Page:Costume, fanciful, historical, and theatrical (1906).djvu/90

54 ladies-in-waiting or the dealers of the day to gather! Her crimson locks she piled high up in curls and puffs, surmounted by crowns of jewels, and her sleeves and hooped skirts were padded into diamond design traced with embroidery, and every point would hold a pendent jewel. She showed no desire to achieve grace or elegance below the waist; nothing more entirely unbecoming to the feminine figure can be imagined than the tight, hard, flat, narrow bodice terminating in a point at the front, cut off at the waist on the hips, above the monstrously distended petticoat. The over-part of the dress and the skirt beneath it were boned and wired, and tight lacing ruled in an injurious degree, though the enormous sleeves, ruffles, and skirts might well have accorded such an effect of slimness as to render stringent measures unnecessary.

Dress was a magnificent affair altogether; velvet and taffeta and fine scarlet cloth were used, lace played its part bravely, and silken scarves fringed with gold and silver were thrown over the shoulders, with deep capes of satin or velvet edged with lace. Every shape and length of garment obtained, and the only extravagance from which dress did not suffer was in the décolletage which was narrow and straight and of dimensions eminently decent.

Elizabeth introduced the whalebone corset, and hers might well have been called the "wire and whalebone age," for the influence of these was needed for the petticoats, the gowns and stays, and it had a considerable share in the good conduct of the ruffles which extended some nine inches from the neck. In France the ruffles were so enormous that they hardly allowed their wearers to turn their heads at all, and courtiers who affected them were