Curiosities of Literature Volume I Part 31

The female head-dress is carried in some countries to singular extravagance. The Chinese fair carries on her head the figure of a certain bird. This bird is composed of copper or of gold, according to the quality of the person; the wings spread out, fall over the front of the head-dress, and conceal the temples. The tail, long and open, forms a beautiful tuft of feathers. The beak covers the top of the nose; the neck is fastened to the body of the artificial animal by a spring, that it may the more freely play, and tremble at the slightest motion.

The extravagance of the Myantses is far more ridiculous than the above.

They carry on their heads a slight board, rather longer than a foot, and about six inches broad; with this they cover their hair, and seal it with wax. They cannot lie down, or lean, without keeping the neck straight; and the country being very woody, it is not uncommon to find them with their head-dress entangled in the trees. Whenever they comb their hair, they pa.s.s an hour by the fire in melting the wax; but this combing is only performed once or twice a year.

The inhabitants of the land of Natal wear caps or bonnets, from six to ten inches high, composed of the fat of oxen. They then gradually anoint the head with a purer grease, which mixing with the hair, fastens these _bonnets_ for their lives.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 64: This vehicle for satire was introduced early into England; thus, in 1589, was published "The return of the renowned Cavaliero Pasquill to England from the other side of the seas, and his meeting with Marforio at London, upon the Royall Exchange."]

[Footnote 65: For some very strong remarks on this fas.h.i.+on, the reader may consult Bulwer's _Anthropometamorphosis, or Artificiall Changeling_, 1653. The author is very ungallant in his strictures on "precious jewels in the snouts of such swine."]

MODERN PLATONISM.

Erasmus, in his Age of Religious Revolution, expressed an alarm, which in some shape has been since realized. He strangely, yet acutely observes, that "_literature_ began to make a great and happy progress; but," he adds, "I fear two things--that the study of _Hebrew_ will promote _Judaism_, and the study of _philology_ will revive PAGANISM."

He speaks to the same purpose in the Adages, c. 189, as Jortin observes.

Blackwell, in his curious Life of Homer, after showing that the ancient oracles were the fountains of knowledge, and that the votaries of the _G.o.d_ of _Delphi_ had their faith confirmed by the oracle's perfect acquaintance with the country, parentage, and fortunes of the suppliant, and many predictions verified; that besides all this, the oracles that have reached us discover a wide knowledge of everything relating to Greece;--this learned writer is at a loss to account for a knowledge that he thinks has something divine in it: it was a knowledge to be found nowhere in Greece but among the _Oracles_. He would account for this phenomenon by supposing there existed a succession of learned men devoted to this purpose. He says, "Either we must admit the knowledge of the priests, or turn _converts to the ancients_, and believe in the _omniscience of Apollo, which in this age I know n.o.body in hazard of_."

Yet, to the astonishment of this writer, were he now living, he would have witnessed this incredible fact! Even Erasmus himself might have wondered.

We discover the origin of MODERN PLATONISM, as it may be distinguished, among the Italians. About the middle of the fifteenth century, some time before the Turks had become masters of Constantinople, a great number of philosophers flourished. _Gemisthus Pletho_ was one distinguished by his genius, his erudition, and his fervent pa.s.sion for _platonism_. Mr.

Roscoe notices Pletho: "His discourses had so powerful an effect upon Cosmo de' Medici, who was his constant auditor, that he established an academy at Florence, for the sole purpose of cultivating this new and more elevated species of philosophy." The learned Marsilio Ficino translated Plotinus, that great archimage of _platonic mysticism_. Such were Pletho's eminent abilities, that in his old age those whom his novel system had greatly irritated either feared or respected him. He had scarcely breathed his last when they began to abuse Plato and our Pletho. The following account is written by George of Trebizond.

"Lately has risen amongst us a second Mahomet: and this second, if we do not take care, will exceed in greatness the first, by the dreadful consequences of his wicked doctrine, as the first has exceeded Plato. A disciple and rival of this philosopher in philosophy, in eloquence, and in science, he had fixed his residence in the Peloponnese. His common name was _Gemisthus_, but he a.s.sumed that of _Pletho_. Perhaps Gemisthus, to make us believe more easily that he was descended from heaven, and to engage us to receive more readily his doctrine and his new law, wished to change his name, according to the manner of the ancient patriarchs, of whom it is said, that at the time the name was changed they were called to the greatest things. He has written with no vulgar art, and with no common elegance. He has given new rules for the conduct of life, and for the regulation of human affairs; and at the same time has vomited forth a great number of blasphemies against the Catholic religion. He was so zealous a platonist that he entertained no other sentiments than those of Plato, concerning the nature of the G.o.ds, souls, sacrifices, &c. I have heard him myself, when we were together at Florence, say, that in a few years all men on the face of the earth would embrace with one common consent, and with one mind, a single and simple religion, at the first instructions which should be given by a single preaching. And when I asked him if it would be the religion of Jesus Christ, or that of Mahomet? he answered, 'Neither one nor the other; but a _third_, which will not greatly differ from _paganism_.'

These words I heard with so much indignation, that since that time I have always hated him: I look upon him as a dangerous viper; and I cannot think of him without abhorrence."

The pious writer might have been satisfied to have bestowed a smile of pity or contempt.

When Pletho died, full of years and honours, the malice of his enemies collected all its venom. This circ.u.mstance seems to prove that his abilities must have been great indeed, to have kept such crowds silent.

Several Catholic writers lament that his book was burnt, and regret the loss of Pletho's work; which, they say, was not designed to subvert the Christian religion, but only to unfold the system of Plato, and to collect what he and other philosophers had written on religion and politics.

Of his religious scheme, the reader may judge by this summary account.

The general t.i.tle of the volume ran thus:--"This book treats of the laws of the best form of government, and what all men must observe in their public and private stations, to live together in the most perfect, the most innocent, and the most happy manner." The whole was divided into three books. The t.i.tles of the chapters where paganism was openly inculcated are reported by Gennadius, who condemned it to the flames, but who has not thought proper to enter into the manner of his arguments. The extravagance of this new legislator appeared, above all, in the articles which concerned religion. He acknowledges a plurality of G.o.ds: some superior, whom he placed above the heavens; and the others inferior, on this side the heavens. The first existing from the remotest antiquity; the others younger, and of different ages. He gave a king to all these G.o.ds, and he called him [Greek: ZEUS], or _Jupiter_; as the pagans named this power formerly. According to him, the stars had a soul; the demons were not malignant spirits; and the world was eternal.

He established polygamy, and was even inclined to a community of women.

All his work was filled with such reveries, and, with not a few impieties, which my pious author has not ventured to give.

What were the intentions of Pletho? If the work was only an arranged system of paganism, or the platonic philosophy, it might have been an innocent, if not a curious volume. He was learned and humane, and had not pa.s.sed his life entirely in the solitary recesses of his study.

To strain human curiosity to the utmost limits of human credibility, a _modern Pletho_ has risen in Mr. _Thomas Taylor_, who, consonant to the platonic philosophy in the present day, religiously professes _polytheism_! At the close of the eighteenth century, be it recorded, were published many volumes, in which the author affects to avow himself a zealous Platonist, and a.s.serts that he can prove that the Christian religion is "a b.a.s.t.a.r.dized and barbarous Platonism." The divinities of Plato are the divinities to be adored, and we are to be taught to call G.o.d, Jupiter; the Virgin, Venus; and Christ, Cupid! The Iliad of Homer allegorised, is converted into a Greek bible of the arcana of nature!

Extraordinary as this literary lunacy may appear, we must observe, that it stands not singular in the annals of the history of the human mind.

The Florentine Academy, which Cosmo founded, had, no doubt, some cla.s.sical enthusiasts; but who, perhaps, according to the political character of their country, were prudent and reserved. The platonic furor, however, appears to have reached other countries. In the reign of Louis XII., a scholar named Hemon de la Fosse, a native of Abbeville, by continually reading the Greek and Latin writers, became mad enough to persuade himself that it was impossible that the religion of such great geniuses as Homer, Cicero, and Virgil was a false one. On the 25th of August, 1503, being at church, he suddenly s.n.a.t.c.hed the host from the hands of the priest, at the moment it was raised, exclaiming--"What!

always this folly!" He was immediately seized. In the hope that he would abjure his extravagant errors, they delayed his punishment; but no exhortation or entreaties availed. He persisted in maintaining that Jupiter was the sovereign G.o.d of the universe, and that there was no other paradise than the Elysian fields. He was burnt alive, after having first had his tongue pierced, and his hand cut off. Thus perished an ardent and learned youth, who ought only to have been condemned as a Bedlamite.

Dr. More, the most rational of our modern Platonists, abounds, however, with the most extravagant reveries, and was inflated with egotism and enthusiasm, as much as any of his mystic predecessors. He conceived that he communed with the Divinity itself! that he had been shot as a fiery dart into the world, and he hoped he had hit the mark. He carried his self-conceit to such extravagance, that he thought his urine smelt like violets, and his body in the spring season had a sweet odour; a perfection peculiar to himself. These visionaries indulge the most fanciful vanity.

The "sweet odours," and that of "the violets," might, however, have been real--for they mark a certain stage of the disease of diabetes, as appears in a medical tract by the elder Dr. Latham.

ANECDOTES OF FAs.h.i.+ON.

A volume on this subject might be made very curious and entertaining, for our ancestors were not less vacillating, and perhaps more capriciously grotesque, though with infinitely less taste, than the present generation. Were a philosopher and an artist, as well as an antiquary, to compose such a work, much diversified entertainment, and some curious investigation of the progress of the arts and taste, would doubtless be the result; the subject otherwise appears of trifling value; the very farthing pieces of history.

The origin of many fas.h.i.+ons was in the endeavour to conceal some deformity of the inventor: hence the cus.h.i.+ons, ruffs, hoops, and other monstrous devices. If a reigning beauty chanced to have an unequal hip, those who had very handsome hips would load them with that false rump which the other was compelled by the unkindness of nature to subst.i.tute.

Patches were invented in England in the reign of Edward VI. by a foreign lady, who in this manner ingeniously covered a wen on her neck.

Full-bottomed wigs were invented by a French barber, one Duviller, whose name they perpetuated, for the purpose of concealing an elevation in the shoulder of the Dauphin. Charles VII. of France introduced long coats to hide his ill-made legs. Shoes with very long points, full two feet in length, were invented by Henry Plantagenet, Duke of Anjou, to conceal a large excrescence on one of his feet. When Francis I. was obliged to wear his hair short, owing to a wound he received in the head, it became a prevailing fas.h.i.+on at court. Others, on the contrary, adapted fas.h.i.+ons to set off their peculiar beauties: as Isabella of Bavaria, remarkable for her gallantry, and the fairness of her complexion, introduced the fas.h.i.+on of leaving the shoulders and part of the neck uncovered.

Fas.h.i.+ons have frequently originated from circ.u.mstances as silly as the following one. Isabella, daughter of Philip II. and wife of the Archduke Albert, vowed not to change her linen till Ostend was taken; this siege, unluckily for her comfort, lasted three years; and the supposed colour of the archd.u.c.h.ess's linen gave rise to a fas.h.i.+onable colour, hence called _l'Isabeau_, or the Isabella; a kind of whitish-yellow-dingy.

Sometimes they originate in some temporary event; as after the battle of Steenkirk, where the allies wore large cravats, by which the French frequently seized hold of them, a circ.u.mstance perpetuated on the medals of Louis XIV., cravats were called Steenkirks; and after the battle of Ramilies, wigs received that denomination.

The _court_, in all ages and in every country, are the modellers of fas.h.i.+ons; so that all the ridicule, of which these are so susceptible, must fall on them, and not upon their servile imitators the _citizens_.

This complaint is made even so far back as in 1586, by Jean des Caures, an old French moralist, who, in declaiming against the fas.h.i.+ons of his day, notices one, of the ladies carrying _mirrors fixed to their waists_, which seemed to employ their eyes in perpetual activity. From this mode will result, according to honest Des Caures, their eternal d.a.m.nation. "Alas! (he exclaims) in what an age do we live: to see such depravity which we see, that induces them even to bring into church these _scandalous mirrors hanging about their waists_! Let all histories, divine, human, and profane, be consulted; never will it be found that these objects of vanity were ever thus brought into public by the most meretricious of the s.e.x. It is true, at present none but the ladies of the court venture to wear them; but long it will not be before _every citizen's daughter_ and every _female servant_, will have them!"

Such in all times has been the rise and decline of fas.h.i.+on; and the absurd mimicry of the _citizens_, even of the lowest cla.s.ses, to their very ruin, in straining to rival the _newest fas.h.i.+on_, has mortified and galled the courtier.

On this subject old Camden, in his Remains, relates a story of a trick played off on a citizen, which I give in the plainness of his own venerable style. Sir Philip Calthrop purged John Drakes, the _shoemaker of Norwich_, in the time of King Henry VIII. of the _proud humour_ which our _people have to be of the gentlemen's cut_. This knight bought on a time as much fine French tawny cloth as should make him a gown, and sent it to the taylor's to be made. John Drakes, a shoemaker of that town, coming to this said taylor's, and seeing the knight's gown cloth lying there, liking it well, caused the taylor to buy him as much of the same cloth and price to the same intent, and further bade him to _make it of the same fas.h.i.+on that the knight would have his made of_. Not long after, the knight coming to the taylor's to take measure of his gown, perceiving the like cloth lying there, asked of the taylor whose it was?

Quoth the taylor, it is John Drakes' the _shoemaker_, who will have it _made of the self-same fas.h.i.+on that yours is made of_! 'Well!' said the knight, 'in good time be it! I will have mine made _as full of cuts as thy shears can make it_.' 'It shall be done!' said the taylor; whereupon, because the time drew near, he made haste to finish both their garments. John Drakes had no time to go to the taylor's till Christmas-day, for serving his customers, when he hoped to have worn his gown; perceiving the same to be _full of cuts_ began to swear at the taylor, for the making his gown after that sort. 'I have done nothing,'

quoth the taylor, 'but that you bid me; for as Sir Philip Calthrop's garment is, even so I have made yours!' 'By my latchet!' quoth John Drakes, '_I will never wear gentlemen's fas.h.i.+ons again_!'

Sometimes fas.h.i.+ons are quite reversed in their use in one age from another. Bags, when first in fas.h.i.+on in France, were only worn _en deshabille_; in visits of ceremony, the hair was tied by a riband and floated over the shoulders, which is exactly reversed in the present fas.h.i.+on. In the year 1735 the men had no hats but a little chapeau de bras; in 1745 they wore a very small hat; in 1755 they wore an enormous one, as may be seen in Jeffrey's curious "Collection of Habits in all Nations." Old Puttenham, in "The Art of Poesie," p. 239, on the present topic gives some curious information. "Henry VIII. caused his own head, and all his courtiers, to be _polled_ and his _beard_ to be _cut short_; _before that time_ it was thought _more decent_, both for old men and young, to be _all shaven_, and weare _long haire_, either rounded or square. Now _again at this time_ (Elizabeth's reign), the young gentlemen of the court have _taken up the long haire_ trayling on their shoulders, and think this more decent; for what respect I would be glad to know."

When the fair s.e.x were accustomed to behold their lovers with beards, the sight of a shaved chin excited feelings of horror and aversion; as much indeed as, in this less heroic age, would a gallant whose luxuriant beard should

"Stream like a meteor to the troubled air."

When Louis VII., to obey the injunctions of his bishops, cropped his hair, and shaved his beard, Eleanor, his consort, found him, with this unusual appearance, very ridiculous, and soon very contemptible. She revenged herself as she thought proper, and the poor shaved king obtained a divorce. She then married the Count of Anjou, afterwards our Henry II. She had for her marriage dower the rich provinces of Poitou and Guienne; and this was the origin of those wars which for three hundred years ravaged France, and cost the French three millions of men.

All which, probably, had never occurred had Louis VII. not been so rash as to crop his head and shave his beard, by which he became so disgustful in the eyes of our Queen Eleanor.

We cannot perhaps sympathise with the feelings of her majesty, though at Constantinople she might not have been considered unreasonable. There must be something more powerful in _beards_ and _mustachios_ than we are quite aware of; for when these were in fas.h.i.+on--and long after this was written--the fas.h.i.+on has returned on us--with what enthusiasm were they not contemplated! When _mustachios_ were in general use, an author, in his Elements of Education, published in 1640, thinks that "hairy excrement," as Armado in "Love's Labour Lost" calls it, contributed to make men valorous. He says, "I have a favourable opinion of that young gentleman who is _curious in fine mustachios_. The time he employs in adjusting, dressing, and curling them, is no lost time; for the more he contemplates his mustachios, the more his mind will cherish and be animated by masculine and courageous notions." The best reason that could be given for wearing the _longest and largest beard_ of any Englishman was that of a worthy clergyman in Elizabeth's reign, "that no act of his life might be unworthy of the gravity of his appearance."

The grandfather of Mrs. Thomas, the Corinna of Cromwell, the literary friend of Pope, by her account, "was very nice in the mode of that age, his valet being some hours every morning in _starching his beard_ and _curling his whiskers_; during which time he was always read to."

Taylor, the water poet, humorously describes the great variety of beards in his time, which extract may be found in Grey's Hudibras, Vol. I. p.

300. The _beard_ dwindled gradually under the two Charleses, till it was reduced into _whiskers_, and became extinct in the reign of James II., as if its fatality had been connected with that of the house of Stuart.

The hair has in all ages been an endless topic for the declamation of the moralist, and the favourite object of fas.h.i.+on. If the _beau monde_ wore their hair luxuriant, or their wig enormous, the preachers, in Charles the Second's reign, instantly were seen in the pulpit with their hair cut shorter, and their sermon longer, in consequence; respect was, however, paid by the world to the size of the _wig_, in spite of the _hair-cutter_ in the pulpit. Our judges, and till lately our physicians, well knew its magical effect. In the reign of Charles II. the hair-dress of the ladies was very elaborate; it was not only curled and frizzled with the nicest art, but set off with certain artificial curls, then too emphatically known by the pathetic terms of _heart-breakers_ and _love-locks_. So late as William and Mary, lads, and even children, wore wigs; and if they had not wigs, they curled their hair to resemble this fas.h.i.+onable ornament. Women then were the hair-dressers.

There are flagrant follies in fas.h.i.+on which must be endured while they reign, and which never appear ridiculous till they are out of fas.h.i.+on.

In the reign of Henry III. of France, they could not exist without an abundant use of comfits. All the world, the grave and the gay, carried in their pockets a _comfit-box_, as we do snuff-boxes. They used them even on the most solemn occasions; when the Duke of Guise was shot at Blois, he was found with his comfit-box in his hand.--Fas.h.i.+ons indeed have been carried to so extravagant a length, as to have become a public offence, and to have required the interference of government. Short and tight breeches were so much the rage in France, that Charles V. was compelled to banish this disgusting mode by edicts, which may be found in Mezerai. An Italian author of the fifteenth century supposes an Italian traveller of nice modesty would not pa.s.s through France, that he might not be offended by seeing men whose clothes rather exposed their nakedness than hid it. The very same fas.h.i.+on was the complaint in the remoter period of our Chaucer, in his Parson's Tale.

In the reign of our Elizabeth the reverse of all this took place; then the mode of enormous breeches was pushed to a most laughable excess. The beaux of that day stuffed out their breeches with rags, feathers, and other light matters, till they brought them out to an enormous size.

They resembled woolsacks, and in a public spectacle they were obliged to raise scaffolds for the seats of these ponderous beaux. To accord with this fantastical taste, the ladies invented large hoop farthingales; two lovers aside could surely never have taken one another by the hand. In a preceding reign the fas.h.i.+on ran on square toes; insomuch that a proclamation was issued that no person should wear shoes above six inches square at the toes! Then succeeded picked-pointed shoes! The nation was again, in the reign of Elizabeth, put under the royal authority. "In that time," says honest John Stowe, "he was held the greatest gallant that had the _deepest ruff_ and _longest rapier_: the offence to the eye of the one, and hurt unto the life of the subject that came by the other--this caused her Majestie to _make proclamation against them both_, and to _place selected grave citizens at every gate, to cut the ruffes, and breake the rapiers' points_ of all pa.s.sengers that exceeded a yeard in length of their rapiers, and a nayle of a yeard in depth of their ruffes." These "grave citizens," at every gate cutting the ruffs and breaking the rapiers, must doubtless have encountered in their ludicrous employment some stubborn opposition; but this regulation was, in the spirit of that age, despotic and effectual. Paul, the Emperor of Russia, one day ordered the soldiers to stop every pa.s.senger who wore pantaloons, and with their hangers to cut off, upon the leg, the offending part of these superfluous breeches; so that a man's legs depended greatly on the adroitness and humanity of a Russ or a Cossack; however this war against _pantaloons_ was very successful, and obtained a complete triumph in favour of the _breeches_ in the course of the week.

A shameful extravagance in dress has been a most venerable folly. In the reign of Richard II. their dress was sumptuous beyond belief. Sir John Arundel had a change of no less than fifty-two new suits of cloth of gold tissue. The prelates indulged in all the ostentatious luxury of dress. Chaucer says, they had "chaunge of clothing everie daie."

Brantome records of Elizabeth, Queen of Philip II. of Spain, that she never wore a gown twice; this was told him by her majesty's own _tailleur_, who from a poor man soon became as rich as any one he knew.