What schoolboy but does not remember the story of Raleigh's mantle, which he cast into the mire in order that Queen Elizabeth's feet might not be soiled? "The night had been rainy, and just where the young gentleman stood, a small quantity of mud interrupted the Queen's passage. As she hesitated to pass on, the gallant, throwing his cloak from his shoulders, laid it on the miry spot, so as to ensure her stepping over it dryshod. Elizabeth looked at the young man, who accompanied this act of devoted courtesy with a profound reverence, and a blush that overspread his whole countenance. The Queen was confused, and blushed in her turn, nodded her head, hastily passed on, and embarked in her barge without saying a word."[7]
The mantle is the cloak or outermost covering to the body, and was originally worn either when the weather was unpropitious, or, as occasion demanded.
The peplum of the Greeks was, in fact, a mantle, worn by both sexes, and was occasionally very long, passing twice round the body, first underneath the arms and then over the shoulder. In rainy or cold weather it was pulled over the head, and also in times of mourning.
The peplum had no clasps or fastenings of any sort, but was kept in its place by its own involutions, of which the combinations were almost endless.
It will readily be understood that the natural foldings of drapery, possessing in themselves so much variety and interest, when thrown over a form so beautifully proportioned as is the human figure, gave the utmost grace of line and form, and this fact makes it all the more surprising that the natural foldings of drapery are not taken greater advantage of in modern dress. The peplum was often diapered with sprigs, spots, stars, or other patternings, and was occasionally richly bordered.
The Greeks also occasionally wore a shorter and simpler cloak, called chlamys, in lieu of the more ample peplum; such a short mantle is the one which we see upon the shoulders of the Apollo Belvidere.
PLAN OF THE TOGA.
The Roman toga corresponded to the Greek peplum, but differed from it in shape, and was more ample, for while the peplum was square, or rather oblong, the toga assumed the form of two semicircles—a larger and a smaller one, or, more correctly speaking, a semicircle and the smaller segment of a circle, which was doubled over the semicircle before adjustment. One end of the toga was then placed upon the left shoulder in such a position that the end or point just touched the ground, the rest of the garment drawn round the back of the figure, underneath the right arm, and flung again over the left shoulder; a sort of loop or bag was then drawn out at the waist in front and served as a pocket. The toga measured 18 feet from tip to tip, or three times the height of a man. It was worn always over the tunic—at any rate during the later Roman time. Horace, in his fourth Epode, thus satirises an upstart:—
"Mark, as along the Sacred Way thou flauntest,
Puffing thy toga, twice three cubits wide."