Costume: Fanciful, Historical and TheatricalAria, Mrs. (Eliza Davis)
History
Costume: Fanciful, Historical and Theatrical
Aria, Mrs. (Eliza Davis)
Costume -- History
Returning to Western climes, I note that Isabella, Queen of Richard II.
of England, included in her trousseau a gorgeous and unique robe and
mantle of red grained velvet, embroidered with metal birds of goldsmith's
work perched upon branches of pearls and green precious stones. Obviously
economy was no object, and her Majesty had determined to do the thing
handsomely.
In the sixteenth century English matrons wore a coif or close bonnet, and
the unmarried women braided their hair with knots of ribbon. There is a
curious record in the history of Chester in Henry VIII.'s time, which
includes an order "to distinguish the head-dress of the married women
from unmarried, no unmarried woman to wear white or other coloured caps;
and no woman to wear any hat, unless she rides or goes abroad into the
country (except sick or aged persons), on pain of 3s. 4d." Such an order
is almost as unreasonable as ungrammatical, yet there is comfort to be
gleaned from the fact that the tax on disobedience was but 3s. 4d.
In the sixteenth century in Scotland the hair of an unmarried girl was
bound by a snood or simple fillet, a lock of hair hanging on each side
of the face and tied with a ribbon; but, when married, women covered the
hair with a fold of linen fastened under the chin and falling in points
on the shoulders.
At the marriage of Princess Elizabeth, daughter of James I., in 1613,
when the fashion of the time was the stiff stomacher, farthingale and
ruff, "the bride wore a crown set with diamonds, a dress of silver
stuff embroidered with silver, pearls and precious stones, the train so
long that it was borne by twelve or fifteen fair young ladies, the hair
flowing freely down as low as the knee, in the style that virgins used
to wear their hair at their weddings." After dinner the Princess put on
a dress embroidered with gold, and did up her hair.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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