DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31962#0033
INTRODUCTION.
15
The Ret in which the hair was confined forms a remarkable appendage of the coiffure of the women
of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It was probably composed of gold or silver wire, and
studded with pearls or precious stones. Chaucer will afford us an illustration in the following lines:
To which may be added these:
-" And in his hande a Queene,
And she was clad in roiall habite grene ;
A/?-e? o/* <70Me she had next her here;
With Rourounis small; and, I shall not lie
For all the worlde, right as a daisie
Icrownid is with white levis lite.
So were the Rourounis of her crowne white.
For of a perle Rne orientall
Her white coroune was imakid all;
For which the white coroune above the grene
Ymade her like a daisie for to sene,
Considerid eke her^e? o/^oMe above."
Legende of Good Women, L. 213.
-" And everich on her hede
A WcA/re? o/'yoMe, which, withouten drede.
Was full of stately rich stones set;
And every lady had a chapelet."
The Floure and the Leafe, L. 151.
That part of dress worn by women called the kirtle, seems never to have been precisely defined.
We believe that it consisted of a sort of close waistcoat without sleeves, to which a petticoat was
attached, all in one piece.*
" Full fetis damoselles two
Right yong, and full of semely hede.
In kirtils, and none other wede;
And fair ytressid every tress."
Romaunt of the Rose, L. 776.
The kirtle was worn by men as well as women. Chaucer's spruce parish-clerk is attired in that
habit:
" Crulle was his here, and as the gold it shon.
And strouted as a fanne, large and brode ;
Full streight and even lay his joly shode ;
His rode was red, his eyen grey as goos;
With Poule's windowes corven on his shoes,f
In hosen red, he went ful fetisly.
Yclad he was ful smal and properly.
All in a MWeZ of a light waget,
Ful faire and thicke ben the pointes set;
And therupon he had a gay surplise.
As white as is the blosme upon rise."
Before the introduction of the fr et, the hair of females was plaited. See the figure in Scarcliffe
church. In the twelfth century, the hair of both males and females were thus disposed in long tresses:
"Then was there flowing hair (fluxus crinium), and extravagant dress; and then was invented the
fashion of shoes with curved points. Then the model for young men was to rival women in delicacy
of person, to mince their gait, and to walk, with loose gesture, half naked.^
* Very similar to this is the dress of the scholars of Christ's Hospital at this day.
f For shoes ornamented in this style, see those of William of HatReld, Plate 70. ProRle view.
I Sharpe's translation of William of Malmesbury, p. 336. This passage refers to the reign of William Rulus.
15
The Ret in which the hair was confined forms a remarkable appendage of the coiffure of the women
of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It was probably composed of gold or silver wire, and
studded with pearls or precious stones. Chaucer will afford us an illustration in the following lines:
To which may be added these:
-" And in his hande a Queene,
And she was clad in roiall habite grene ;
A/?-e? o/* <70Me she had next her here;
With Rourounis small; and, I shall not lie
For all the worlde, right as a daisie
Icrownid is with white levis lite.
So were the Rourounis of her crowne white.
For of a perle Rne orientall
Her white coroune was imakid all;
For which the white coroune above the grene
Ymade her like a daisie for to sene,
Considerid eke her^e? o/^oMe above."
Legende of Good Women, L. 213.
-" And everich on her hede
A WcA/re? o/'yoMe, which, withouten drede.
Was full of stately rich stones set;
And every lady had a chapelet."
The Floure and the Leafe, L. 151.
That part of dress worn by women called the kirtle, seems never to have been precisely defined.
We believe that it consisted of a sort of close waistcoat without sleeves, to which a petticoat was
attached, all in one piece.*
" Full fetis damoselles two
Right yong, and full of semely hede.
In kirtils, and none other wede;
And fair ytressid every tress."
Romaunt of the Rose, L. 776.
The kirtle was worn by men as well as women. Chaucer's spruce parish-clerk is attired in that
habit:
" Crulle was his here, and as the gold it shon.
And strouted as a fanne, large and brode ;
Full streight and even lay his joly shode ;
His rode was red, his eyen grey as goos;
With Poule's windowes corven on his shoes,f
In hosen red, he went ful fetisly.
Yclad he was ful smal and properly.
All in a MWeZ of a light waget,
Ful faire and thicke ben the pointes set;
And therupon he had a gay surplise.
As white as is the blosme upon rise."
Before the introduction of the fr et, the hair of females was plaited. See the figure in Scarcliffe
church. In the twelfth century, the hair of both males and females were thus disposed in long tresses:
"Then was there flowing hair (fluxus crinium), and extravagant dress; and then was invented the
fashion of shoes with curved points. Then the model for young men was to rival women in delicacy
of person, to mince their gait, and to walk, with loose gesture, half naked.^
* Very similar to this is the dress of the scholars of Christ's Hospital at this day.
f For shoes ornamented in this style, see those of William of HatReld, Plate 70. ProRle view.
I Sharpe's translation of William of Malmesbury, p. 336. This passage refers to the reign of William Rulus.