A History of Caricature and Grotesque in Literature and ArtWright, Thomas
History
A History of Caricature and Grotesque in Literature and Art
Wright, Thomas
Caricature -- History
We have just seen a caricature of one of the ladies' head-dresses of
the earlier half of the fifteenth century, and our cut No. 69, from
an illuminated manuscript in the British Museum of the latter half of
the same century (MS. Harl., No. 4379), furnishes us with a caricature
of a head-dress of a different character, which came into fashion in
the reign of our Edward IV. The horned head-dress of the previous
generation had been entirely laid aside, and the ladies adopted in its
place a sort of steeple-shaped head-dress, or rather of the form of a
spire, made by rolling a piece of linen into the form of a long cone.
Over this lofty cap was thrown a piece of fine lawn or muslin, which
descended almost to the ground, and formed, as it were, two wings. A
short transparent veil was thrown over the face, and reached not quite
to the chin, resembling rather closely the veils in use among our
ladies of the present day (1864). The whole head-dress, indeed, has
been preserved by the Norman peasantry; for it may be observed that,
during the feudal ages, the fashions in France and England were always
identical. These steeple head-dresses greatly provoked the indignation
of the clergy, and zealous preachers attacked them roughly in their
sermons. A French monk, named Thomas Conecte, distinguished himself
especially in this crusade, and inveighed against the head-dress with
such effect, that we are assured that many of the women threw down
their head-dresses in the middle of the sermon, and made a bonfire
of them at its conclusion. The zeal of the preacher soon extended
itself to the populace, and, for a while, when ladies appeared in this
head-dress in public, they were exposed to be pelted by the rabble.
Under such a double persecution it disappeared for a moment, but when
the preacher was no longer present, it returned again, and, to use the
words of the old writer who has preserved this anecdote, "the women
who, like snails in a fright, had drawn in their horns, shot them out
again as soon as the danger was over." The caricaturist would hardly
overlook so extravagant a fashion, and accordingly the manuscript in
the British Museum, just mentioned, furnishes us with the subject of
our cut No. 69. In those times, when the passions were subjected to no
restraint, the fine ladies indulged in such luxury and licentiousness,
that the caricaturist has chosen as their fit representative a sow, who
wears the objectionable head-dress in full fashion. The original forms
one of the illustrations of a copy of the historian Froissart, and was,
therefore, executed in France, or, more probably, in Burgundy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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