It was probably in the early part of the seventeenth century that the Couch became known in England. It was not common, nor quite in the form in which we now recognize that luxurious article of furniture, but was probably a carved oak settle, with cushions so arranged as to form a resting lounge by day. Shakespeare speaks of the "branch'd velvet gown" of Malvolio having come from a "day bed," and there is also an allusion to one in Richard III.[10]
THEODORE HOOK'S CHAIR.
SCROWLED CHAIR IN CARVED OAK.
In a volume of "Notes and Queries" there is a note which would shew that the lady's wardrobe of this time (1622) was a very primitive article of furniture. Mention is made there of a list of articles of wearing apparel belonging to a certain Lady Elizabeth Morgan, sister to Sir Nathaniel Rich, which, according to the old document there quoted, dated the 13th day of November, 1622, "are to be found in a great bar'd chest in my Ladie's Bedchamber." To judge from this list, Lady Morgan was a person of fashion in those days. We may also take it for granted that beyond the bedstead, a prie-dieu chair, a bench, some chests, and the indispensable mirror, there was not much else with which to furnish a lady's bedroom in the reign of James I. or that of his successor.
CHAIR USED BY KING CHARLES I. DURING HIS TRIAL.