the Great King was on]}' the little king, lias a prettily romantic air about it.
The Duchesses— Mme. de Chevreuse, Mme. de Montbazon, Mme. de Bouillon, T\lnie. de Longueville, and the Duchesse de Montpensier, Mademoiselle, "la Grande Mademoiselle," the granddaughter of Henri Quatre, who helped to beat the king's soldiers with cannon previously to being beaten herself with a cane by Lauzun, the handsome Lauzun, whom she took because she could not get Louis—all these fair and fascinating rebels, with their free manners, their fine figures, and their bright eyes, boldly assumed semi-military costumes, without going so far as the ' casaque ' of the guards and the jacket^ of the common soldiery.
During the years of trouble and disturbance, of civil war in Paris and armed cavalcades in the provinces, the ladies were present at the parades of the troops levied liy the princes
^ Hongreline (obsolete).
açrainst the forces of the kinçf, with Condé or against him. These charming amazons harangued the Parisian public (always ready for a rising) from the top of the steps of the Hôtel de Ville, addressing their fiery eloquence to a crowd bristling with old halberts and arquebuses that had belonged to the League, and they review'ed the forces of the Fronde (the city was by way of being besieged). In that Parisian militia, the cavalry ' des Portes Co-clières/ and the ' Corinthian ' regiment of M. le Coadjuteur, there still lingered traces of the picturesque bric-à-brac warrior of the time of the Due de Guise. The warlike dames also valiantly turned the guns of the Bastille on the royal troops wdien things were going badly. What a pretty pretext for mannish modes !
Everything, fashion as well, was ' à la Fronde.' Fashion had good reason for a spite against Mazarin, who was renewing the prohibitive edicts, which were no sooner published than they were forgotten or defied, and which had to be constantly renewed. These absurd de-crées denounced alternately gimp in fEivour of guipure, and guipure in favour of gimp.
Louis had grown up, and was reigning, but
A dnchess of the Fi-oiide.
the king was still young, and the Great Century was amusing itself; it liked glory, but it also liked pleasure. This was its early manner, in later days, the century and the king, both grown old, while still continuing to care for glory, bethought themselves of repenting of their pleasures.
The last Queen of Fashion, a queen austere and grim, who made the age do penance for all the frivolous inventions of her own fair youth, was that eminent refrigerator Mme. de Maintenon.
In the meantime, the fascinating Ninon de L'Enclos, la Vallière, Montespan, Fontanges, with many others, had reigned as queens or demi-queens for their little day.
The famous saying of Louis, " L'Etat c'est-moi ! " might be put into the mouth of the Marquise de Montespan with respect to Fashion. With perfect truth she might have asserted, "La Mode c'est moi ! " Nevertheless, feminine wits were constantly employed in inventing some ideal bit of finery, some pretty device for captivation, some new arrangement which Molière's exquisites should pronounce ' delicious.'
The men of the time wore ' canons,' ' rhin-graves ' (those siugular breeches in the form of beribboned petticoats), and ' petites oies ' ^ of bunches of ribbon. Never were women more richly attired ; both sexes expended money in dress with reckless lavisbness.
There was no marked change in the general outlines of costume, but continual small alterations were made in details and ornament, constituting a succession of ephemeral fashions, all more or less costly and elegant, and known by a variety of picturesque names, such as gallants, ladders, 'fanfreluches' (little puffs of silks), transparents, furbelows, hurlyburlies, what-nots,^ steinkirks, Fontanges, &c., &c.
Let us look at the portraits of the fair ladies of the Great Century, in its early years, the
1 Littré explains tliis curious phrase as follows : Pdlte-oie, les bas, le cliapeau, et les autres ajustements pour rendre un liaLillement complet ; ainsi dit par comparaison avec l'abatis d'une volaille." He quotes a sentence from Les Précieuses Ridicules of Molière : " Que vous semble-t-il de ma petite-oie ? La trouvez-vous congruente à l'habit ? " ^ Prt'tintailles.
time of the ' ruelles ' and the ' précieuses ' of the Hotel de Rambouillet, and also at those of the stars of the Sun-King's fêtes at the Tuileries or Versailles. At first the hair was worn in frizzed curls upon the forehead, and very large curls at either side of the face, or in long braids, tied by bows of ribbon styled 'gallants' and known as 'Cadenettes,' because the mode had been invented by M. de Cadenet, a brother of the Constable de Luynes, in the time of Louis XIII. The gowns were low-necked, liberally displaying the shoulders, necklaces of large pearls were worn, also the last of the lace bands (' rabats '), Avhich became fine by degrees and beautifully less until they entirely disaj)peared ; the pointed bodices were covered witli embroidery, and the short sleeves ended in lawn ruffles or lace cufFs.
The outer skirt, which was raised like the sides of a window-curtain, and fastened by clasps set with brilliants, or by knots of ribbon, displayed the sumptuous under-dress.
Louis XIV. gave fashion its head by letting
I
UNDER THE SUN-KING.
127
the sumptuary edicts of INIazariii fall into desuetude. Prohibited lace reappeared, stuffs of forbidden richness were freely worn. The
Be'inuiug of the great ruiLm.
interdict remained upon cloth of gold and silver only, these the King reserved to himself and his Court. Louis made presents of pieces of those precious stuffs to highly-favoured personages, just as he granted jerkins ' by patent' to liis favourite courtiers.
Madame de Montespan reigned after la Vallière, The dress she wore at one court festival in particular is described as—"A gown of gold on gold, broidered in gold, bordered with gold and over that gold frieze stitched with a gold mixed with a certain gold which makes the most divine stuff that has ever been imagined." This panegyric is from the pen of Madame de Sévigné.
' Transparent ' gowns were much woi'u ; they were of thin material, either muslin or lawn, with bunches of many-coloured flowers painted or printed on it, placed over an under-dress of bright-tinted moiré satin. In some instances the under-dress was composed of brocade, with large flowers on a gold or blue ground, with an upper gown of tissue as light as lace.
Lace was used in a variety of ways in every part of feminine attire, from the bodice to the shoes, mixing with the ribbon streamers which
sous LE GRAND ROI. — FIX DL' XVIb Sll-CI.n.
tied the hair, forming the ' ladders ' of large bows on bodices, bedecking petticoats, and floating about in all directions.
Lace manufactories sprang up everywhere.
Under the great king.
the 'points' (or stitches) of Alençon le Puy, Dieppe, Sedan, &c., were invented, lace-makers produced their wares at all sorts of prices, to suit the purses of duchesses and shopkeepers, from rich guipure costing hundreds of pistoles, to be worn at Court by the Favourite, to the 'neigeuses' and 'gueuses' in which the lesser bourgeoises and even the market-women would appear on high days and holidays.
In 1680 a revolution in head-dresses took place. One day, at a royal hunting-party, the hat of the Duchesse de Fontanges (who had replaced Montespan in the favour of the Monarch), was blown off, and she employed her ribbon garter to confine her disordered locks, tying it in front with a smart rosette. Every thing a favourite does is of course charming and delightful. The fine gentlemen went into ecstasies over the ' inspiration/ the fine ladies were equally enchanted, and the next day everybody's hair was un-dressed à la Fontanges.