English Costume Part 14

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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {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 gorgieres, the mentonnieres, the voluminous escoffions.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {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 cla.s.ses 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {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, b.u.t.toned 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 b.u.t.tons 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {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 b.u.t.tons 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 pa.s.sing 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 ta.s.sels.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {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 ap.r.o.n. The child who was spinning a peg-top in the street was simply dressed in a short-skirted cotehardie.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 b.u.t.toned 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, pa.s.sed, 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 ma.s.sive 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 b.u.t.toned, 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 ap.r.o.n, at her girdle a purse of leather hanging, decorated with silk ta.s.sels and b.u.t.tons 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 fetes.

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

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 ill.u.s.trate 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 l.u.s.t is to delite In newe thinges, proude and veine, Als ferforth as he may atteine.

I trowe, if that he mighte make His body newe, he wolde take A newe form and leve his olde.

For what thing that he may behold The which to common use is straunge, Anone his olde guise chaunge He woll, and falle therupon Lich unto the camelion, Whiche upon every sondry hewe That he beholt he mote newe His coloun; and thus unavised Full ofte 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 newe guise Of l.u.s.ty 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, Ess.e.x; 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.