“Queste bellissime Rosette usano anco le gentildonne Venetiane da far traverse.”
But certainly the best work of the kind is, “The Needle’s Excellency,” referred to in Mr. Douce’s list. It contains a variety of plates, of which the patterns are all, or nearly all, arabesque. They are beautifully executed, many of them being very similar to, and equally fine with, the German patterns before the colouring is put on, which, though it guides the eye, defaces the work. These are seldom seen uncoloured, the Germans having a jealousy of sending them; but we have seen, through the polite attention of Mr. Wilks, of Regent Street, one or two in this state, and we could not but admire the extreme delicacy and beauty of the work. Some few of the patterns in the book we are now referring to are so extremely similar, that we doubt not the modern artists have borrowed the idea of their beautifully traced patterns from this or some similar work; thereby adding one more proof of the truth of the oft quoted proverb, “There is nothing new under the sun.”
As a fitting close to this chapter, we give the Needle’s praises in full, as sung by the water poet, John Taylor, and prefixed to the last-mentioned work.
“To all dispersed sorts of arts and trades,
I write the needles prayse (that never fades)
So long as children shall be got or borne,
So long as garments shall be made or worne,
So long as hemp or flax, or sheep shall bear
Their linnen wollen fleeces yeare by yeare:
So long as silkwormes, with exhausted spoile,
Of their own entrailes for man’s gaine shall toyle:
Yea till the world be quite dissolv’d and past,
So long at least, the needles use shall last:
And though from earth his being did begin,
Yet through the fire he did his honour win:
And unto those that doe his service lacke,
He’s true as steele and mettle to the backe
He hath indeed, I see, small single sight,
Yet like a pigmy, Polipheme in fight:
As a stout captaine, bravely he leades on,
(Not fearing colours) till the worke be done,
Through thicke and thinne he is most sharpely set,
With speed through stitch, he will the conquest get.
And as a souldier (Frenchefyde with heat)
Maim’d from the warres is forc’d to make retreat;
So when a needles point is broke, and gone,
No point Mounsieur, he’s maim’d, his worke is done,
And more the needles honour to advance,
It is a tailor’s javelin, or his lance;
And for my countries quiet, I should like,
That women kinde should use no other pike.
It will increase their peace, enlarge their store,
To use their tongues lesse, and their needles more.
The needles sharpnesse, profit yields, and pleasure,
But sharpnesse of the tongue, bites out of measure.
A needle (though it be but small and slender)
Yet it is both a maker and a mender:
A grave Reformer of old rents decay’d,
Stops holes and seames and desperate cuts display’d,
And thus without the needle we may see
We should without our bibs and biggins bee;
No shirts or smockes, our nakednesse to hide,
No garments gay, to make us magnifide:
No shadowes, shapparoones, caules, bands, ruffs, kuffs,
No kerchiefes, quoyfes, chinclouts, or marry-muffes,
No croscloaths, aprons, handkerchiefes, or falls,
No table-cloathes, for parlours or for halls,
No sheetes, no towels, napkins, pillow beares,
Nor any garment man or woman weares.
Thus is a needle prov’d an instrument
Of profit, pleasure, and of ornament.
Which mighty queenes have grac’d in hand to take,
And high borne ladies such esteeme did make,
That as their daughters daughters up did grow,
The needles art, they to the children show.
And as ’twas then an exercise of praise,
So what deserves more honour in these dayes,
Than this? which daily doth itselfe expresse
A mortall enemy to idlenesse.
The use of sewing is exceeding old,
As in the sacred text it is enrold:
Our parents first in Paradise began,
Who hath descended since from man to man:
The mothers taught their daughters, sires their sons
Thus in a line successively it runs
For generall profit, and for recreation,
From generation unto generation.
With work like cherubims embroidered rare,
The covers of the tabernacle were.
And by the Almighti’s great command, we see,
That Aaron’s garments broidered worke should be;
And further, God did bid his vestments should
Be made most gay, and glorious to behold.
Thus plainly and most truly is declar’d
The needles worke hath still bin in regard,
For it doth art, so like to nature frame,
As if it were her sister, or the same.
Flowers, plants and fishes, beasts, birds, flyes, and bees,
Hills, dales, plaines, pastures, skies, seas, rivers, trees;
There’s nothing neere at hand, or farthest sought,
But with the needle may be shap’d and wrought.
In clothes of arras I have often seene,
Men’s figur’d counterfeits so like have beene,
That if the parties selfe had been in place,
Yet art would vie with nature for the grace;
Moreover, posies rare, and anagrams,
Signifique searching sentences from names,
True history, or various pleasant fiction,
In sundry colours mixt, with arts commixion,
All in dimension, ovals, squares, and rounds,
Arts life included within natures bounds:
So that art seemeth merely naturall,
In forming shapes so geometricall;
And though our country everywhere is fild
With ladies, and with gentlewomen, skild
In this rare art, yet here they may discerne
Some things to teach them if they list to learne.
And as this booke some cunning workes doth teach,
(Too hard for meane capacities to reach)
So for weake learners, other workes here be,
As plaine and easie as are A B C.
Thus skilful, or unskilful, each may take
This booke, and of it each good use may make,
All sortes of workes, almost that can be nam’d,
Here are directions how they may be fram’d:
And for this kingdomes good are hither come,
From the remotest parts of Christendome,
Collected with much paines and industrie,
From scorching Spaine and freezing Muscovie,
From fertill France, and pleasant Italy,
From Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany,
And some of these rare patternes have beene fet
Beyond the bounds of faithlesse Mahomet:
From spacious China, and those kingdomes East,
And from great Mexico, the Indies West.
Thus are these workes, farrefetcht and dearely bought,
And consequently good for ladies thought.
Nor doe I derogate (in any case)
Or doe esteeme of other teachings base,
For tent worke, rais’d worke, laid worke, frost works, net worke,
Most curious purles, or rare Italian cut worke,
Fine, ferne stitch, finny stitch, new stitch, and chain stitch,
Brave bred stitch, Fisher stitch, Irish stitch, and Queen stitch,
The Spanish stitch, Rosemary stitch, and Mowse stitch
The smarting whip stitch, back stitch, and the crosse stitch
All these are good, and these we must allow,
And these are everywhere in practise now:
And in this booke there are of these some store,
With many others, never seene before.
Here practise and invention may be free.
And as a squirrel skips from tree to tree,
So maids may (from their mistresse or their mother)
Learne to leave one worke, and to learne another,
For here they may make choice of which is which,
And skip from worke to worke, from stitch to stitch,
Until, in time, delightful practise shall
(With profit) make them perfect in them all.
Thus hoping that these workes may have this guide,
To serve for ornament, and not for pride:
To cherish vertue, banish idlenesse,
For these ends, may this booke have good successe.”
FOOTNOTES:
[115] It is worth while to remark the circumstance, that by a machine of the simplest construction, being nothing in fact but a tray, 20,000 needles thrown promiscuously together, mixed and entangled in every way, are laid parallel, heads to heads, and points to points, in the course of three or four minutes.
[116] Illustrations, vol. ii. p. 92.
[117] This seems to be a somewhat earlier edition of the second book in Mr. Douce’s list.