DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31962#0027
INTRODUCTION.
9
senting that sort we are already acquainted with. The lowest row of rings finish in the way I have
represented them, without the band or cord. I must advertise you that the original is but a coarse
representation. I have an impression of a small portion, where I found it sharpest:
The cuisses of the same figure are remarkable:
Mr. Stothard, in these details, refers to the figure in the abbey church, Tewkesbury. On the sub-
ject of the mails of armour, whether of plates or rings, he says that we should not be aware of the
varieties which existed but for the early illuminated MSS. He sketches from them, and from the
monuments, the following specimens, in addition to that above given :
Examples of the two last kinds, he says, are very common.
That prominent appendage of military costume, the surcoat, or tabard,* may claim a few particular
observations. It is said to have been adopted by the crusaders to the Holy Land, in order to pre-
vent their armour from being heated to excess by the rays of a burning sun. Shakspeare has noted
this inconvenience incident to habiliments of steel, when he speaks of
- " A rich armour worn in heat of day,
That scalds with safety."-
We are not disposed to doubt but this might, indeed, have been the origin of the surcoat; but we
believe that in this article of military attire, as in the rest, the crusaders imitated their infidel
opponents. The assertion of the learned Du Cange must not, however, passed unnoticed,^ who tells
us that the cotte d'armes, or garment to cover the armour, was the most usual dress of the ancient
Gauls, and by them called that it did not commonly reach below the knee; thus Martial —
" Dimidiasque nates Gallica palia tegit; " —
that they wore this dress, in time of war, over the cuirass, as knights in later days wore their coats of
arms. The ancient Greeks wore a similar vesture over the cuirass, and called it, accordingly,
e7rt0MjoctKt5toy and 7rept6MpctKt5toy. It is mentioned by Greek writers of the Middle Age, and styled,
in barbarous language, en-t\MptKto!' and en-ayoKAt/3ayoy. The knightly surcoat was at first very long,
and could, therefore, have little affinity with the sagum of the Gauls. It was worn for no other
* Dissertations on the Hist, of St. Louis. Dissert. 1.
D
9
senting that sort we are already acquainted with. The lowest row of rings finish in the way I have
represented them, without the band or cord. I must advertise you that the original is but a coarse
representation. I have an impression of a small portion, where I found it sharpest:
The cuisses of the same figure are remarkable:
Mr. Stothard, in these details, refers to the figure in the abbey church, Tewkesbury. On the sub-
ject of the mails of armour, whether of plates or rings, he says that we should not be aware of the
varieties which existed but for the early illuminated MSS. He sketches from them, and from the
monuments, the following specimens, in addition to that above given :
Examples of the two last kinds, he says, are very common.
That prominent appendage of military costume, the surcoat, or tabard,* may claim a few particular
observations. It is said to have been adopted by the crusaders to the Holy Land, in order to pre-
vent their armour from being heated to excess by the rays of a burning sun. Shakspeare has noted
this inconvenience incident to habiliments of steel, when he speaks of
- " A rich armour worn in heat of day,
That scalds with safety."-
We are not disposed to doubt but this might, indeed, have been the origin of the surcoat; but we
believe that in this article of military attire, as in the rest, the crusaders imitated their infidel
opponents. The assertion of the learned Du Cange must not, however, passed unnoticed,^ who tells
us that the cotte d'armes, or garment to cover the armour, was the most usual dress of the ancient
Gauls, and by them called that it did not commonly reach below the knee; thus Martial —
" Dimidiasque nates Gallica palia tegit; " —
that they wore this dress, in time of war, over the cuirass, as knights in later days wore their coats of
arms. The ancient Greeks wore a similar vesture over the cuirass, and called it, accordingly,
e7rt0MjoctKt5toy and 7rept6MpctKt5toy. It is mentioned by Greek writers of the Middle Age, and styled,
in barbarous language, en-t\MptKto!' and en-ayoKAt/3ayoy. The knightly surcoat was at first very long,
and could, therefore, have little affinity with the sagum of the Gauls. It was worn for no other
* Dissertations on the Hist, of St. Louis. Dissert. 1.
D