English Costume Part 28

'Enter Coriola.n.u.s in a gown of humility.'

'Matrons fling gloves, ladies and maids their scarfs and handkerchers.'

'The kitchen malkin pins her richest lockram[A] 'bout her reechy neck.'

[A] 'Lockram' is coa.r.s.e linen.

'Our veiled dames.'

'Commit the war of white and damask in their nicely gawded cheeks to the wanton and spoil of Phoebus'

burning kisses.'

'Doublets that hangmen would bury with these that wore them.'

I have not kept the lines in verse, but in a convenient way to show their allusions.

In 'Pericles' we have mention of ruffs and bases. Pericles says:

'I am provided of a pair of bases.'

Certainly the bases might be made to appear Roman, if one accepts the long slips of cloth or leather in Roman military dress as being bases; but Shakespeare is really--as in the case of the ruffs--alluding to the petticoats of the doublet of his time worn by grave persons. Bases also apply to silk hose.

In 't.i.tus Andronicus' we have:

'An idiot holds his bauble for his G.o.d.'

Julius Caesar is mentioned as an Elizabethan:

'He plucked ope his doublet.'

The Carpenter in 'Julius Caesar' is asked:

'Where is thy leather ap.r.o.n and thy rule?'

The mob have 'sweaty night-caps.'

Cleopatra, in 'Antony and Cleopatra,' says:

'I'll give thee an armour all of gold.'

The 'Winter's Tale,' the action of which occurs in Pagan times, is full of anachronisms. As, for instance, Whitsun pastorals, Christian burial, an Emperor of Russia, and an Italian fifteenth-century painter. Also:

'Lawn as white as driven snow; Cyprus[B] black as ere was crow; Gloves as sweet as damask roses; Masks for faces and for noses; Bugle-bracelet, necklace amber, Perfume for a lady's chamber; Golden quoifs and stomachers, Pins and polking-sticks of steel.'

[B] Thin stuff for women's veils.

So, you see, Autolycus, the pedlar of these early times, is spoken of as carrying polking-sticks with which to stiffen ruffs.

Shylock, in 'The Merchant of Venice,' should wear an orange-tawny bonnet lined with black taffeta, for in this way were the Jews of Venice distinguished in 1581.

In 'The Tempest' one may hear of rye-straw hats, of gaberdines, rapiers, and a pied fool's costume.

In 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona' we hear:

'Why, then, your ladys.h.i.+p must cut your hair.'

'No, girl; I'll tie it up in silken strings With twenty odd conceited true-love knot; To be fantastic may become a youth Of greater time than I shall show to be.'

Also:

'Since she did neglect her looking-gla.s.s, And threw her sun-expelling mask away.'

Many ladies at this time wore velvet masks. 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' gives us a thrummed hat, a m.u.f.fler or linen to hide part of the face, gloves, fans. Falstaff says:

'When Mistress Bridget lost the handle of her fan, I took it up my honour thou had'st it not.'

Also:

'The firm fas.h.i.+on of thy foot would give an excellent motion to thy fait in a semicircled farthingale.'

'Twelfth Night' is celebrated for us by Malvolio's cross garters. Sir Toby, who considers his clothes good enough to drink in, says:

'So be these boots too: an they be not, let them hang themselves in their own straps.'

Sir Toby also remarks to Sir Andrew upon the excellent const.i.tution of his leg, and Sir Andrew replied that:

'It does indifferent well in a flame-coloured stock.'

The Clown says:

'A sentence is but a cheveril[C] glove to a good wit.'

[C] 'Cheveril' is kid leather.

In 'Much Ado About Nothing' we learn of one who lies awake ten nights, 'carving the fas.h.i.+on of his doublet.' Also of one who is

'in the shape of two countries at once, as a German from the waist downwards all slops, and a Spaniard from the hip upward, no doublet.'

Again of a gown:

'Cloth of gold, and cuts, and laced with silver set with pearls down sides, side sleeves, and skirts, round under borne with a bluish tinsel.'

In 'As You Like It' one may show a careless desolation by ungartered hose, unbanded bonnet, unb.u.t.toned sleeve, and untied shoe.

'The Taming of the Shrew' tells of serving-men:

'In their new fustian and their white jackets.... Let their blue coats be brushed, and their garters of an indifferent knit.'