The Art of Needle-work, from the Earliest Ages Part 3

CHAPTER V.

NEEDLEWORK OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.

"------Supreme Sits the virtuous housewife, The tender mother-- O'er the circle presiding, And prudently guiding; The girls gravely schooling, The boys wisely ruling; Her hands never ceasing From labours increasing; And doubling his gains With her orderly pains.

With piles of rich treasure the storehouse she spreads, And winds round the loud-whirring spindle her threads: She winds--till the bright-polish'd presses are full Of the snow-white linen and glittering wool: Blends the brilliant and solid in constant endeavour, And resteth never."

J. H. Merivale.

It was an admitted opinion amongst the cla.s.sical nations of antiquity, that no less a personage than Minerva herself, "a maiden affecting old fashions and formality," visited earth to teach her favourite nation the mysteries of those implements which are called "the arms of every virtuous woman;" viz. the distaff and spindle. In the use of these the Grecian dames were particularly skilled; in fact, spinning, weaving, needlework, and embroidery, formed the chief occupation of those whose rank exonerated them, even in more primitive days, from the menial drudgery of a household.

The Greek females led exceedingly retired lives, being far more charily admitted to a share of the recreations of the n.o.bler s.e.x than we of these privileged days. The ancient Greeks were very magnificent--very: magnificent senators, magnificent warriors, magnificent men; but they were a people trained from the cradle for exhibition and publicity; domestic life was quite cast into the shade.

Consequently and necessarily their women were thrown to greater distance, till it happened, naturally enough, that they seemed to form a distinct community; and apartments the most distant and secluded that the mansion afforded were usually a.s.signed to them. Of these, in large establishments, certain ones were always appropriated to the labours of the needle.

"Je ne dirai" (says the sarcastic author of Anacharsis) "qu'un mot sur l'education des filles. Suivant la difference des etats, elles apprennent a lire, ecrire, coudre, filer, preparer la laine dont on fait les vetemens, et veiller aux soins du menage. En general, les meres exhortent leurs filles a se conduire avec sagesse; mais elles insistent beaucoup plus sur la necessite de se tenir droites, d'effacer leurs epaules, de serrer leur sein avec un large ruban, d'etre extremement sobres, et de prevenir, par toutes sortes de moyens, un embonpoint qui nuirait a l'elegance de la taille et a la grace des mouvemens."

Homer, the great fountain of ancient lore, scarcely throughout his whole work names a female, Greek or Trojan, but as connected naturally and indissolubly with this feminine occupation--needlework. Thus, when Chryses implores permission to ransome his daughter, Agamemnon wrathfully replies--

"I will not loose thy daughter, till old age Find her far distant from her native soil, Beneath my roof in Argos, at her task Of tissue-work."

And Iris, the "amba.s.sadress of Heaven," finds Helen in her own recess--

"----weaving there a gorgeous web, Inwrought with fiery conflicts, for her sake Wag'd by contending nations."

Hector foreseeing the miseries consequent upon the destruction of Troy, says to Andromache--

"But no grief So moves me as my grief for thee alone, Doom'd then to follow some imperious Greek, A weeping captive, to the distant sh.o.r.es Of Argos; there to labour at the loom For a taskmistress."

And again he says to her--

"Hence, then, to our abode; there weave or spin, And task thy maidens."

And afterwards--

"Andromache, the while, Knew nought, nor even by report had learn'd Her Hector's absence in the field alone.

She in her chamber at the palace-top A splendid texture wrought, on either side All dazzling bright with flow'rs of various hues."

Though "Penelope's web" is become a proverb, it would be unpardonable here to omit specific mention of it. Antinous thus complains of her:--

"Elusive of the bridal day, she gives Fond hope to all, and all with hope deceives.

Did not the Sun, through heaven's wide azure roll'd, For three long years the royal fraud behold?

While she, laborious in delusion, spread The s.p.a.cious loom, and mix'd the various thread; Where, as to life the wondrous figures rise, Thus spoke th' inventive queen with artful sighs:-- 'Though cold in death Ulysses breathes no more, Cease yet a while to urge the bridal hour; Cease, till to great Laertes I bequeath A task of grief, his ornaments of death.

Lest, when the Fates his royal ashes claim, The Grecian matrons taint my spotless fame: When he, whom living mighty realms obey'd, Shall want in death a shroud to grace his shade.'

Thus she: At once the generous train complies, Nor fraud mistrusts in virtue's fair disguise.

The work she plied; but, studious of delay, By night revers'd the labours of the day.

While thrice the Sun his annual journey made, The conscious lamp the midnight fraud survey'd; Unheard, unseen, three years her arts prevail; The fourth, her maid unfolds th' amazing tale.

We saw, as unperceiv'd we took our stand, The backward labours of her faithless hand.

Then urg'd, she perfects her ill.u.s.trious toils; A wondrous monument of female wiles."

The Greek costume was rich and elegant; and though, from our familiarity with colourless statues, we are apt to suppose it gravely uniform in its hue, such was not the fact; for the tunic was often adorned with ornamental embroidery of all sorts. The toga was the characteristic of Roman costume: this gradually a.s.sumed variations from its primitive simplicity of hue, until at length the triumphant general considered even the royal purple too unpretending, unless set off by a rich embroidery of gold. The first embroideries of the Romans were but bands of stuff, cut or twisted, which they put on the dresses: the more modest used only one band; others two, three, four, up to seven; and from the number of these the dresses took their names, always drawn from the Greek: molores, dilores, trilores, tetralores, &c.

Pliny seems to be the authority whence most writers derive their accounts of ancient garments and needlework.

"The coa.r.s.e rough wool with the round great haire hath been of ancient time highly commended and accounted of in tapestrie worke: for even Homer himself witnesseth that they of the old world used the same much, and tooke great delight therein. But this tapestrie is set out with colours in France after one sort, and among the Parthians after another. M. Varro writeth that within the temple of Sangus there continued unto the time that he wrote his booke the wooll that lady Tanaquil, otherwise named Caia Cecilia, spun; together with her distaff and spindle: as also within the chapel of Fortune, the very roiall robe or mantle of estate, made in her own hands after the manner of water chamlot in wave worke, which Servius Tullius used to weare. And from hence came the fashion and custome at Rome, that when maidens were to be wedded, there attended upon them a distaffe, dressed and trimmed with kombed wooll, as also a spindle and yearne upon it. The said Tanaquil was the first that made the coat or ca.s.socke woven right out all through; such as new beginners (namely young souldiers, barristers, and fresh brides) put on under their white plaine gowns, without any guard of purple. The waved water chamelot was from the beginning esteemed the richest and bravest wearing. And from thence came the branched damaske in broad workes.

Fenestella writeth that in the latter time of Augustus Caesar they began at Rome to use their gownes of cloth shorne, as also with a curled nap.--As for those robes which are called crebrae and papaveratae, wrought thicke with floure worke, resembling poppies, or pressed even and smooth, they be of greater antiquitie: for even in the time of Lucilius the poet Torquatus was noted and reproved for wearing them. The long robes embrodered before, called praetextae, were devised first by the Tuscanes. The Trabeae were roiall robes, and I find that kings and princes only ware them. In Homer's time also they used garments embrodered with imagerie and floure, work, and from thence came the triumphant robes. As for embroderie itselfe and needle-worke, it was the Phrygians invention: and hereupon embroderers in Latine bee called phrygiones. And in the same Asia king Attalus was the first that devised cloth of gold: and thence come such colours to be called Attalica. In Babylon they used much to weave their cloth of divers colours, and this was a great wearing amongst them, and cloths so wrought were called Babylonica. To weave cloth of tissue with twisted threeds both in woofe and warpe, and the same of sundrie colours, was the invention of Alexandria; and such clothes and garments were called Polymita, But Fraunce devised the scutchion, square, or lozenge damaske worke. Metellus Scipio, among other challenges and imputations laid against Capito, reproached and accused him for this:--'That his hangings and furniture of his dining chamber, being Babylonian work or cloth of Arras, were sold for 800,000 sesterces; and such like of late days stood Prince Nero in 400,000 sesterces, _i.e._ forty millions.' The embrodered long robes of Servius Tullius, wherewith he covered and arraied all over the image of Fortune, by him dedicated, remained whole and sound until the end of Seja.n.u.s. And a wonder it was that they neither fell from the image nor were motheaten in 560 yeares."[5]

It was long before silk was in general use, even for patrician garments. It has been supposed that the famous Median vest, invented by Semiramis, was silken, which might account for its great fame in the west. Be this as it may, it was so very graceful, that the Medes adopted it after they had conquered Asia; and the Persians followed their example. In the time of the Romans the price of silk was weight for weight with gold, and the first persons who brought silk into Europe were the Greeks of Alexander's army. Under Tiberius it was forbidden to be worn by men; and it is said that the Emperor Aurelian even refused the earnest request of his empress for a silken dress, on the plea of its extravagant cost. Heliogabalus was the first man that ever wore a robe entirely of silk. He had also a tunic woven of gold threads; such gold thread as we referred to in a prior chapter, as consisting of the metal alone beaten out and rounded, without any intermixture of silk or woollen. Tarquinius Priscus had also a vest of this gorgeous description, as had likewise Agrippina. Gold thread and wire continued to be made entirely of metal probably until the time of Aurelian, nor have there been any instances found in Herculaneum and Pompeii of the silken thread with a gold coating.

These examples will suffice to show that it was not usually the _material_ of the ancient garments which gave them so high a value, but the ornamental embellishments with which they were afterwards invested by the needle.

The Medes and Babylonians seem to have been most highly celebrated for their stuffs and tapestries of various sorts which were figured by the needle; the Egyptians certainly rivalled, though they did not surpa.s.s them; and the Greeks seem also to have attained a high degree of excellence in this pretty art. The epoch of embroidery amongst the Romans went as far back as Tarquin, to whom the Etruscans presented a tunic of purple enriched with gold, and a mantle of purple and other colours, "tels qu'en portoient les rois de Perse et de Lydie." But soon luxury banished the wonted austerity of Rome; and when Caesar first showed himself in a habit embroidered and fringed, this innovation appeared scandalous to those who had not been alarmed at any of his real and important innovations.

We have referred in a former chapter to the practice of sending garments as presents, as marks of respect and friendship, or as propitiatory or deprecatory offerings. And the ill.u.s.trious ladies of the cla.s.sical times had such a prophetical talent of preparation, that they were ever found possessed, when occasion required, of store of garments richly embroidered by their own fair fingers, or under their auspices. Of this there are numerous examples in Homer.

When Priam wishes to redeem the body of Hector, after preparing other propitiatory gifts,

"----he open'd wide the sculptur'd lids Of various chests, whence mantles twelve he took Of texture beautiful; twelve single cloaks; As many carpets, with as many robes; To which he added vests an equal store."

When Telemachus is about to leave Menelaus--

"The beauteous queen revolv'd with careful eyes Her various textures of unnumber'd dyes, And chose the largest; with no vulgar art Her own fair hands embroider'd every part; Beneath the rest it lay divinely bright, Like radiant Hesper o'er the gems of night."

That much of this work was highly beautiful may be inferred from the description of the robe of Ulysses:--

"In the rich woof a hound, Mosaic drawn, Bore on full stretch, and seiz'd a dappled fawn; Deep in the neck his fangs indent their hold; They pant and struggle in the moving gold."

And this robe, Penelope says,

"In happier hours her artful hand employ'd."

To invest a visitor with an embroidered robe was considered the very highest mark of honour and regard.

When Telemachus is at the magnificent court of Menelaus--

"----a bright damsel train attend the guests With liquid odours and _embroider'd vests_."

"Give to the stranger guest a stranger's dues: Bring gold, a pledge of love; a talent bring, A _vest_, a _robe_."

"--------in order roll'd The robes, the vests are rang'd, and heaps of gold: And adding _a rich dress inwrought with art_, A gift expressive of her bounteous heart, Thus spoke (the queen) to Ithacus."

When Cambyses wished to attain some point from an Ethiopian prince, he forwarded, amongst other presents, a rich vest. The Ethiopian, taking the garment, inquired what it was, and how it was made; but its glittering tracery did not decoy the unsophisticated prince. When Xerxes arrived at Acanthos, he interchanged the rites of hospitality with the people, and presented several with Median vests. Probably our readers will remember the circ.u.mstance of Alexander making the mother of Darius a present of some rich vestures, probably of woollen fabrics, and telling her that she might make her grandchildren learn the art of weaving them; at which the royal lady felt insulted and deeply hurt, as it was considered ignominious by the Persian women to work in wool. Hearing of her misapprehension, Alexander himself waited on her, and in the gentlest and most respectful terms told the ill.u.s.trious captive that, far from meaning any offence, the custom of his own country had misled him; and that the vestments he had offered were not only a present from his royal sisters, but wrought by their own hands.

Outre as appear some of the flaring patterns of the present day, the boldest of them must be _quiet_ and unattractive compared with those we read of formerly, when not only human figures, but birds and animals, were wrought not merely on hangings and carpets but on wearing apparel. Ciampini gives various instances.[6]