Edict now follows on edict.[431] One known as the Code Michaud, entering into the most minute regulations for the toilet, especially excited the risibility of the people. It was never carried out. The caricatures of this period are admirable: one represents a young courtier fresh rigged in his {149}plain-bordered linen, according to the ordinance. His _valet de chambre_ is about to lock up his laced suit:-- "C'est avec regret que mon maître Quitte ses beaux habillemens Semés de riches passemens."[432] Another engraving of Abraham Bosse shows a lady of fashion with her lace discarded and dressed in plain linen cuffs and collar:-- "Quoique l'âge assez de beauté Pour asseurer sans vanité Qu'il n'est point de femme plus belle Il semble pourtant, à mes yeux, Qu'avec de l'or et la dantelle Je m'ajuste encore bien mieux." Alluding to the plain-bordered collars now ordered by the prohibition of 1639, the "Satyrique de la Court" sings:-- "Naguères l'on n'osoit hanter les damoiselles Que l'on n'eust le colet bien garni de dentelles; Maintenant on se rit et se moque de ceux là Qui desirent encore paroistre avec cela. Les fraises et colets à bord sont en usage, Sans faire mention de tous en dentellage." France at this time paying large sums to Italy and Flanders for lace, the wearing of it is altogether prohibited, under pain of confiscation and a fine of 6,000 livres.[433] The Queen-Mother, regardless of edicts, has over _passements d'or_ and all sorts of forbidden articles, "pour servir à la layette que sa majesté à envoyé en Angleterre."[434] Within scarce one year of each other passed away Marie de Médicis, Richelieu, and Louis XIII. The King's effigy was exposed on its "lit de parade vêtue d'une chemise de toile de Hollande avec de tres belles dantelles de point de Gennes au collet et aux manches."[435]--So say the chroniclers. {150}CHAPTER IX. LOUIS XIV. The courtiers of the Regency under Anne of Austria vied with the Frondeurs in extravagance. The latter, however, had the best of it. "La Fronde," writes Joly, "devint tellement à la mode qu'il n'y avoit rien de bien fait qu'on ne dist être de la Fronde. Les étoffes, les dentelles, etc., jusqu'au pain,--rien n'estoit ni bon, ni bien si n'estoit à la Fronde."[436] Nor was the Queen Regent herself less profuse in her indulgence in lace. She is represented in her portraits with a berthe of rich point, her beautiful hand encircled by a double-scalloped cuff (Fig. 70). The boot-tops had now reached an extravagant size. One writer compares them to the farthingales of the ladies, another to an inverted torch. The lords of the Regent's court filled up the apertures with two or three rows of Genoa point (Fig. 71).