had remained the
same for many centuries, their cottages and little enclosures of land
were unaltered. These contained the barest necessaries only. Yet a marked
improvement was apparent in furniture and cooking-utensils.
With greater comfort in their homes and with better furniture than in the
past, both Frenchmen and Frenchwomen were making an onward progress in
their mode of life and their social relations. In the towns as well as
in the depth of the country, people met together of an evening to listen
to a band of skilful minstrels—a sort of concert. On the eves of feasts
the women sat together at their embroidery or the spinning-wheel. Long
legends were narrated, to the delight of family circles, and children
were made happy by little picture-books drawn expressly for their
amusement, while maidens and youths would draw sweet music from their
lyres.
These assemblies naturally developed a taste for dress. The poet Eustache
Deschamps speaks of the splendour of women’s dress, of their gold and
silver chains and belts, and of the little bells with which they adorned
their garments.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Charles VI 1395 to 1422
Charles VII and Louis XI 1422 to 1483]