In Cotgrave's "Dictionary of the French and English Tongues," the French Ombrelle is translated, "An umbrello; a (fashion of) round and broad fanne, wherewith the Indians (and from them our great ones) preserve themselves from the heat of a scorching sunne; and hence any little shadow, fanne, or thing, wherewith women hide their faces fro the sunne."
In Fynes Moryson's "Itinerary" (1617) we find a similar allusion to the habit of carrying Umbrellas in hot countries "to auoide the beames of the sunne." Their employment, says the author, is dangerous, "because they gather the heate into a pyramidall point, and thence cast it down perpendicularly upon the head, except they know how to carry them for auoyding that danger." This is certainly a fact not generally known to those who use Parasols too recklessly.
"Poesis Rediviva," by John Collop, M.D. (1656), mentions Umbrellas. Michael Drayton, writing about 1620, speaks of a pair of doves, which are to watch over the person addressed in his verses:—
"Of doves I have a dainty pair,
Which, when you please to take the air,
About your head shall gently hover,
Your clear brow from the sun to cover;
And with their nimble wings shall fan you,
That neither cold nor heat shall tan you;
And, like umbrellas, with their feathers
Shall shield you in all sorts of weathers."
Beaumont and Fletcher have an allusion to the umbrella (1640);—
"Now are you glad, now is your mind at ease,
Now you have got a shadow, an umbrella,
To keep the 'scorching world's opinion
From your fair credit."
—Rule a Wife and Have a Wife, Act iii, sc. I.
Ben Jonson, too, once mentions it (date 1616), speaking of a mishap
which befel a lady at the Spanish Court:—
"And there she lay, flat spread as an umbrella."
—The Devil is an Ass, Act iv., SC. I.
Of the fact that Umbrellas' were known and used in Italy long prior to their introduction into France, we find a confirmation in old Montaigne, who observes, lib. iii. cap. ix. :—"Les Ombrelles, de quoy depuis les anciens Remains l'Italie se sert, chargent plus le bras, qu'ils ne deschargent la teste."
Kersey's Dictionary (1708) describes an Umbrella as a "screen commonly used by women to keep off rain."
The absence of almost all allusion to the Umbrella by the wits of the seventeenth century, while the muff, fan, &c., receive so large a share of attention, is a further proof that it was far from being recognised as an article of convenient luxury at that day. The clumsy shape, probably, prevented its being generally used. In one of Dryden's plays we find the line:—