DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51519#0078
62
QUEEN CATHERINE OF BRAGANZA.
farthingale; which excited some insolent merriment in her new
court; and which the King obliged her to alter.* She had brought
with her from Lisbon a bevy of Portuguese attendants; of whom
De Grammont has left us a ludicrous description. Six “ monsters/’
alias Maids of Honour, ruffed and farthingaled like their mistress
surrounded her person : they were governed by an old duenna
(or guarda damas^ more hideous than all her damsels, as stiff as
pride and buckram could make her, with; we may suppose; double
solemnity of ruff; and treble expansion of farthingale. Besides
these; Catherine had in her retinue six almoners, a confessor, a
Jewish perfumer; and an officer, whose function seems to have
puzzled the whole court; entitled the “ Queen’s barber.” These
foreigners, by their ignorance; bigotry; and officiousness, caused
as much confusion as the French attendants of her predecessor,
Henrietta Maria; and Charles soon followed the example of his
father, by shipping the whole cargo back to their own country,
and surrounded the Queen with creatures of his own. J In the
list of her new attendants laid before Catherine for her approbation,
Charles had the effrontery to include Lady Castlemaine, his
acknowledged mistress. Catherine instantly drew her pen across
the name, and when the King insisted, she replied haughtily, “ that
she would return to her own country, rather than be forced to
submit to such an indignity.” Her spirit however availed her
* There is a fine print of the Queen in her Portuguese costume by Faithorne ;
in which her hair is dressed out like a full-bottomed wig. Catherine was very
reluctant to change her style of dress : her Portuguese attendants had endea-
voured to persuade her that she should neither learn the English language, nor
use their habit; which they told her would be for the dignity of Portugal, and
would quickly induce the English ladies to conform to her majesty’s practice.
The result, however, was just the reverse. Evelyn speaks of the excessive ugli-
ness and “ monstrous fardingals” of the Portuguese women: and Pepys (who was
very sensitive to personal appearance) seems to have been horrified both by their
hideous persons and dresses.
f The Countess of Penalva, “ by reason of the Queen's tender attachment to
her, and her own infirmities, was suffered to remain on the Queen’s earnest
entreaty, that she might not be left wholly in the hands of strangers.”—See
Clarendon.
QUEEN CATHERINE OF BRAGANZA.
farthingale; which excited some insolent merriment in her new
court; and which the King obliged her to alter.* She had brought
with her from Lisbon a bevy of Portuguese attendants; of whom
De Grammont has left us a ludicrous description. Six “ monsters/’
alias Maids of Honour, ruffed and farthingaled like their mistress
surrounded her person : they were governed by an old duenna
(or guarda damas^ more hideous than all her damsels, as stiff as
pride and buckram could make her, with; we may suppose; double
solemnity of ruff; and treble expansion of farthingale. Besides
these; Catherine had in her retinue six almoners, a confessor, a
Jewish perfumer; and an officer, whose function seems to have
puzzled the whole court; entitled the “ Queen’s barber.” These
foreigners, by their ignorance; bigotry; and officiousness, caused
as much confusion as the French attendants of her predecessor,
Henrietta Maria; and Charles soon followed the example of his
father, by shipping the whole cargo back to their own country,
and surrounded the Queen with creatures of his own. J In the
list of her new attendants laid before Catherine for her approbation,
Charles had the effrontery to include Lady Castlemaine, his
acknowledged mistress. Catherine instantly drew her pen across
the name, and when the King insisted, she replied haughtily, “ that
she would return to her own country, rather than be forced to
submit to such an indignity.” Her spirit however availed her
* There is a fine print of the Queen in her Portuguese costume by Faithorne ;
in which her hair is dressed out like a full-bottomed wig. Catherine was very
reluctant to change her style of dress : her Portuguese attendants had endea-
voured to persuade her that she should neither learn the English language, nor
use their habit; which they told her would be for the dignity of Portugal, and
would quickly induce the English ladies to conform to her majesty’s practice.
The result, however, was just the reverse. Evelyn speaks of the excessive ugli-
ness and “ monstrous fardingals” of the Portuguese women: and Pepys (who was
very sensitive to personal appearance) seems to have been horrified both by their
hideous persons and dresses.
f The Countess of Penalva, “ by reason of the Queen's tender attachment to
her, and her own infirmities, was suffered to remain on the Queen’s earnest
entreaty, that she might not be left wholly in the hands of strangers.”—See
Clarendon.