Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/505

Rh ENGLISH.] COSTUME 473 mean, and more paltry than ever ; whereas female dress, the fashions of which were perpetually changing, became graceful and elegant, though often approaching the extravagant and absurd.&quot; Century XVII. During the reign of the first Stuart sovereign of Great Britain the fashions of dress, which under his Tudor prede cessor had culminated without undergoing any changes sufficiently marked to give to them a fresh character, attained to even an exaggerated extravagance. Notwithstanding the absence of any effigy of him, we are familiar with the personal appearance and costume of James I. and VI., and in his costume we possess a true type of the dress prevalent during his reign. The long-waisted, peaked, and close-titting slashed doublets of the days of Elizabeth, still longer in the waist, more acutely peaked, and as far as was possible more closely fitting than ever, habitually were kept in shape by means of stays worn Tinder them. The trunk-hose mercilessly slashed, became larger than before, padded garments being specially congenial to the disposition and temperament of the king ; and, having attained to a balloon shape, they tapered down to the knees of the wearer, where they were secured by sashes tied in bows at the side. Cloaks and ruffs remained unchanged. Hats came into fashion that were tall in the crown, slightly conical in shape, with a narrow brim turned up on one side, and adorned with a jewel and a single feather, or with a rich band and a plume. Large rosettes were worn on the shoes, which retained their bioad shape, and often had high red heels. Rapiers, worn without any belt crossing the person, were narrow and very long in the blade. In like manner, the female dresses underwent but little change, except in having their worst features and especially &quot;heir farthin gales, with the lavish profusion of their tasteless adornment, intensified. It was at this time, however, that the custom of painting the face began to prevail ; and while ruffs or bands of immoderate size stretched forth from the ladies necks, they wore the front of their dresses cut away immediately beneath them in a manner that exposed the bosom in defiance of all modesty. Less fashionable ladies, between 1615 and 1625, discarded the tight and pointed stomacher and farthingale, and wore over an easy jerkin and ample petticoat, a loose gown open in front, made high to meet the ruff, and with long hanging sleeves through which the tight sleeves of the jerkin were displayed ; or they followed the fashion of their time, modified and without its more salient absurdities. The same may he said of the men who were content in some degree to follow the fashion, while altogether repudiating being leaders of it. With the costume of the reign of Charles I., on the whole more sober, and in more than a few respects really elegant, Vandyck has made the world happily familiar. At first the ruffs were retained, their size only having been diminished ; but all traces both of the angular head-dress and of the Mary Stuart cap, and with them of the farthingale, disappeared ; and after a while the ruffs followed then. The ladies wore the very full sleeves of their dresses tied in at the elbows as well as gathered in at the wrists ; their bodies, tightly fitting, sometimes were long and pointed, and at other times not longer than the natural waist; the long petticoat of some rich material was displayed beneath a loose and open robe or gown, that was gathered up and had short loose sleeves with deep white cuffs, and a deep falling collar or &quot;band&quot; was fastened closely at their throat ; or they wore large kerchiefs over their bodies, and gowns having flowing skirts and comparatively tight sleeves. Coverchefs or hoods also were worn, from which descended long veils, often of such ample proportions as tj resemble mantles. Patches at this time began to make their appearance ; and notwithstanding their intrinsic absurdity and their strange faculty for disfigurement, they continued in fashion through out the century. Men s doublets or coats, the true prototypes of the frock-coats of the present day, having full sleeves made tight at the wrists, were rather longer and worn buttoned from the waist (where they showed the shirt) upwards to the falling white band; plain white cuffs, sometimes supeiscded by others of lace, were also worn. The trunk-hose became loose breeches of uniform width and open at the knees, where they were fringed or had a border of lace, and were fastened with sash-like garters ; the stockings were tight ; the shoes had large roses ; and the felt hat was large and wide in the brim. By the men of fashion this costume, in itself really worthy of decided commendation, was easily made to assume a fantastic aspect, by the adoption of rich and variously coloured fabrics and the addition of lace, bunches of ribbon, feathers, embroidery, and gold lace, and numerous &quot;points&quot; or laces to fasten the breeches to the stockings, with boots long in the foot, and having tops of enormous width that were turned down and lined with lace. These gentlemen, who delighted in having long hair, also wore or more frequently carried on their left arm a short cloak ; and they were provided with basket-hilted rapiers having blades of great length. Besides rejecting all bright colours, and every kind of ornamental accessory, a very different class of their contemporaries reduced this same costume to its simplest possible conditions, thus contrasting one extreme with another most opposed to it. These men, who to their closely- cropped hair owed their famous designation as &quot; Roundheads,&quot; with their sombre and plain garments wore their felt hats of exces sive height, with a great breadth of brim, and perfectly plain. The buff-coats, adopted at this period as parts of the military uniform, confoimed in their general character to the doublets worn as ordinary dress. While retaining the characteristic features of the fashions of their times, the dresses of the female members of the &quot;Roundhead&quot; section of the English community were made with the plainest simplicity a simplicity, however, which the taste and ingenuity of the wearers rarely failed to render graceful and becoming. On his restoration, Charles II. brought with him to England the fashions of dress with which lie had bean familiar in France ; and they suited well both his own character and that irresistible and widespiead reaction from the stern and yet manly gloom of the Piotectoiate that burst out into a frenzy of national recklessness. Shortly after the king s return, indeed, and for somo little time afterthe re-establishment of the monarchy, in the families of graver citizens a quiet style of dress, not unlike what had been prevalent for several years, continued in use by both sexes. Men wore plain doublets of moderate length, full breeches slightly ornamented at the knees, large bands, shoes tied over the instep in bows of moderate size, and loose cloaks having long open sleeves; pointed beards and moustaches continued to be worn also, and under their felt hats the men retained the coifs of past times, or they covered their heads with coifs or caps only. Plain and in the body closely fitting, the ample skirts of the ladies dresses, open in front to display an equally unpretending under-dress, occasionally were partly covered by a no less plain apron ; their bands or collars, fastened in front with formal bows, were very large- and generally quite plain ; and their close hoods they wore tied under the chin, beneath flowing veils or mantles. The very different stylo of costume which Charles himself had learned to wear at the court of Louis XII. of France, and which he speedily taught his own subjects to assume, consisted of a comparatively long and loose doublet richly laced and embroidered, having large and puffed out sleeves turned back a little below the elbow, leaving the lower arm to be covered by the full sleeves of the shirt with their lace ruffles at the wrists. ITnder this doublet was a vest, sleeveless but other wise resembling it, which was left open at the waist; in their turn, from beneath the vest the breeches displayed their expanded width, with their ornamental bunches of ribbon above the knees and lace ruffles below them. A falling band of the richest lace enveloped the throat, and was loosely tied with an equally rich scarf of which the ends hung down over the vest ; an enormous periwig superseded the natural hair, its curls falling in abundance over the shoulders, the beard being close shaven and only ft slight moustache permitted to remain. The hat, broad-brimmed and having its brim on one side slightly turned up, was adorned with a rich band and a profusion of drooping feathers ; the stock ings were tight to the leg, and the shoes, made very high over the instep, were tied with immense bows that extended horizontally on either side of the foot ; and a short cloak, no less splendid in both material and enrichment than the other portions of this gorgeous attire, either was suspended from the left shoulder or carried on the left arm. The sword, a rapier long and narrow in the blade, was suspended from a very broad and elaborately enriched belt crossing the person over the right shoulder. It will be understood that in the production of this costume the richest and most showy fabrics were employed ; also that the men delighted in exhibiting in their dress every variety as well of colour and tint as of material, white, black, scarlet, and different shades of brown being in especial favour, with trim mings of gold and silver lace, buttons and twist, and ribbons of all breadths and every hue. The accompanying woodcut, drawn from an original con temporary authority (fig. 47), gives a correct geneial idea of the costume of the period of Charles II. In the autumn of 1666, as we learn from the ever-observant Pepys, the king in council declared his purpose to set a more sober and less costly fashion for dress, which he declared that he would not alter. Accordingly, under his doublet Charles appeared in a &quot;vest,&quot; &quot;being a long cassock,&quot; as Pepys explains, &quot;close to the body, of black cloth and pinked with white silk under it; andacoat, or doublet, over it; and the legs ruffled with white ribbon, like a pigeon s leg; and upon the whole,&quot; adds the diarist, &quot; 1 wish the king may keep it, for it is a very fine and handsome garment. The king kept it so far as after wards it pleased him, and no further. This vest, or waistcoat, has YL Oo Fia. 47. Costume, temp. Charles II.