Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/584

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. x. DEC. 19,

attitude in them, as if for effect : one is conspicuously laid on what might do for a window-sill or pulpit edge, while the other is rather affectedly laid with outstretched fingers on the heart, as if the man were enunciating some religious truth, or making a confession of faith. In nine other por- traits no hands are visible. In one, p. 93, one hand is seen, but only in part, the other being studiously concealed in the cloak. Hands are very characteristic. There is an indescribable air about each. All the portraits but that of Plas may be imagined to represent an author, thinker, student, poet, savant ; but not so Plas, which rather has the air of a worthy Puritan captain under Cromwell, turned preacher in his retirement, and now valiantly engaged in contending for the faith. The deep profundity of philosophic thought, which one can fancy in the others, is wanting in the Plas. There is a marked difference in the dress : that of the Plas portrait is extremely plain, as of a burgher, no cloak, no collar tassel, &c. ; the others exhibit a gentleman's apparel, cloak, frill, collar tassel, &c. If Marshall's portrait prefixed to Milton's ' Poems,' 1645, is compared with Plas's, it seems impossible they can represent the same person. In the left-hand corner of the one by Plas are a pilgrim's staff and gourd, which, though suitable to Bunyan, seem quite unmeaning when applied to Cromwell's Latin Secretary and the author of ' Comus.' It is hard to realize Milton as a pilgrim, either actually or metaphoric- ally. In the other corner is a Resurrection figure, standing on a tomb holding a banner. This seems as unsuitable an emblem of the poems as the other is of the poet. It certainly does not suit ' Paradise Lost ' ; and as to ' Paradise Regained,' it ter- minates with the Temptation, and has nothing to do with the Resurrection.

To judge from a comparison of the Plas portrait with others of Milton and Bunyan, and from an examination of the portrait itself, it does not seem to represent either Milton or Bunyan. F. H.

NIGHTCAPS.

A NIGHTCAP is defined in Schmidt's in bed or in undress." When was the fashion of wearing them introduced into England ? and is there any reference thereto prior to 1600 ?
 * Shakespeare Lexicon ' as *' a cap worn

Buckle in his 'Miscellaneous Works,' vol. iii. p. 317, remarks that " they seem

to have been uncommon early in the seven- teenth century," and adds that "in 1601 the celebrated Dr. Forman records in hi& diary the loss of his night-cape band." See ' Autobiography of Dr. Simon Forman,.' ed. HalliweU, 1849, p. 32.

In 1601 Shakespeare in ' Julius Caesar,'

I. ii., makes Casca say that when Caesar thrice refused the crown offered him by Mark Antony " the rabblement hooted and clapped their chapped hands, and threw up their sweaty nightcaps " ; and in 'Othello,'

II. i. (acted in 1604), lago says :

I '11 have our Michael Cassioon the hip, Abuse him to the Moor in the rank garb, For I fear Cassio with my nightcap too.

Ben Jonson in ' The Silent Woman/ j IV. ii. (1609), makes Truewit exclaim, " Where 's thine uncle ? " and Sir Dau 1 - phine replies, " Run out of doors in his nightcaps to talk with a casuist about his divorce."

In Samuel Rowlands' s ' More Knaves Yet,' written in 1612, we have "patiently wore nightcap, sickeman like."

Lord Chancellor Bacon in ' Sylva Syl- varum ; or, A Natural History in Ten. Centuries,' uses the term metaphorically (in 1625), for he writes :

" Great mountains have a perception of the dis- position of the air to tempests, sooner than the valleys or places below, and therefore they say in* Wales, when certain hills have their nightcaps on they mean mischief." Bacon's ' Works,' vol. ii. p. 6 V Century IX.

In the ' Verney Memoirs,' vol. i. p. 482,, we read with reference to Swiss travelling in October, 1650 :

" It seems an irreverence to fancy Sir Ralpk stumbling through an ocean of snow or a Pass in his- Paris periwig, his new Cambrick double ruffe cuffes ;. or laying his fine peaked nightcap to rest on the- coarse sacking of the Swiss beds stuffed with leaves."

Congreve in ' The Double Dealer,' III. v.. (1693), makes Careless say :

" Lady Ply ant has told me the history ot Sir- Paul's nine years' courtship ; that the first favour he received from her was a piece of an old scarlet petticoat for a stomacher, which since the day of his marriage he has, out of a piece of gallantry,, converted into a nightcap, and wears it still with much solemnity on his anniversary wedding night."

Labat, who visited Spain in 1705, mentions with surprise that no Spaniards, men, women,, or children, ever wore nightcaps (Labat^ ' Voyages en Espagne,' vol. i. p. 248, Paris,. 1730).

In The Spectator of 11 July, 1711, Addison writes : " We were much surprized to meet with a gentleman that had aceoutered