Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/497

Rh ANGLO-SAXON.] the unavoidably simple or even rude attire of a considerable proportion of the laborious population in every country .arid at every period. Subjugation by the Romans in the first centuries of the Christian era naturally was followed by a general con formity among the conquered populations to the costume of their more civilized as well as more powerful rulers, so that after a while Roman dress may be considered to have become European. And, as Rome herself through her Eastern connections had yielded in no slight degree to Oriental influences in matters connected with costume, so also Roman influence in the West carried with, it much that was strongly marked with the characteristics of the East. This singular association also in after times derived fresh impulses, as well in peaceful costume as in armour and other military matters, through the direct agency of the crusades, acting in concert with an artistic current flowing westwards continually in the Middle Ages from Byzantium. ANGLO-SAXON. Generally simple in its character and designedly adapted both to the tastes and sentiments and to the usages and requirements of a hardy and temperate race, the prevailing costume of the Anglo-Saxons consisted of a sleeved tunic, varying in length, but generally com paratively short, partly open at the sides, and confined about the waist by a girdle. Over this tunic, which was made of various colours, and both plain and occasionally enriched with varied ornamentation, a short cloak was worn by the young, while in its stead a mantle of ampler dimensions and greater length was adopted by persons more advanced in age. Similar mantles, not assumed as wrappers for extra warmth, or protection against the weather, were in general use at ceremonies and festivals. Trews or drawers, continued to form hose for the lower limbs, with shoes or low boots, completed the ordinary attire of the men, who wore their beards, and delighted in having long and flowing hair. Ornaments, many of them of gold and remarkable for beauty of design and excellence of work manship, were freely used by the Anglo-Saxons of both sexes ; and the numerous fibulae, brooches, armlets, and other personal ornaments that have been discovered in their graves attest the attainment of the Anglo-Saxons to an advanced condition of civilization and refinement. A peculiarity in the dress of the men of all ranks was the cross-gartering of their hose, or their simply covering their legs below the knee with crossed swathing bands fastened at the knee. The females wore long tunics or gowns, made loose and high, and girt in about the waist. Over these they had shorter tunics, often much enriched, and with sleeves, unlike the close-fitting sleeves of their under tunics, that were very wide, and widest at the wrist. Over all, mantles of ample size and provided with hoods to cover the head were thrown, and disposed with effective gracefulness. Coverchefs also were habitually in use, to cover the head when the mantle would not be assumed ; and they often were so adjusted as to encircle the face and to cover both the throat and the shoulders ; so that they may correctly be regarded as prototypes of the wimple, so popular in somewhat later times. The girdle, it may be added, as worn by both sexes, was rather a swathing band, folded for doing girdle duty, than a girdle proper. The costume of the princes, the nobles, and the wealthy, while in its general character the same as that already described, was distin guished by greater richness of material and more costly adornment. As if to parody the universal fashion of cross bandages for the legs, the Anglo-Saxons habitually wore upon their arms twisted bracelets or torques, or, in their stead, a number of simple bracelets a custom common to them and all their kindred of Scandinavian descent. 465 COSTUMES (ESPECIALLY ENGLISH) FROM THE 11 TH TO THE 17tH CENTURY. Century XI. During the brief rule of the Danes, the national cog- tume does not appear to have experienced any change in England. The ad vent of the Normans brought with it to England the establish ment of that luxury in dress, with which the Anglo-Saxons previously had become in some degree acquainted, and which was destined to so great an extent to supersede the still prevailing simplicity of their hereditary attire. The Norman conquerors, however, with their short cloaks and shaven faces, were not slow to adopt so much of tho Saxon style of dress as led them to wear tunics of ample propor tions, and in many ways to assume whatever in that dress was most graceful and dignified. Still, as in other things, so in costume, until the 12th century had made a considerable advance the powerful and wealthy Anglo-Normans preserved an external visible distinction between themselves and their Anglo-Saxon fellow-sub jects. And yet. the ordinary costume of the people of England appears to have undergone no characteristic change during the second half of the llth century, seeing that short tunics and capes, cloaks with hoods, cross-bandaged chausses or hose, shoes or low boots, and caps pointed in the crown continued in general use. But it was not so with the nobles, who speedily indulged in every species of ostentatious display upon their persons, covering their rich dresses with ornamenta tion, introducing gorgeous novelties in fabrics, with costly furs, lengthening their garments till they swept the ground, and widening their sleeves till they hung down open-mouthed from their wrists. To these wide and open- mouthed sleeves the Norman ladies speedily added long pendant lappets, in which extrava gant form this portion of their dress was com memorated in the heraldic maunche &quot; of later times (fig. 24). Tunics richly adorned, made to fit closely about the figure, but with -,, 01 &quot;AT ,, , i a 1 i J l X IU. &quot;. ALLt long and loosely flowing skirts, and having Sleeve the maunche &quot; sleeves, with splendid mantles of ample size which were fastened on one of the shoulders and wero furnished with hoods, enjoyed the highest favour with the Norman ladies, who also wore their hair in heavy and long braids, when the century of the Conquest came to its termination. Century XII. Like their armour if to their defensive equipment the term armour may be applicable and weapons, the costume ot the Normans when they established themselves in England, while exhibiting significant tokens of affinity to that worn by their own Scandinavian contemporaries, had become assimilated to the dress prevalent among the races with whom they were familiar more to the south. As a matter of course, also, through what remained of the llth century, and until the succeeding century had far advanced, the distinctive characteristics of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo- Norman attire were retained, arid appeared simultaneously in use ; nor can they be considered to have become blended in what might claim to be accepted as a single national costume before the reign of Henry III. Many circumstances appear to have combined to have caused the same general character of costume, unless under special local circumstances, to have prevailed throughout Europe during the period of mediaeval armour from the second half of the 12th century, that is, till the end of the 16th the same general uniformity in essentials being further observable in tho armour itself. It may here be remarked, that both the armour and the costume represented in the monumental effigies of the Middle Ages are alike in being distinguished by a pervading simplicity and an absence of excesses, which in a signal degree qualify them to bo accepted as typical rather than as exceptional examples and autho rities. This is especially the case with the monumental effigies of various kinds, second to none as works of mediaeval art, that abound throughout England. It but too frequently happens, however, that in forming their estimate of costume, reversing the judicious and sound principles adopted by the monumental artists of the Middle Ages, writers permit themselves to select as their types tho occasional eccentricities and vagaries of fashion or of individual extravagance. The first sculptured representations of English sovereigns that are known to exist in England appear at the sides of the great west doorway-arch of Rochester Cathedral, and they show the costume worn by Henry I. and his queen Matilda of Scotland. The king, in whose reign beards and long hair again came into fashion, has gathered about his person a flowing tunic, worn under a dalmatic and a mantle ; his queen also wears corresponding garments, the sleeves of her dalmatic (or over-tunic) being even wider than those of her consort. Her hair she wears in two very long braids, one of them hanging down on either side on the front of her person. Under and upper tunics, girdles, and mantles, both with apd without hoods, pointed caps and low hats with wide VI. 59