William Pyncheon.
The first change from the full pleated ruff of the sixteenth century came in the adoption of a richly laced collar, unpleated, which still stood up behind the ears at the back of the head. Often it was wired in place with a supportasse. This was worn by both men and women. You may see one [here], on the neck of Pocahontas, her portrait painted in 1616. This collar, called a standing-band, when turned down was known as a falling-band or a rebato.
The rich lace falling-band continued to be worn until the great flowing wig, with long, heavy curls, covered the entire shoulders and hid any band; the floating ends in front were the only part visible. In time they too vanished. Pepys wrote in 1662, “Put on my new lace band and so neat; am resolved my great expense shall be lace bands, and it will set off anything else the more.”
I scarcely need to point out the falling-band in its various shapes as worn in America; they can be found readily in the early pages of this book. It was a fashion much discussed and at first much disliked; but the ruff had seen its last day—for men’s wear, when the old fellows who had worn it in the early years of the seventeenth century dropped off as the century waned. The old Bowdoin gentleman must have been one of the last to wear this cumbersome though stately adjunct of dress—save as it was displaced on some formal state occasion or as part of a uniform or livery.
There is a constant tendency in all times and among all English-speaking folk to shorten names and titles for colloquial purposes; and soon the falling-band became the fall. In the Wits’ Recreation are two epigrams which show the thought of the times:—
“WHY WOMEN WEARE A FALL
“A Question ’tis why Women wear a fall?
And truth it is to Pride they’re given all.
And Pride, the proverb says, will have a fall.”
“ON A LITTLE DIMINUTIVE BAND
“What is the reason of God-dam-me’s band,
Inch deep? and that his fashion doth not alter,
God-dam-me saves a labor, understand
In pulling it off, where he puts on the Halter.”
“God-dam-me” was one of the pleasant epithets which, by scores, were applied to the Puritans.