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hands, when they stretch out amazingly, ending in a point edged with fur. Chaussées of blue or red were the mode, and pointed shoes. Ladies, too, appear in vests reaching to the hips, made so tight as to shew the figure.

Petticoats, or jupons, were richly emblazoned, the sleeves quite tight, and the upper part of the côtehardi, or surcoat, was now made much lower across the bosom, a fashion that perhaps induced the chroniclers and writers of that time to stigmatise ladies' dresses as offensive to modesty.

Curious coiffures, of a different shape, were now often seen, but the hair, as usual, was concealed. The trains of the gowns were so long, that the fair dames carried the front part over the arm. A little later they became much shorter. The gentlemen's caps and hoods were of all shapes and sizes-round, pointed, or square, and some had a single long feather in front. Their sleeves became wide at the top, but tight at the wrist; and the short pourpoint, embroidered and made in folds, was held in at the waist by a girdle. The shoes à la poulaine were the fashion at this period. Ladies' gowns now appear shorter, so much so as to shew the feet in front; but behind they still continued long; and on one we find an ornament very much resembling a flounce.

In ancient works upon the French nation, its customs, laws, and ordonnances, we find it recorded, that the early French had a particular law concerning the hair of members of the royal family; viz. that such as

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were chosen kings by the people, or were of the royal family, should preserve their hair, and wear it parted from the forehead, on both sides of the head, and anointed with sweet oil, as an ornament and a peculiar mark of their being of the royal family; whilst all other persons, how nobly born soever, had no right to wear a large head of hair. This privilege is treated at large in Hottoman's "Franco Gallia." To cut off the hair of a son of a king of France under the first race of kings, was to declare him excluded from the succession.

French historians affirm that Charlemagne wore his hair very short; his son, shorter. Charles the Bald had none at all, as his sobriquet denotes. Under Hugh Capet it appeared again; but the clergy excommunicated all who let it grow. Charles the Young cut off his hair to please Peter Lombard, and for many generations his successors wore it very short. This custom may perhaps account for the many strange coiffures worn by Frenchmen in the early ages.

In the "Mémoire de l'Histoire de Lyon," we find the following account of French head-dresses at this period:

"La mutation et variété d'habits a tousieurs esté naturelle aux François, plus qu'autre nation; en quoy ils reçoivent plus de réputation et d'inconstance que de profit. Car en ceste année mille quatre cens soixante un, les dames de Lyon qui auparavant portoyent les longues queues en leurs robbes, changèrent, et mirent aux bords de robbes, de grands et large pans, les uns des gris de laitices, les autres de martres, les autres des autres semblables choses, chacun selon son estat, et possible passoyent aucunes plus outre ; et en

leurs testes chargèrent certains bourrelets pointus come clochiers, la plus part de la hauteur de demie. aulne, ou trois quartiers; et estoyent nommés par aucuns les grands papillons, parcequ'il y avait deux larges ailes deça delà, comme sont aisles de papillons, et estait ce haut bonnet couvert d'un grand crespe trainant jusques en terre, lequel la plupart portoyent autour de leur bras. Il y en avait d'autres, que portoyent un accoustrement de teste, qui estait parti de drap de laine, parti de drap de soye meslé, et avait deux cornes, comme deux donjons, et était cette coiffure découpée et chiquettée, comme un chapeau d'Allemant, ou crespée comme un ventre de veau; et elles portoyent des robbes ayans des manches tres étroites depuis les épaules jusque vers les mains, qu'elles s'élargissoyent et decouppées à undes. Les dames médiocre maison portoyent des chaperons de drap, faits de plusieurs larges lais, ou bandes entortillées autour de la teste, et deux ailes aux cotés, comme oreilles d'asne. Il y en avait aussi d'autres des grandes maisons, qui portoyent des chaperons de veloux noir, de la hauteur d'une couldée, lesquels bon trouverait maintenant fort laid et estrange. L'on ne pourrait bonnement monstrer ces diverses façons d'accoustremens de dames, en les escrivant, et seroit besoin qu'un peintre les representa. L'on en voit plusieurs façons exprimées, en tapisseries à Lyon, et aux verrières des Eglises, faites de ce tems là. Au surplus les filles, depuis qu'elles estoyent fiancées, jusqu'après un an entier des leur noces, portoyent un ornement de teste, qu'on nommait a Lyon Floccard, lesquels elles laissoyent estat l'année, revolve et prennent les chaperons susdits."

The extraordinary head-dresses above mentioned

are probably those which were so much reprobated in England, but which nevertheless remained more or less the fashion for two centuries. In French illustrated works of that time, we frequently meet with drawings of these "horned caps." The ecclesiastics preached against them, and severely censured the extravagance displayed in the immense quantities of fine linen and other materials used in the formation of so high a fabric; but their fair auditors turned a deaf ear to their remonstrances.

Black hoods and capuchons were also much worn, and the hair seldom peeped from beneath the mass of linen that enveloped the head. Sometimes a fret-work of gold was placed on the back of the head, and two wings of gauze, or fine lawn, spread out from it: these hoods were fashionable for many years. Some of them looked like black handkerchiefs thrown carelessly over the head, without any attention to shape or grace. Gowns now had the long upper sleeves, and the under ones tight, as usual, but with this dif ference, that the cuffs turned back up the arm.

Louis XI. is said to have invented l'habit court. He is represented as wearing a short casaque, or sur

tout, of crimson velvet, with a deep cape hanging in

LOUIS XI

a point down his back, the sleeves being moderately tight, with deep cuffs; his chausses are of a deep blue colour, and his head covered with a cap of crimson velvet, having a coif underneath

it.

Long tunics or gowns for men were now banished. Fur was much used as a trimming, and collars of precious stones were frequently seen. A vest with gigot

sleeves often appears. The hair continues short, and the shoes pointed. The ladies' costume differs but little from that of the preceding

reign. Very tall sugar-loaf caps are often seen, and, opposed to them, some equally flat. The one we give is curious; it is ornamented with jewels. The gowns were embroidered and made en cœur, the sleeves tight.

Necklaces of jewels were much worn; no hair visible under the caps; black head-dresses were still la grande mode; and ladies' feet quite concealed by the immense length of their dresses.

The towering caps, exactly like extinguishers, were most extraordinary, and must have been exceedingly uncomfortable, as every puff of wind would be

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