Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/249

 POPULAR LIFE AS REFLECTED BY ART 237 short, torn jacket discovers a tattered shirt. Another, with naked shoulders, wears a cap with tassels, from under which a long curl escapes and hangs down on his neck. A fourth has bound his head in a kind of cotton turban, and a fifth wears a shapeless felt on his close-cut hair, whilst his neighbour lets his unkempt locks float in the wind. Among the rabble we discover figures that look as if they had seen better days. One is dressed in a garment trimmed with fringe and ribbon loops, and his arms are bared to the elbow. Another, with laced shoes and naked legs, has wrapped a sheep- skin round his shoulders as though it were a royal ermine. An old man is clothed in a hermit's frock. The effect produced by all these figures, and which one sees so often reproduced in the pictures of the time, is painfully repulsive, and gives a vivid idea of the masses who played so prominent a part in the politico-eccle- siastical strifes of the sixteenth century. Amongst all this foppery and folly, however, the workmen, the burghers, the professional and the scien- tific men, stand out in more sober relief. Both in form and colouring the dress of the artisans was very simple. It generally consisted of a short, convenient, blouse- like garment, and tight or wide trousers, either coming down over or tucked into the boots or shoes. When at work they slipped on sleeveless jackets and tucked their shirt-sleeves up to their shoulders. On their closely cropped heads they wore either caps or felt hats. The dress of the burghers was a short vest with an outer garment over it, either in the shape of a blouse closed in front and put on over the head, or else a coat open down the front. This outer garment was gene- rally brown or black, and lined or bordered with fur.