Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance PeriodJacob, P. L.
History
Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period
Jacob, P. L.
Clothing and dress; Manners and customs; Middle Ages; Renaissance
Latour-Landry also advised his daughters to avoid outrageous fashions in
dress. "Do not be hasty in copying the dress of foreign women. I will
relate a story on this subject respecting a bourgeoise of Guyenne and the
Sire de Beaumanoir. The lady said to him, 'Cousin, I come from Brittany,
where I saw my fine cousin, your wife, who was not so well dressed as the
ladies of Guyenne and many other places. The borders of her dress and of
her bonnet are not in fashion.' The Sire answered, 'Since you find fault
with the dress and cap of my wife, and as they do not suit you, I shall
take care in future that they are changed; but I shall be careful not to
choose them similar to yours.... Understand, madam, that I wish her to be
dressed according to the fashion of the good ladies of France and this
country, and not like those of England. It was these last who first
introduced into Brittany the large borders, the bodices opened on the
hips, and the hanging sleeves. I remember the time, and saw it myself, and
I have little respect for women who adopt these fashions.'"
Respecting the high head-dresses "which cause women to resemble stags who
are obliged to lower their heads to enter a wood," the knight relates what
took place in 1392 at the fête of St. Marguerite. "There was a young and
pretty woman there, quite differently dressed from the others; every one
stared at her as if she had been a wild beast. One respectable lady
approached her and said, 'My friend, what do you call that fashion?' She
answered, 'It is called the "gibbet dress."' 'Indeed; but that is not a
fine name!' answered the old lady. Very soon the name of 'gibbet dress'
got known all round the room, and every one laughed at the foolish
creature who was thus bedecked." This head-dress did in fact owe its name
to its summit, which resembled a gibbet.
These extracts from the work of this honest knight, suffice to prove that
the customs of French society had, as early as the end of the fourteenth
century, taken a decided character which was to remain subject only to
modifications introduced at various historical periods.
Amongst the customs which contributed most to the softening and elegance
of the feudal class, we must cite that of sending into the service of the
sovereign for some years all the youths of both sexes, under the names of
varlets, pages, squires, and maids of honour. No noble, of whatever wealth
or power, ever thought of depriving his family of this apprenticeship and
its accompanying chivalric education.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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