Dismissing, then, her stitches, her laces, and the 3,000 gowns she left in her wardrobe behind her—for, as Shakespeare says, "Fashion wears out more apparel than the man"[[832]]—we must confine ourselves to those articles immediately under our notice, cut-work, bone lace, and purle.
Cut-work—"opus scissum," as it is termed by the Keeper of the Great Wardrobe—was used by Queen Elizabeth to the greatest extent. She wore it on her ruffs, "with lilies of the like, set with small seed pearl"; on her doublets, "flourished with squares of silver owes"; on her forepart of lawn, "flourished with silver and spangles";[[833]] on her cushion-cloths,[[834]] her veils, her tooth-cloths,[[835]] her smocks and her nightcaps.[[836]] All nourished, spangled, and edged in a manner so stupendous as to defy description. It was dizened out in one of these last-named articles[[837]] that young Gilbert Talbot, son of Lord Shrewsbury, caught a sight of the Queen while walking in the tilt-yard. Queen Elizabeth at the window in her nightcap! What a goodly sight! That evening she gave Talbot a good flap on the forehead, and told her chamberlain how the youth had seen her "unready and in her night stuff," and how ashamed she was thereof.
Cut-work first appears in the New Year's Offerings of 1577-8, where, among the most distinguished of the givers, we find the name of Sir Philip Sidney, who on one occasion offers to his royal mistress a suit of ruffs of cut-work, on another a smock—strange presents according to our modern ideas. We read, however, that the offering of the youthful hero gave no offence, but was most graciously received. Singular enough, there is no entry of cut-work in the Great Wardrobe Accounts before that of 1584-5, where there is a charge for mending, washing and starching a bodice and cuffs of good white lawn, worked in divers places with broad spaces of Italian cut-work, 20 shillings,[[838]] and another for the same operation to a veil of white cut-work trimmed with needlework lace.[[839]] Cut-work was probably still a rarity; and really, on reading the quantity offered to Elizabeth on each recurring new year, there was scarcely any necessity for her to purchase it herself. By the year 1586-7 the Queen's stock had apparently diminished. Now, for the first time, she invests the sum of sixty shillings in six yards of good ruff lawn, well worked, with cut-work, and edged with good white lace.[[840]] From this date the Great Wardrobe Accounts swarm with entries such as a "sut' de lez ruffes de lawne," with spaces of "opere sciss',"[[841]] "un' caule de lawne alb' sciss' cum le edge," of similar work;[[842]] a "toga cum traine de opere sciss';"[[843]] all minutely detailed in the most excruciating gibberish. Sometimes the cut-work is of Italian[[844]] fabric, sometimes of Flanders;[[845]] the ruffs edged with bone lace,[[846]] needle lace,[[847]] or purle.[[848]]
The needle lace is described as "curiously worked," "operat' cum acu curiose fact'," at 32s. the yard.[[849]] The dearest is specified as Italian.[[850]] We give a specimen (Coloured Plate XV.) of English workmanship, said to be of this period, which is very elaborate.[[851]]
The thread used for lace is termed "filo soror," or nun's thread, such as was fabricated in the convents of Flanders and Italy.[[852]] If, however, Lydgate, in his ballad of "London Lackpenny," is an authority, that of Paris was most prized:—
"Another he taked me by his hand,
Here is Paris thredde, the finest in the land."
Queen Elizabeth was not patriotic; she got and wore her bone lace from whom she could, and from all countries. If she did not patronize English manufacture, on the other hand, she did not encourage foreign artizans; for when, in 1572, the Flemish refugees desired an asylum in England, they were forcibly expelled from her shores. In the census of 1571, giving the names of all the strangers in the City of London,[[853]] including the two makers of Billament lace already cited, we have but four foreigners of the lace craft: one described as "Mary Jurdaine, widow, of the French nation, and maker of purled lace"; the other, the before-mentioned "Callys de Hove, of Burgundy."[[854]]
Various Acts[[855]] were issued during the reign of Elizabeth in order to suppress the inordinate use of apparel. That of May, 1562,[[856]] though corrected by Cecil himself, less summary than that framed against the "white-work" of the apprentice boys, was of little or no avail.
In 1568 a complaint was made to the Queen against the frauds practised by the "16 appointed waiters," in reference to the importation of haberdashery, etc., by which it appears that her Majesty was a loser of "5 or 600 l. by yere at least" in the customs on "parsement, cap rebone bone lace, cheyne lace," etc.,[[857]] but with what effect we know not. The annual import of these articles is therein stated at £10,000, an enormous increase since the year 1559, when, among the "necessary and unnecessary wares" brought into the port of London,[[858]] together with "babies" (dolls), "glasses to looke in," "glasses to drinke in," pottes, gingerbread, cabbages, and other matters, we find enumerated, "Laces of all sortes, £775 6s. 8d.," just one-half less than the more necessary, though less refined item of "eles fresh and salt."[[859]]