While moralists were thus testifying against their interpretation of the art of pleasing, women continued perseveringly to “improve upon Nature,” and load themselves with pretentious finery. They sneered, like the men, at the Abbé de Vassetz’s “Traité contre le Luxe des Coiffures,” and at the satirical prints on extravagant dress. Exaggeration robbed the tight-fitting bodices of all grace; and “pretintailles,” enormous cut-out patterns laid on to skirts of a different colour, made the dress unbearably heavy. There was an extraordinary variety of nomenclature in the fashions of the reign of Louis XIV. The author of _Attendez-moi sous l’Orme_, a comedietta in one act, performed in May 1694, puts the following remark into the mouth of one of his characters, Agatha, a farmer’s daughter:— “How clever the Paris ladies must be to invent such pretty names!” To which Pasquin, the valet, replies,— “Malapeste! Their imagination is lively enough! Every fashion they invent is to conceal some defect. Falbala high up for those who have no hips; lower down for those who have too much. Long necks and flat chests brought in the Steinkirk; and so it is with everything.” The critics were in the right, but let us admit that women were not in the wrong. On what grounds did the former attempt to limit feminine caprice? Criticism is easy; the art of pleasing is much more difficult. Large cut-out patterns laid on a dress were called “pertintailles” or “pretintailles.” Lesage mentions them as a new thing in _Turcaret_:— “I am always eager after new fashions,” says Mme. Turcaret. “I have them all sent to me (in the country) immediately after they come out, and I flatter myself that I was the first to wear pretintailles in the town of Valognes.” Now we must remember that the comedy of “Turcaret” was first performed in February, 1709. Falbalas and pretintailles were much alike. The falbala itself was known in ancient times, but the name was invented by M. de Langlée. A caricature was published on the _Poule d’Inde en Falbala_. Beneath the engraving were the following lines:— “Femme, en pretintaille et fontange, Croit être belle comme un ange; Mais ce vain falbala, par son ample contour, La rend grosse comme une tour, Et tout cet attirail si fort l’enfle et la guindé, Qu’elle ressemble un poulet d’Inde.”[41] Our ancestors used to hum a song on the pretintaille to the tune of “La Cheminée du haut en bas:”— “Lorsqu’une chose est nouvelle, C’est assez pour estre belle; Des autres on fait peu de cas, La, la, la, La pretintaille en falbala! “Il n’importe qui l’invente, Quoyqu’ell’ soit extravagante, De bon goût lui cédera, La, la, la, La pretintaille en falbala! “Mais on la voit disparaître Au moment qu’on la voit naître, Car tout change et changera, La, la, la, La pretintaille en falbala!”[42] The “pretintaille” continued to encroach.