——Cito mobile pectus
Cordaque largitus, rerum sitibunda novarum.
Another Italian said, about two centuries ago: E Natione la Franceze che mai persiste ne sta ferme in una sorte d’habito, ma lo varie secondo i caprici. De gli habiti antichi & moderni.
The motive that actuates people to be at the height of the mode, is the vanity of being thought a person of consequence. How many are there who are penetrated with respect at the sight of a fine coat! how many are there who owe all the consideration they have to their outward appearance, and who might justly say: Ah! my coat, how much I am obliged to you! Their whole merit is in their wardrobe; and there is many a Frenchman, who, had he but that to his mind, would envy no one.
One sole form of a coat, let it be ever so elegant, would be insufficient to preserve the veneration of so many stupid asses; their idol must be differently set off every day: without that precaution their admiration would soon be over; this perhaps is what most contributes to keep up the love of novelty among the French. Peter the Great, emperor of Russia, was struck, when at Paris, with this national character; not being much accustomed to see a variety of dresses, he said, on seeing a lord in a different coat every day: Surely that man is dissatisfied with his tailor.
Why should we not have a dictionary Of Fashions? Surely it would be of as much use as many others. The different denominations which we give them would not be the least entertaining part of the work. Among the names of old hoops we find the Gourgandine (the flirting hoop), the Boute-en-train (the leading-mode hoop), the Tatez-y (the groping hoop), the Culbute (the flying-top-over-tail hoop), &c. Hats and shoes would likewise afford long articles. Then again there would be the great wigs worn in the reign of Lewis XIV.[[4]] and which so much employed the attention of the courtiers and periwig-makers of that age: not only the head, but half the body was buried under this heap of curls. It was then only the outside of a Frenchman’s head that was ridiculous; now-a-days things are changed.
I would not have forgotten under the word canon the blunder of a German author, who, having translated Moliere’s Précieuses ridicules, and intending to bring this piece out at one of the theatres of his nation, was confoundedly puzzled how to explain this word. It never entered his brain that a canon was a piece of muslin worn round the knee. After maturely considering the passage, he resolved that Mascarille should have a brace of pistols in his pocket, which he was to pull out when he asks: How do you like my canons?
[4]. The contemporary of Charles II. of England. T.
The article of ladies’ head-dresses would fill a volume entire: we should find, that, in proportion as they have taken from their heads, they have added to their hips. The enormous hoop and the large high head-dress have alternately succeeded each other; these last have lately sunk under their own weight, if I may be allowed the expression, in order to let the great hips and false rumps be in vogue. The ladies are determined not to lose any of their bulk, so much are they persuaded that their merit is in proportion to the space they occupy in the world.
In one of those revolutions which ladies’ heads have suffered, a lady wrote to her friend as follows.