Punch (39.1860)

198

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[November 17, 1860.

PUNCH’S BOOK OF BRITISH COSTUMES.

YOUNG SWELLS TEMP. EDWARD THE FOURTH.
FROM AN ELABORATE WOOD-ENGRAVING OF THE
PERIOD.

CHAPTER XXXVI.—OF THE REIGN OF EDWARD THE

FOURTH.

ow absurd were certain ot‘
the costumes of this period,
the pencil of our artist will
show better than our pen.
By the drawing which we
use as an initial to this chap-
ter, and which is accurately
copied from a very rare old
manuscript,* it will be seen
what pains the dandies took
to make themselves ridicu-
lous, and fio w eminently some
of them succeeded in so
doing. Swells with spindle-
shankylegs appeared to take
delight in exposing their de-
formities, and made them
still more ludicrous by con-
trast with their upper gar-
ments, which were swollen
and puffed out to a prepos-
terous degree. Special no-
t ice also should be taken of
their hats: some of which,
as in this drawing, were tall
sugar-loafy structures not
unlike a modern foolscap,
while others looked like
slop-basins with a peacock’s
feather in them.

One would 1 hink that such
absurdities were hardly worth
the while of grave historians
to chronicle, but Monstre-
let dilates at no slight length
upon the subject, as does
Paradin likewise, in bis Histoire de Lyons, which Cox de Finsbury
conceives to be a work of natural history, and only to bear reference to
the king of all the beasts. Among other information supplied us by
these writers, we learn, that doublets were cut short, as our artist has
depicted them, and that the sleeves of them were slit so as to show
large loose white shirts. They were padded in the shoulder with large
waddings called “ mahoitres : ” t and were worn of silk, of satin, and
of velvet, even by mere boys. The beaux, however, and perhaps the
boys, were as capricious as spoilt children in their tastes and fancies ;
and after coming out one day in the shortest of short jackets, the
next would, like great babies, go about in long clothes, “soe long
in soothe att times that they dvd dangle in y® dirt.”

Such of our readers as have been to public schools will have derived
at least this benefit from their classic education, namely that they will
not need us to translate the well-known line:—

“ Dum vitant stulti vitia, in contraria currant.”

Of course we would not be so cruel as to call a swell a fool; but, with
a softening of the “stulti,” the verse was clearly applicable to dandies
at this period, and we wonder the old writers, fond as they were of
Latin, should not have applied it. Besides their weathercocky ways
in the fashion of their coats, the gentlemen of England who lived in
Edward’s reign, veered about as changeably in the shaping of their
shoes. On Monday you would meet a swell strutting a-down Chepe
with pointed toes, which were called poulaines, a quarter of an ell long ;
and on Tuesday you might see him sunning himself idly in the gardens
of the Temple, having his feet stuck into a sort of shoes termed duck-
bills, which had a kind of beak-like projection at the toe, some five
fingers in length. Before the week was out, if you chanced to come

* This drawing is noteworthy as being one of the first specimens of the noble art
of wood-cutting with which our English literature (the Book of Costumes not
excepted) has been so much enriched. Dr. Dibdin says the art “ began to prevail
about the year 1460,” i. e., the year before the reign of Edward the Fourth. Doubt-
less the drawings which illuminate this chapter, and -which are all taken from the
artists of the period, will remind the thoughtful reader of the lines in the Excursion,
where Wordsworth speaks of these same “ wooden cuts :"—

“ Strange and uncouth : dire faces, figures dire.

Sharp-kneed, sharp-elbowed, and lean-ancled too,

With long and ghostly shanks : forms which once seen
Can never be forgotten.”

t This luxury, however, was only for the higher classes. By the sumptuary
statute which was passed during this reign, “ no yeoman, or person under a yeoman,”
was allowed bolsters or stuffing of wool, cotton or cadis in his pourpoint or doublet,
under a penalty of a six and eightpence fine and forfeiture to somebody of the
offending garment.

across him, you perhaps would find him sporting a new sort of pedal
envelopes, and carrying bis absurdity to fully as great widths as he had
previously done lengths. Slippers, we are told, were made “ so very

FROM THE FRONTISPIECE TO THE FAMOUS BALLAD OF “vf CHILDE OF
COCKAIGNE AND YE CORD WAIN ERE.” DATE 1479.

broad in front as to exceed the measure of a good foot,” but whether
they were worn to hide the measure of a bad one, the chronicler is not
so rude here as to hint.

If history be believed, our fourth Edward had not much to recorm-
mend him to posterity. One writer (does the reader recollect the-
name of EdERTON ?) speaks of him as being—

“-To each voluptuous vice a slave.

Cruel, intemperate, vain, suspicious, brave.”

But of this long strinsr of epithets, the only one we need to say a?
word on is the third. Vanity being one of the chief failings of the-
sovereign, it may be fancied that his courtiers followed his example,
and were unchecked in their preposterous pomps and vanities of dress.
It is true an Act of Parliament was passed for their prevention; and
popular opinion, speaking through the mouths of the street-boys of the
period, was doubtless prone to treat with levity the very heavy swells.
But neither statutory laws nor the chaffing of the streets have ever
much effect to mitigate the dandyism of the day ; and although if was
provided that “no one under a lord” should make a fool of himself by
wearing a short jacket and long shoes, and that every tradesman manu-
facturing such articles should be fined a sovereign (and be cursed by
clergy for the shoemaking offence), we will be bound to say short
jackets and long shoes still were made, and that other fools than lords
were found to wear them.

By this sumptuary statute, which was passed in the third year of
the reign of Edward the Eourth, bachelor knights were forbidden to
wear cloth of velvet upon velvet, unless they were Knights of the
Garter, This is the first, tax upon bachelors recorded in our History;
and as the mania for finery appears to be reviving, it might not be
unwise to reimpose some such a hindrance on it. There really is no
saying how it might affect the Census, if single swells were now pro-
hibited from wearing porkpie hats and pegtops, and a dozen other
things which we have no space here to schedule.

Unbecomingly cropped heads, and closely-shaven chins and cheeks,
had been in fashion during the three last preceding reigns; but fops
now wore their hair “so long that it dyd come into their eyes, and
wits dyd say they looked like members of ye hairy-stocracie.” Beards,
whiskers, and moustaches were, however, still discountenanced, for the
ladies, it was said, did set their face against them.

But little change took place now in the military equipment. A
modern writer says, that it “ presents few striking novelties,” and
indeed the only novel weapons for striking that present themselves
are the genetaire, or janetaire, a sort of Spanish lance, the voulge,
which varied slightly from the old glaive or guisarme, and the halbert
(now first mentioned), whose name doubtless was derived from the
earliest kind of poleaxe, which the Germans, and perhaps the Poles,
called alle-barde, or cleave-all. Swords and bucklers were first given
to archers at this time; for although, like our Riflemen, these soldiers
were intended to fight chiefly at long ranges, it was found that they
were sometimes forced to battle hand to hand, and then a sword anc
shield were sure to come in handy.

We have said the Civil Swells were somewhat heavy at this period;
but the Knights, when in full fig, were even yet more ponderous.
Enormous globular breastplates were worn upon the chest, and the
feet were strongly shielded by sollerets of steel, whose long points are