AFICHE, s. f. ; AFICHAL, s. m. ; AFICHETE, s. f.; AFICHIER, vb.

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The afiche is a brooch. Godefroy's definition in relation to costume includes also boucle, agrafe, anneau, but we have direct evidence for our period only for the meaning « brooch ». Tobler defines it correctly as Spange.

Afiche is synonymous with fermail and nosche, q. v., and like them was worn usually at the neck :

(a 1204), Esc., 8926 :

Ele ot a son col unne afiche
Qui li clot. j. poi le cevesce
De son vestement noir… (1)

One is described :

(a 1204), Esc., 3835, (cited by Tobler):

…une afiche
Quarrée, à pierres, bele et riche
Dont ele ot son col afichié. (2)

This afiche was removable because it is twice spoken of as taken off and used to fasten an ausmonière at the belt, Esc., 3835, 4492. Again an afiche is used to fasten a sleeve given as a gage :

(a 1204), Esc., 1144 :

Pres del poing li ferma .j. afice
Massice d'or a .ij. lupars. (3)

As an ornement the afice is mentioned with rings and belts:

(a 1164), Erac., 2235 :

boincs çaintures et afices. (4)

(a 1204), Esc., 7916 :

Joel…
Cainture u anel u afiche. (5)

(a 1200), Athis, 14625 :

Ou anel d'or ou afichete… (6)

(a 1200), Athis, 8620 :

Eniaus, afiches, bofonez… (7)

(a 1200), Aye, 347 :

Et Aye la duchoise et noches et afiches… (8)

(p 1206), Perc., 15777 :

Cieres çaintures et esmaus,
Affices d'or… (9)

As a masculine noun the form affichal, affichaus is found in G. de D., 3653, 4281, 4797, 4814, all of which are quoted by Godefroy s. v. afichail, but with reference only to the ms. Vat. Chr. 1725. Afiçail occurs Tris. (Th.), 2683.

affich(i)er is used meaning to fasten with a pin, usually at the neck. For affichier in a wider sense cf. Godefroy and Tobler.

(c 1180), Perc., (B.) 7958 :

E son col d'un fermail afiche… (10)

(1199), G. de D., 4418:

Puis veut affichier le fermail… (11)

(also cited by Godefroy from the manuscript).

(c 1200), Ogier, 4349 :

E lor mantials a lor cols afichier… (12)

(c 1200), Conq. J., 1613 :

Son col ot affichié del chief d'un esperon .. (13)

In one case it means to fasten with buttons :

(a 1204), Esc., 8954 :

A. ij. botons d'or li afiche
Desor[e] l'espaule en travers. (14)

Cf. also nosche (3).

Illustrations are frequent of the brooch worn at the neck, represented by the words afiche, fermail or nosche, cf. fig. 2,5, 7, 8 a, c, Viollet-le-Duc, III,6-9; Quicherat, 147, 152 ; Enlart, fig. 23.

AFUBLAIL, s. m.

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Afublail, a noun formed from afubler, q. v. means « that which is afublé », e.g. the mantel, cf. Tobler, who defines it simply as Mantel. Godefroy's definition, sorte de vêtement, is not sufficiently precise ; the word is not in Gay ; the first part of Carpentier's definition in Du Cange, s. v. afubals, Fibula, Gall. Boucle, agrafe ; vel capitis operimentum is correct for Provençal, cf. Raynouard, VI,p. 24, s. v. afublalh and Levy, s. v. afiblalh.

Afublail, as Constans indicates in the glossary of Thèbes, is equivalent to mantel, or peaus, by metonomy for mantel, in the following passage :

(1150-55), Thèbes, 795 :

Tant coveita a val descendre ;
Ne li membra d'afublail prendre,
Mais uns danzeaus…
Li afubla ses peaus de mar. (1)

The passage Thèbes, 8443 :

Et ot sur ses espaules mis
L'afublail d'un fres mantel gris. (2)

may have the same meaning (translate « covering »), or afublail may mean here « clasp » ( = afiche) as in Provençal, cf. supra. Godefroy has quoted two passages from Livre des Rois, the first of which translates the Latin oram chlamydis and the second cumque mulassel vestem :

(c 1170), L. Reis, I, 24, 5 :

…un pan de sun afublail colpad. (3)

II, 12, 20 :

Prist altre afublail… (4)

I have noted no examples of afubleure, (cf. Tobler), in our period, but afiblar occurs in Provençal, as a verbal noun.

(c 1174), Enseign., 225 :

E de son afiblar
Se deu gran soing donar
Que non esti, en fol
Sos mantels a son col. (5)

Compare the following Catalon passage, cited by Aguiló y Fuster, s. v. Afiblall :« Uns afiblalls de seda ab botons d'or ab los sostenidors d'argent sobreaurats » ; this text is from Sta. Coloma de Queralt and is dated 1350.

AFUBLER, vb.

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Afubler means to put on the mantel or chape ; afublé, wearing a mantel or chape.

After originally indicating the act of pinning in place by means of a fibula an article of clothing which was thrown around the shoulders, afubler ( <affibulare) by the twelfth century came to designate the preceding part of the action, the putting on of the wrap, and new words were used to designate the manner of fastening it, such as afichier or fermer, to fasten with an afiche, fermail or nosche, or atachier, to tie with ataches (see under those words). As designating an action distinct, from and additional to vestir, afubler appears in : 

(c 1109), Pel., 143 :

II les fait revestir et capes afubler. (1)

(c 1165), Troie, 6224 :

…vestu et afublez… (2)

(c 1160), Enéas, 1466 :

La reine se fu vestue
D'une chiere porpre vermeille…
Un chier mantel ot afublé. (3)

(c 1180), Raoul, 3659 :

Cele pucele fu richement vestie
Et afublée d'un paile de Pavie. (4)

(c 1200), Fits Aymon, 3607, 3667 :

… c(h) auciés et vestus et très bien afublés. (5)

(a 1200), Aspr., 11149 :

…vestue et afublée… (6)

The garment afublé was the mantel or chape. The-examples for this are numerous. 

(a 1108), Rol, 462:

Afublez est d'un mantel sabelin… (7)

(c 1130), Cor. L., 763 :

Et d'un mantel molt hisdos afubler… (8)

(c 1160), Enéas, (Ms. GFD) p. 391 :

Afublée fu la roine
D'un chier mantel de blanc hermine… (9)

(c 1165), Troie, 5556 :

Gent s'afublot de son mantel… (10)

(a 1167 ?), Marie, Eliduc 798 :

…un curt mantel afublé… (11)

(c 1170), Folq., 13573 :

.i. mantel afluba Anfelise s'amie. (12)

(a 1200), Alex., (Ms. Ars.), p. 33, 179 :

El' afubla un bon mantel hermine… (13)

(1169-73), Iv., 4738 :

… afublée d'un mantel cort… (14)

(a 1200), Aye, 192 :

Elle avoit afuble i. grant mantel hermine… (15)

Cf. also, Raoul, 3660 ; Ipom., 7956 ; Biaus, 2385; Folq. I, Anl. I, C, 43 ; Rou, III, 3059, (3) above and s. v. mantel.

Chape afubler is found less frequently :

(1190-95), Pr. de C, 1235 :

Elle out vestu .j. paille de Biterne
Et afublée la chape de Palerne. (16)

(a 1204), Esc., 4000 :

Et afuble… Par desus une bele cape. (17)

Cf. also, Hav., 505 ; Ors., 2017 ; S. S., 4560 ; A. et Y., 3234; Gal., 4101; Pel., 636; Lanc., 4563; and (1) above.

The material of which the mantel was made is named instead of the mantel itself :

(a 1108), Rol., 3940 :

… ses granz pels de martre,
Celes met jus, puis li afublent altres. (18)

Cf. also, Amis, 2155, Aye, 3287 (cited by Viollet-le-Duc) and above (4).

Afubler was later extended to the action of putting on any garment, including headgear (cf. Godefroy, Gay and Tobler under afubler for examples of this use after the twelfth century). At this period however, it seems to be restricted to the mantel or chape. Some apparent exceptions to this statement admit of explanation. The expression guile affubler appears :

(c 1170), Folq., 10817 :

… uns Basclois,
Qui ot guite affublée, s'ot chapel a bogrois… (19)

The question is here as to what a guite was. Godefroy defines it as chapeau, which it certainly is not, on account of chapel in the same line. Variant readings are mss. P^a cote, B cape, S cotte. If, according to B, a guite is interpreted as a cape, the use of affubler is justified, and vice versa, its being affublée is a reason for thinking it a cape of some sort. The word guite also appears in ms. L. of Doon de la Roche as a variant of guinde, 1. 3159, but its meaning is obscure here as well. Guynte occurs also in Folq. 2, Anl. III, 2226 :

Une guynte ont Estourmy aflubée.. (20)

The second case of an unusual use of afubler is seen in (a 1200), Alex, (Mch.) 17, 34 :

Afulés d'une cauce, n'ot houce ne soller. (21)

Tobler, s. v. afubler suggests the transposition of the first two nouns, which clears up the passage most acceptably. The houce, a housing (i. e. horse trappings), would then be understood as being worn around the shoulders in the guise of a mantel.

A third case is found :

(c 1109), Pel., 581 :

… un capel d'alemande engulet,
D'un grant peisson marage, qui fut faiz oltre mer,
Quand l'avrai en mon chief vestut et afublet… (22)

It is unusual to find the word engolet used with chapel (hat), as engolet, q. v. as a rule means « provided with a gole or collar of fur». We may therefore understand for chapel either chape with a chaperon, which would justify the expression en mon chief vestut as the chaperon, q. v. was worn over the head ; or we must understand that the chapel engoulé had a cape-like extension over the shoulders and around the throat. The action of fastening this around the neck would be similar to that of putting on the mantel. With either of these explanations this passage is not an exception in the use of afubler, but rather a connecting link between the twelfth century and the later use of the word, as afubler, after referring to the cape plus the hood, may have been applied later to the hood or other headgear alone. Another passage which shows a connection between the two actions is Aub. 91 : Son chief afuble d'un mantel (23), which refers to the frequent custom of wearing the mantel over the head, cf. fig. 7, and s. v. mantel, illustrations. Cf. also Tobler, s. v. afulé, for the figurative use with the sense bedecken, umgeben. A case is found where the surcot is mentioned :

(c 1200), Gal., 2006 :

S'ot un surcot affublé sus… (24)

Galerent's surcot, 1. 2047, is described as being fastened on the shoulder with clasps of gold, cf. s. v. surcot (16) ; this method of adjustment is so similar to one manner of fastening the manlel, i. e. by a brooch, that the extension of the use of afubler is clear. However, if Galerent is to be dated in the twelfth century, this passage forms an exception to the statement made above that, in our period, afubler is used only with regard to the mantel or chape.

ANEL, s. m.

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Anel in the meaning of « finger ring » is well known, cf. Godefroy, Comp., Tobler s. v. anel, and needs no discussion. To the passages quoted by Winter, 275-291, may be added Gaimar, 3884 ; Ver d. J. (ms. B) 436 ; Athis, 8620, 11237, 14625. The passage quoted by Laborde from (c 1155) Sept Sages without more definite reference is

4466 :

Deus aniaus ot an sa main destre,
Et trois en ot en la senestre.

ATACHE, s. f.

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The atache was the ribbon by which the mantel was fastened. Godefroy's definition s. v. atache, sorte de ruban ornant les chapeaux, is not justified by any of the passages he quotes, and his extension of this, Complément, s. v. atache, tout ce qui sert a attacher, a fixer qqch., i.e. agraffe, broche, ruban, fermoir, etc. must be reduced to ruban. The passages quoted by Gay to justify his statement that la plupart des textes où il (ce terme, atache) se rencontre ont trait a la joaillerie, are all of the fourteenth century or later. In these more recent times it is probable that the ribbon of silk used to fasten the mantel had been been replaced by a chain of gold or of precious stones used for the same purpose, hence the retention of the name ; cf. (11) below. Tobler's definition : aufgeheftete Schleife, flatterndes Band u. ähnl. aus Gewebe oder Geflechl, does not make clear the special purpose of the atache, as far as garments are concerned. The definition justified both by the texts and the illustrations is that of M. Enlart in his Glossary, s. v. attache : cordon simple ou double passé dans deux oeillets pratiqués dans le bord du mantel, (add or in two « tassels » q. v.) el correspondant aux épaules… En serrant el en nouant l'attache on ferme le mantel sur la poitrine (fig. 41) el lorsqu'on l'ouvre, pour éviter qu'il tombe dans le dos, on retient l'attache avec le doigt (fig. 180, 184) ou en l'accrochant au fermail. M. Enlart adds « Le nom s'appliquait aussi aux agrafes, mors, rivets », but this statement is not borne out for our period by clear testimony. Moreover, ataches are distinguished from mors and tassel in the passage describing the accessories of a mantel :

(c 1160), Enéas, 750 :

Seul les ataches et li mors
Et li boton et li tassel
Valeient plus qua troi chastel. (1)

This meaning of ribbon of silk is clear from the following passages :

(c 1164), Erec, 1622 :

Unes ataches de quatre auncs,
De fil de soie a or ovrées,
A la reine demandees…
Ele les fist tot maintenant
Metre el mantel isnelemant… (2)

(Quoted by Godefroy from the ms. Bib. Nat. 1420). (1153-88) Part. 4901 :

D'ataces bones est garnis
Dont on le pent al cors gentis… (3)

Cf. the obscure passage in

(1199), G. de D., 3272 :

i. grant mantel gris a porfil,
Dont l'atache n'est pas de fil
Mes l'escarlate en est en paine. (4)

The mantel worn partly open and kept from slipping by a brooch or by holding it with the hand, as described by M. Enlart above, is mentioned :

(c 1200), Gal., 6949 :

A sa noische ferme l'atache
De son mantel, qui ne se meuve. (5)

Cf. fig. 5, and Enlart, fig. 43.

(1174-90), Ipom., 2216 :

A ses ataches sa main tint,
Si qe la manteus entre ovri
Et li beau cors parut parmi. (6)

Cf. Enlart, fig. 38, 42. As a fastening for the mantel the atache is also mentioned Gal., 6775, Conq. J., 2318, Athis, 6907, Folq., 4732, Biaus, 3272, and in a list of accessories Gal., 4280, Part., 10115. In the passage :

(a 1200), Biaus, 2388 :

(ed. Hippeau, 2377) :

Les ataces de son mantiel
De fin or furent li tasiel ;
Desus sa teste le tenoit,
L'orle lés sa face portoit. (7)

some lines seem to have been omitted after mantiel.

The verb atachier, desestachier, meaning to tie or untie the ribbons of the mantel, occurs in :

Loh. Anlage 9, 50 :

i. mantel a a son col atachié … (8)

(1153-88), Part., 5085 :

Moult bien l'attache the (mantel)… (9)

(c 1170), Folq., 4121 :

La voit l'an tant mantel desestachier… (10)

(Var P2, P3, B destachier).

In one case chains of gold are mentioned, but here they are not yet called ataches as later, cf. above.

(1153-88), Part.,10625 :

Od chaenetes d'or delgies,
Bien ovrées et bien taillies
Furent athacié li mantel… (11)

Illustrations of the atache have been mentioned above. A long ribbon, as described in (2) may be seen in fig. 8 b and other examples of the atache fig. 8 c, Enlart, fig. 21 bis, fig. 256. In Enlart, fig. 257, it is shown as used with the tassel.

AUMOSNIERE, s. f.

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The aumosniere is correctly defined by Godefroy, Comp. s. v. almosnière as a bourse qu'on portait à la ceinture et qui dans l'origine contenait l'argent destiné aux aumônes. For a description of the aumosniere and its uses cf. Viollet-le-Duc, III, 26. An aumosniere is described :

(a 1204), Esc…3828:

L'anel mist en une aumosniere
D'un samit vermeil, fin et frois,
Ki pent a son tissu d'orfrois
K'ele ot le jor au primes chaint. (1)

Other passages not cited by Godefroy, Gay or Tobler, in which aumosnière occurs are C. de P., 392 ; Sept S., 4399 ; Tris. (B), 453 ; Ivain, 1891 ; Perc., 1745, 20943, 21440 ; Gal., 1163.

Although the aumosnière appears in the texts not long after the middle of the twelfth century, as in Marie Milun 97, (cited by Godefroy), it does not appear in the iconography until the end of the twelfth. One of the earliest appearances is on a statue from S. Germain l'Auxerrois, reproduced by Quicherat, p. 183. In the thirteenth century it becomes an almost constant part of the lady's costume, and is worn hanging at the belt as described in (1) above.

BARETELES, s. f. pl.

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Bareteles are defined by Godefroy as objets de luxe qui trompent, qui séduisent. I have noted no other examples than the one from Part. 10117, which he quotes, cited infra, s. v. crioreaus. The connection with barat « deceit », seems clear.

BAUDRÉ, s. m.

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Usually a man's sword belt, baudré is found in two texts as a lady's belt, in which case we may assume that it was of leather as was the sword belt, cf. Tobler, s. v. baudré, baudrier, baudroier. The following example has been noted by Tobler :

(1150-55), Thèbes, 3813 :

Vestue fu estreitement,
D'un baudré ceinte laschement. (1)

Cf. also ibid., 3826, s. v, galoner (9).

This description applies to the dress and belt shown in fig. 8 c, with which it coincides in date, 1150-70. The second case is about the same date :

(c 1170), Folq., 3573:

Dame Guibors… fu vestue d'un bliaut de cendé.
Assez fu graisle, si ot ceint un baudré. (2)

The belt of leather was also indicated by the word coroie, q. v. which is found towards the end of the century and supplants the term baudré as applied to ladies' dress.

BENDE, s. f. ; BENDER, vb. ; BANDEL, s. m.

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In French texts bende appears as a strip or band of various materials used for various purposes, cf. Weinhold, II, 316 ; Schultz, I, 182.

As a strip of metal bende is found :

(a 1200), Aspr., 5315 :

Sor son escu ert l'espée colée ;…
Mainte grant bende de fer i a colpée… (1)

A band of metal (?) or a painted band is used as an ornament on a shield :

(c 1180), Perc., (B) 4713 :

… ot an l'escu
Une bande qui d'azur fu… (2)

(c 1180), Raoul, 508 :

A bendes d'or fu la boucle seant (of the shield)… (3)

(a 1204), Esc., 1136 :

Ses escus ert d'azur et d'or,
Bendé [s] a flora de l'un a l'autre, (4)

Here there may have been a design of flowers in metal. As an ornament on a shrine, bands of silver arc found :

(c 1109), Pel., 198 :

Li reis fait faire un fiertre…
A granz bendes d'argent l'a fait leiier menut… (5)

and on a man's belt:

(1170-90), Mon. G. I, 564 :

… un bon braier…
A bendes d'or et a boutons d'or mier. (6)

As a strip of cloth it was used as a bandage for wounds :

(1150-55), Thèbes, 9276 :

Li rois trenche de son bliaut;
D'une bende lie la plaie… (7)

Cf. also Erec, 3925 ; Athis, 11733 ; Perc., 11904, 12373 ; Ille, 1804, 1821 ; Vie S. Gil, 1977 ; Prot., 5851.

The forms bandel, bendiaus are also found with this meaning :

(p 1200), J. de B., 872:

Prinst un bandel, s'en fist bander son chief. (8)

(c 1180), Perc., 8308 :

… Ceste herbe li aroit mis
Sor ses plaies et bien liie ;
Mais une guimple déliie
Pour bendiaus faire, i convenroit. (9)

Cf. also Huon, 7080.

Dresses having bands of trimming are described as bendé, a word which is in some cases synonymous with listé, orlé, q. v. cf. also gironé, but is in others distinguished from them by referring to parallel bands of embroidery rather than a single row on the edge.

(c 1200), Conq. J., 2311 :

Vestu ot .i. samit…
En plus de .XXX. lex estoit a or bendés. (10)

(c 1160), Enéas, 1466 :

La reine se fu vestue
D'une chiere porpre vermeille,
Bendée d'or a grant merveille
Trestot le cors (bodice) des i as hanches
Et ensement totes les manches. (11)

(1174-90), Prot., 11439 :

Mult est vestue richement
D'un riche cendal cler et freis
De chef en chef bendé d'orfreis… (12)

Bendé and gironné are found in the same passage :

(a 1200), Biaus, 1522 :

La pane d'edres fu bendée
D'ermine de gris geronée. (13)

(p 1200), Herv., 884 :

… un mantel…
A bendes d'or estoit tous gironnés. (14)

For other references to bende, bende as a trimming on dresses see under orfrois.

A band of silk, like a modern « bandeau », was come-times worn around the head to hold the hair in place :

(1150-55), Thèbes, 6075 :

(uns meschins)
… ot son chief estreit bendé
D'une bende d'un vert cendé. (15)

(c 1180), Baoul, 5263 :

Son chief benda d'une bende de sie. (16)

Used in this way bende is synonymous with fresel, q. v.

The past participle bendez used substantively is used together with chapelet, perhaps as a synonym of it, in :

(c 1199), G. de D., 203 :

Et ces puceles en bendez,
A chapelez entrelardez
De biax oiseaux et de floretes… (17)

The ribbon was sometimes used to hold the hair in a tress or braid, in which case bender is synonymous with trecier or galonner, q. v. and bende with treceor, q. v.

(1190-1200), Trist, (B) 3912 :

Sor ses espaules sont si crin,
Bendé a ligne sor or fin.
Un cercle d'or out sor son chief… (18)

(c 1165), Troie, 1243 :

Bendée fu d'un treceor… (19)

(a 1204), Esc., 4422 :

Por ce que sa bende destrece,
Li cort cavelet et li blont
Par mout grant maistrie li vont
Par devant le tor des oreilles
Desci jusqu'a faces vermeilles ;
Sor son blanc col en rot flociax. (20)

Cf. also Girb., p. 497, 19, cited by Winter (222).

It is used once in a more indefinite sense as synonymous with lier, (cf. infra, lier, examples,4,5) in reference to the guimple.

Bender is therefore a rather indefinite term when used with reference to the coiffure, as it may mean either to tie a ribbon around the head, to braid the hair with a ribbon (specific term trecier) or to put on the guimple (specific term lier).

It could have any one of these meanings in

(c 1167), Ille, 3090 :

Et je sui asses costumiere
De traïner et vair et gris
Et dras de soie de grant pris,
De moi lacier et de bender. (21)

For illustrations see under trecier, galonné, listé.

BLIAUT, s. m.

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In our period bliaut occurs with the following meanings : I, a costly material ; II, a lady's court dress ; III, a man's dress worn with armor or at court.

I) In Middle High German blialt appears to have been always a material. Weinhold ^[45] defines it as follows : Der Blialt ist nach den deutschen Gedichten ein aus Seide und Gold, oder aus Seide zweier Farben gewebter, übrigens auch einfarbiger Stoff, während im Mittellateinischen und Romanischen unter blialdus, bliaudus, blial, bliaud, ein über dem Hemd getragener Rock verslanden ward. » Schultz ^[46] says : « unsre Vorfahren haben unter Plialt oder Pliât nur ein kostbares Seidengewebe verslanden. » Lexer, s. v. blîalt, defines it as : « golddurchwiirkler Seidenstoff bes. von purpurbrauner Farbe ».

Besides the passages quoted by the above mentioned authorities, I have found the following examples in Middle High German where bliât, blialt must mean material :

(c 1190), Herzog Ernst, 2601 : (description of the coverings on a bed).

pheller… lînlachen sîdîn,
ein deckelachen hermîn…
dar obe ein sîdîn blîalt
mit guotem golde wol durchslagen… (1)

(c 1215), Tristan und Isolde, (G. v. Strassburg) ^[47] 18150:

si hiez ein bette dar ze hant
rilich und schone machen,
kulter und lilachen,
purper und bliat,
küneklicher bettewat… (2)

15203 :

purper und bliat,
bette unde bettewat… (3)

Partonopeus und Melior ^[48] p. 53, 1. 10:

tiure unde selzêne wât,
der purpur und der plîat,
der zendal unde das paldekin. (4)

(c 1204), Parzival ^[49]

235, 9 :

… waete die man tiure galt :
daz was halbez plîalt
daz ander pfell von Ninnivê. (5)

313, 10 :

von Lunders ein pfaewîn huot,
gefurriert mit einen blîalt… (6)

The Middle English form blihand also means material, as is shown by Murray, s. v. bleaunt, and by Michel ^[50], who discusses the relation of blihant and bliaud and the origin of bliant. He notes the appearance also in old Swedish of blyanl in conjunction with baldakine as a material.

The form with ending ant is also found in O. L. G. Du Cange's statement, s. v. bliaudus, Cambro-Britannis, « bliand est sindon » is mentioned by Diez, p. 56, who translates sindon as feines Leinenzeug but, while recognizing the meaning « material » in Middle High German, Diez says das romanische wort scheint nur ein Kleidungsstück zu bezeichnen. Gaston Paris ^[51] also says bliaut ne veut jamais dire une étoffe quelconque. Given, however, the frequent contemporaneous appearance of the word in Middle High German as « material » it would seem strange if a like meaning should not occur in Old French. It does, in fact, so occur, as was recognized by Littré, who quotes, s. v. blaude, a passage from Berte as grand pied 592 :

Cote ot d'un blanc bliaut et mantel moult tres chier, (7)

Bartsch gives the same definition with reference to the same passage in the glossary of his Chreslomathie de l'ancien français, but this definition, which is still found in the glossary of Bartsch-Weise, Chrestomathie, 12th ed. is not supported by any other passages in this work. Winter, p. 59, also gives the definition kostbaren Stoff and adds another example (124) from a manuscript of the Loherains :

.j. mantel ot as espaules jetet
En un bliaut de Sarmadon ovret. (8)

Still another example is furnished by Gaston Paris himself in an article ^[52] on the meaning and origin of the word osterin. He quotes the following passage from an unpublished ms. of Les Lorrains ^[53].

Bien fu vestus d'un bliaut osterin
Un drap estrange, que firent Sarrasin ;
Mout en a poi en ceste nostre pais.

Gaston Paris interprets drap as referring to osterin, which he considers a noun ; but as osterin is frequently an adjective in our period in Old French ^[54] it is reasonable to consider that it is such here, and that the description un drap estrange refers to bliaut. This definition of bliaut is not given by Tobler, possibly on account of the paucity of examples known to him, but others can be quoted to support this sense :

(c 1180), C. de P., 1447 :

Adont osterent les bliaus,
Les singlatons et les cendaus. (9)

(a 1200), Chan. d'Ant., II, 258, ms. C. D. :

Moult tost sont li bliaut et li paile aporté,
Et li vair siglaton, et li samit roé. (10)

(a 1177), Alex. (Mch.), 60, 1 :

N'avoit en sa compagne si povre homme , je quit,
Qui n'ait vestu bliaut, rice drap u samit. (11)

(p 1200), Herv., 7880 :

D'un cier bliaut arrabiant saffré
Et d'un diaspre d'osterine fourré
A fait sa fille vestir et conraer. (12)

If we approached with an unbiased mind a passage such as

(c 1180), Perc. (B.), 7212 : Ed. Potvin, 8608 :

Les dameiseles de samiz
Furent vestues les plusors ;
Bliauz de diverses colors
Et dras de soie a or batus…
Avoit les plusors vestuz.  (13)

and judged the meaning of bliauz from the context merely, we should conclude that, like samiz and dras de soie, bliauz was a kind of material used for dresses, though Baist's glossary gives only the meaning Leibrock. The same meaning, « material », is found in a passage from Mainet, II, b, 67 :

Qui ne daigne vestir ne paile ne cende,
Mais bliaut ou samis a mailles d'or ouvré. (14)

Another passage, III, b, 85 reads :

Ainc vestir ne daigne ne pailes ne cendes,
Mais bliaus de samis a mailles d'or ovrés. (15)

but from analogy with other cases in which bliaut is found in a list of materials, the reading ou samis seems preferable to de samis.

In the following passage the interpretation of bliaut as « piece of cloth » rather than a dress, certainly is preferable :

(p 1206), Perc., 11903 :

Puis li ont sa plaie lavée
Et d'un bliaut moult bien bendée… (16)

Besides the above passages in which the meaning « material»is clear, there are others in which it fits the context better than « dress » would. The costly, highly prized materials which were frequently imported from the Orient are often mentioned :

(c 1180), C. de P., 299 :

Del bon samit qu'ele ot vestu… (17)

(p 1200), G. de B., 49 :

Fu richement vestu d'une porpre roée… (18)

(p 1170), Dest. R., 253 :

Vestu[e] d'un diapre… (19)

(1153-88), Part., 10693 :

Bien fu vestue Melior
De siglaton a cercle d'or. (20)

In expressions such as these, we immediately identify samit, porpre or diapre with some conception of cloth which we already have, and would not think any of them to be a certain style of dress. When we find then in Folque de Candie,

916 :

fu vestue d'une porpre roée… (21)

1834:

estroitement fu d'un samit vestuz… (22)

522:

fu vestue d'un vert bliaut d'Otrante… (23)

11228 :

fu mout bien vestue d'un bliaut de Castele. (24)

it seems reasonable on analogy with porpre and samit to consider bliaut a material also. The fact that the place of origin is mentioned is additional evidence that a material is meant, rather than a gown, for this is frequently given in the case of other materials. Esc.,4728: dras de Sire ; Folq., 11295 : un samin de Lambruz ; Cliges, 6069 : paile de Sulie ; Ales., 3153 : paile d'Aumarie, etc. ; consequently in the passages Chan. d'Ant. I,, 271 ; Esc. 661, 2353, 3037, 8641 : bliaut de Sire; Aye, 3702 : .i. bliaut d'Abilant ;Anseis, 1687: bliaut de Frise^[55], and(l) (8) (23) (24) above, (cf. also Winter, p. 59), these expressions seem more likely to mean « a kind of cloth imported from Syria, etc. » than to designate « a style of dress imported from Syria », especially in view of the fact that I have noted no other garments mentioned as imported. They were generally cut to measure and fitted after importation. (Cf. Introduction, p. 21).

We find then nine cases, where the meaning « material » is necessary for the word bliaut, as when contained in a list of other materials, and other cases where it is more suitable. There are of course many cases in which the meaning « garment » is imperative, i.e. in a list of other garments as :

(1172-76), Chron. N.;II, 26649 :

Manteaus, bliauz et peliçons… (25)

(c 1164), Erec, 1968 :

Manteaus et chauces et bliauz… (26)

(c 1200), Doon R., 25 :

Si lor donnoit mantiaus et bliauz bels et genz,
Et peliçons ermins et autres garnemenz. (27)

The transition from the material of which the garment was made to the garment itself, by extension, is not uncommon. It occurs in other cases, as bonet, a material, Floov., 1838, 2879, capel de bonet, Perc., 2129, 3972, which becomes later the cap, bonnet itself, and also siglaton, auqueton, souscanie, and English « jersey », originally materials, which later come to designate a certain garment. The reverse process has taken place with pallium, a mantle, becoming a costly material, paile. The extension of meaning of bliaut from material to garment does not appear to have taken place in Germany, though a closer investigation of Germanic sources would be necessary to ascertain this definitely. This double use is reflected in England, (cf. Murray, s. v. bleaunt). The English form bliant, Marie, Lanval 59, Guigemar 738, Yonec 442, found in ms. H, which was used in the text in Warnke's edition of Marie (1885), has been changed in the 1900 and 1925 editions to blialz. The form bliant is also found in Eracles 6190. In France bliaut was used with the meaning « dress » so frequently that a further qualification of material could be added, see the frequent expressions below, bliaut de cendal, etc.

II) Description of the bliaut as the court dress^[56] of a lady of rank are frequent in the texts. Enough details may be noted for us to be able, with the help of the illustrations to which the details correspond, to reconstruct a typical bliaut. Some of the details vary as noted below.

The lady's bliaut was an elaborate dress, of the costliest materials, with bands of embroidery at the high neck and at the wrists of the long sleeves, often lined with fur, cut in two parts as a rule, with a skirt (gironée) very long and full, and longwaisted bodice (le cors), adjusted closely to the figure by means of lacings (laz) at the sides. The sleeves vary in style from sleeves so wide and long that they almost touch the ground, to sleeves so tight that they have to be sewed over the forearm every time the dress is put on, (cf. s. v. manche.) An elaborate belt of silk and embroidery is worn knotted loosely at the very low waistline, and a brooch fastens the opening at the center neck. It was a dress which permitted exaggeration in many ways, in length of skirt and of sleeves, in lacing and in cost of materials. That the ladies of the period did not fail to avail themselves of its many possibilities is shown by the texts, by the invectives of the pulpit against these modes^[57] and by an amusing caricature^[58] of the Devil in ladies' dress.

The material of the bliaut was one of the costly, highly prized silks and satins or velvets imported from the Orient, often woven or embroidered with gold thread and decorated with precious stones^[59].

(1147-51), Gaimar, 3891 :

De altre tel paille ert son blialt… (1)

(1150-55), Thèbes, 937:

Lor bliaut furent d'orcassin… (2)

(c 1160), Enéas, 7638 :

Camille vestent de chemise
Et d'un blialt de baldekin. (3)

(c 1165), Troie, 13333 :

D'un drap de seie a or brosdé,
A riches uevres bien ovré,
Ot un bliaut forré d'hermine,
Lonc que par terre li traïne… (4)

1231 :

D'une porpre inde a or gotée,
Richement faite et bien ovrée,
Ot un bliaut forré d'ermines… (5)

(c 1170), Folq., 3574 :

…bliaut de cende… (6)

(a 1177), Alex., (Mch.), 451, 27 :

Biautes vest .i. bliaut, .i. mult cier garniment
A aigles de fin or issi menuement. (7)

(c 1180), Perc., 2990 :

Li mantiaus fu et ses bliaus
D'une porpre noire, estelée
D'or… (8)

(p 1206), Perc., 17911 :

D'une vert porpre avoit bliaut
Fouret d'ermine por le caut,
Si fu tailliés a sa mesure… (9)

16700 :

En bliaus de porpres moult beles… (10)

17838 :

…un rice bliaut d'or broudé… (11)

(c 1180), Raoul, 5567 :

…j. ver bliaut de siie… (12)

(a 1200), Aye, 57 :

…ele ot .i. bliaut d'orienne vestu… (13)

(Cf. Godefroy, orien : "adj. doré").

Aye, 915 :

…bliaut de porpre d'Aumarie. (14)

3702:

i. bliaut d'Abilant a oysiaus colorez,
De pieres precieuses fu tot entor orles. (15)

(p 1200), Elie, 1402 :

(Rosamonde)… vestu[e] ot un bliau d'un paile de Biterne… (16)

(p 1200), Herv., 1384 :

bliaut osterin…
9067 : bliaut de cendel… (17)

Cf. also below (24) (25) (26) (28) (33).

From the illustrations (see below), the material of the bodice appears often to have been a kind of silk jersey or crêpe which would mould to fit the figure, while that of the skirt was probably of a thin, supple material which could be easily gathered. In regard to this point see Viollet-le-Duc, III, 44.

The bands of gold embroidery mentioned in the description of the whole costume, Erec, 1597 (cited in the introduction, p. 17 ff,) are also found :

(a 1200), Biaus, 3279 :

… li blials qu'ele ot vestu,
Moult estoit ciers et bien ovrés,
D'une ermine fu tos forrés.
Plus de v. onces d'or, sans faille
Avoit entor le kieueçaille ;
(ed. Hippeau 3270 : kieuetaille).
As puins en ot plus de iiii onces ;
Par tot avoit asis jagonsses,
Et autres pieres de vertu
Qui furent deseur l'or batu. (18)

Cf. also s. v. orfrois.

The fur lining mentioned above, (4), (5), (9), (18), is also found :

(a 1204), Esc., 3290 :

.i. mout riche bliaut de Sire
Forré de vair, orlé d'ermine.. (19)

but when worn in summer :

(1174-90), Ipom., 2219 :

N'esteit pas furrez le bliauz,
Nel voleit pas pur le grant chauz.

7959 :

…un bliaut
N'ert pas furrez, trop fist grant chaut. (20)

Cf. also Biaus 3279 (cited by Viollet-le-Duc, III, 40 from Hippeau's edition), and s.v. forré.

From the illustrations of the period it is evident that the bliaut was often cut in two parts, a long-waisted bodice fitting the figure closely, and a very full skirt either gathered or laid in very small pleats and sewed to the bodice several inches below the natural waist line, the seam being concealed by a band of embroidery, cf. Enlart, fig. 23. From the texts we learn that the skirt was called la gironée, q. v., and the bodice was called li cors, q. v.

The skirt of the bliaut was long and formed a train on the ground, cf. (4) above and

(c 1165), Troie, 13336 :

(un bliaut) Lonc que par terre le traïne, (21)

(1190-1200), Trist. (B.), 3910 :

Mantel, bliaut, tot li traïne. (22)

(1174-90), Ipom., 7961 :

(un bliaut) Pres desk'à terre treinout. (23)

(1199), G. de D., 5190 :

La bele Aigline…
Si ot vestu un bliaut de cendel,
Qui granz ,ij. aunes traïnoit par les prez. (24)

For further discussion of this point see under traïn.

The waist fitted the figure closely :

(1190-1200), Trist. (B.), 1146 :

En un bliaut de paile bis
Estoit la dame, estroit vestu
E d'un fil d'or menu cosu. (25)

(c 1170), Folq., 3301 :

Ele fu grelle, boen fu ses cors vestuz
D'un vert bliaut de soie, estroiz cousuz. (26)

(c 1200), Doon R., 2003 :

Par desus .j. bliaut a fin or gironé
E fu estrois as lez, qui molt fist à loer. (27)

Cf. also Marie, Lanval, 58 (cited by Godefroy, s. v. bliaut).

The illustrations show this bodice to have been often very long-waisted, extending several inches below the natural waist line. Cf. fig. 5, 8c, 10a.

The adjustment to the figure was made by means of lacings on the sides, cf. s. v. laz (1), (3), (9), (13) and

(a 1140), Pr. d'O., 685 :

(Orable wears) un bliaut de samit
Estroit a laz par le cors qui bien sist. (28)

(a 1200), Athis, 2632 :

Estroitement vestue a laz… (le bliaut). (29)

(a 1167), Marie, Guigemar, 737 : (on a lady fainting)

…de son bliaut trencha les laz
Et la ceinture voleit ovrir. (30)

(cited by Viollet-le-Duc, III, 40). Cf. also Ogier 1021, (cited by Winter, 108).

This close adjustment by means of lacings revealed the slender, long waisted figure which was the ideal of beauty of the time, as is evident from the statues and the texts, Athis, 513, 2633 ; Gavin I, 298, 5 ; Enf. G., 1763.

The chemise was also laced on the side, cf. s. v. chemise (14-17), and this lacing corresponded to that of the bliaut so that the flesh showed through the openings. Cf. Enlart, p. 60 ; Quicherat, p. 185.

(1174-90), Ipom., 2217 :

…li bliauz…
De chef en chef lacé esteit ;
Sa nue char parmi pareit
Tut des la centure en amunt. (31)

7959:

De me[i]sme rout un bliaut,
N'ert pas furrez, trop fist grant chaut…
Pur le grant chaud avalé out
De ses espalles son mantel
E li cors pareit lunc e bel ;
La char blanche par mi les laz
Pareit des costez e des braz. (32)

Cf. also s. v. fresel (3), laz (21).

This custom, which appears strange to us, but which we must accept upon the testimony of the texts, is mentioned also in regard to other dresses, cf. s. v. laz, and extends over the second half of the century. A passage from Thèbes, earlier than any of the above, mentions it, although here it appears that the bliaut was slashed instead of laced, and that it was the only garment worn, the customary chemise being omitted, cf. chemise (34).

(1150-55), Thèbes, 3807 :

D'une porpre inde fu vestue
Tot senglement a sa char nue :
La blanche char desoz pareit.
Le bliauz detrenchiez esteit,
Par menue detrencheure
Entresqu'a val vers la ceinture (33)

(a 1177), Alex. (Mch.), 451, 22 :

Flore ot .i. bliaut. moult fu a son talent ;
Sa cors pert bele et tenre par le destranchement. (34)

For further details as to lacing see under laz.

For details in regard to the sleeves, which varied in cut, see under manche, for the belt under ceinture and baudré, for the brooch under afiche, fermail and nosche.

Epithets occasionally applied to the bliaut are gironé, engoulé, q. v. Bliaut entaillié, an epithet frequently applied to the man's bliaut, is found in reference to the lady's garment :

(c 1150), Floov., 435 :

Le XXX pucelles a bliaus entailez… (35)

Cf. also p. 58 and Winter (86).

The bliaut has always been assumed to be the very striking style of dress shown in the statue called Clotilde of Corbeil, to mention the best-known and most frequently copied example^[60], and by the queens of the twelfth century portal at Chartres^[61]. This assumption was made originally on very little evidence, mainly on the frequency of appearance of both the costume in the iconography and the word in the texts, but there is no doubt that it is correct, for all the details of the bliaut mentioned in the texts correspond to those of the dress as shown on these statues. Some details vary in the statues, as the cut of the sleeves or the belt ; but the most important features, i.e. the long full skirt, the long waisted bodice clinging to the figure, the bands of embroidery at the neck and wrists are the same. Other styles of dress were worn as well, but the bliaut type was so frequent and so striking that it has been generally adopted as the typical dress of the Middle Ages. For other illustrations, cf. fig. 5, 8c, 10 ; Viollet-le-Duc, III, 43 ; Schultz, I, fig. 45, 53 ; Demay, fig. 31. The dress is seen in France in the statues of the cathedrals of Chartres, Angers, Etampes, Le Mans, Bourges, Saint-Loup de Naud (Seine et Marne), Vézelay, Corbeil (now at St. Denis), Sainte Bénigne (destroyed, cf. fig. 5), Saint Germain des Prés (destroyed, reproduction in Willemin). In manuscripts: ms. of S. Alexis at Hildesheim^[62] ; Bib. S. Geneviève, Lat. 8, fol. 178 verso ; Nero C. IV, (reproduced in Strutt, op. cit Pl. XL.)

III) As a man's garment, we may adopt the definition tunique ajustée given by Gaston Paris, Rom., XVIII, (1889), p. 145.

It was worn by noblemen, with the armor, Rol., 2171, sometimes under it :

(1150-55), Thèbes, 1809:

L'aubers del dos fu toz desroz
Et li bliauz sanglenz desoz. (1)

(c 1165), Troie, 11107 :

Sor bliauz, sor peliçons vairs
Lacent heaumes, vestent haubers. (2)

(a 1200), Mort. A., 1973 :

Del dos li traient lo blanc auberc safré,
Et lo bliaut de paile gironé. (3)

sometimes over it, perhaps to prevent the armor from becoming hot in the rays of the sun :

(c 1165), Troie, 7353 :

Sor les haubers vestent bliauz.
Beaus fu li jorz, leva li chauz… (4)

11481 :

Sor son hauberc ot un bliaut
D'un drap de seie qui mout vaut. (5)

(1190-1200), Trist. (B), 2774 :

Souz son bliaut ot son hauberc. (6)

(p 1200), Elie, 2085 :

Puis li vest .i. auberc dont a or est la maille ;
Par deseure .i. bliaut qui li pent jusc'a tere. (7)

(p 1206), Perc., 18342 :

D'une porpre de Bonivent
Broudée a or ses bliaus fu
Qu'il ot sor son hauberc vestu. (8)

The bliaut was also worn by a nobleman as a court garment. It is described less frequently than the lady's, but seems to have had the same characteristics. It was of rich materials : Rol., 303 : de palie ; Enéas, 6393 : de paile ; Aspr., I, 414 : de soie, de palie, d'osterin ; I, 632 : de soie a fin or entissu ; Aq., 313 : de samis ; Ogier, 8615 : de paile ; 10691 : de cendel ; Mort A., 1550 : de paile alexandrin ; Doon N., p. 14 : de cendal ; cf. also (3), (5), (8), above; (13), (14), (15), below.

Several instances have been noted in which a man's bliaut is mentioned as of other than the most costly materials. One is Enf. G., 1962 : bliaut de chainsil ; the other passage in describing the costume of knights doing penance says they wear :

(a 1200), Aye, 2319 :

…vesteures trestout a lor deport…
Bliauz ont de coton porfendus lez les cors… (9)

Du Cange s. v. blialdus has several references from ecclesiastical sources to bliaudus fustaneus, blialdum de fustiano.

It was trimmed with bands of embroidery :

(1153-88), Part., 10609 :

Lor bliaut sont tuit d'or brodé
Al col et as poins bien paré… (10)

(c 1180), C. de P., 96 :

Et XXX damoisiaus cortois ;
Lor bliaut sont bende d'orfrois. (11)

(c 1200), Doon R., 1571 :

Et mistrent en lor dos les hermins engolez
Par desor les bliauz a fin or gironez. (12)

It was often, but not always, lined with fur : (p 1206), Perc., 16447 :

D'un drap de soie avoit bliaut,
Fourré d'ermine por le caut ;
N'est pas lons, mais lés est par pans
Si estoient moult bien séans… (13)

(1174-90), Ipom., 377 :

D'un purpre cendal iert vestu,
Mes pur le grant chaut, k'adonk(e) fu,
Li bliaus palfuré n'esteit. (read pas furé)… (14)

Cf. bliaut II, 20, 21.

It is not mentioned as cut in two parts as was the lady's, and the illustrations show that it was cut in one piece.

It is described as long, Aiol, 3719 : les bliaus trainans jusques as pies, and above (7), but also as short (13). The iconography shows it to have been as a rule shorter than the lady's bliaut.

The iconography also shows the waist of the man's bliaut to have been close fitting, and the texts say it was laced :

(p 1206), Perc, 19029 :

D'un samit vermel laceis
A .iii. boutons d'or giéteis
Estoit le bliaus qu'il vesti. (15)

Cf. also Huon, 3621.

The sleeves and the accessories, the belt and the brooch are not mentioned as frequently as in relation to the lady's costume, but in one case reference is made to sleeves closely fitted at the wrist :

(1160-70), Trist. (Th.), 441 :

… del bliaut…
Bien ert seant, al puin estreit. (16)

An epithet frequently applied to a man's bliaut is entailliez, appearing, according to Viollet-le-Duc, III, 50, at the end of the twelfth century, but found also as early as the middle of the century, Enf. G., 1905 ; Floov., 435, (cf. bliaut II, 35) ; cf. also Mainet, III, b, 60 ; Aspr., I, 216 ; Huon, 261. The meaning of entailliez in this connection is not certain^[63] but it probably means that the skirt was slashed or cut in points, as in the illustration in Herrad v. Landsberg, pl. IV, LVI, XV ter. Bliaus escarimant are referred to Pel., 337.

For further details as to the man's bliaut and for illustrations cf. Quicherat, 148 ; Viollet-le-Duc, III, 41 ; Enlart, 31.

The man's bliaut is occasionally incorrectly defined as vêtement de dessous as in the glossaries of Aiol, (ed. Raynaud), Thèbes, Escoufle, and by Tobler, as Untergewand, but there is no evidence in these texts to this effect, nor in the examples given by Tobler. The fact that it was worn under the armor, Thèbes 1809, cited as (1) above, does not indicate that it was a garment which was worn only under another vêtement de dessus when the armor was removed. In Aiol 8598 it is, in fact, mentioned as the last garment put on before the mantel.

Chemise et braie[s] blanche[s] li out fait endoser ;
Un peliçon hermin li ont el dos jeté
Et desore .i. bliau[t] a fin or pointuré ;
Puis li ont un mantel d'escarlate afublé. (17)

Tobler's second definition Ueberwurf, a definition given also by Meyer-Lubke^[64] and Korting^[65], is evidently used with the sense of this dialectical German word defined by Heyse^[66] landsch. ein leichtes bequemes Oberkleid. The more indefinite term Gewand used by Tobler farther on with reference to women, Gewand für Frauen would be preferable here as well. For illustrations, cf. fig. 6, Enlart, fig. 17.

BOTE, s. f.

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Botes are described by Godefroy, Comp. s. v. bote as chaussure en cuir, montante, qui enferme la jambe; qqf. chaussures de femme, and this opinion is also held by M. Enlart, cf. glossary and p. 266. Lacroix^[67] however thinks they are chaussures légères et commodes.

The new examples of bote noted in our period are of no aid in deciding this difference of opinion, both of which seem to have some justification from the other examples cited. Botes are worn by monks :

(a 1200), Aspr., 10572 :

Ainc creature ne sorent porpenser
Qu'i (in the abbey) lor falist ne bote ne soller. (1)

(p 1200), Aiol, 6577 :

Et fu d'une[s] grans botes d'abeie cauciés. (2)

Cf. also Aiol 1430, 1447, 6677 ; Doon R., 438 ; Mon. G., I, 543, chauces (10).

In one case a countess is doing penance :

(p 1200), Vie S. J. l'Hosp., 3077 :

… en langes, tote deschauce,
Sans botes, sans soller, sans chauce… (3)

It is possible that Godefroy's description is correct for the man's botes and Lacroix' for the lady's.

BOUCLE, s. f.

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Used with regard to costume, the boucle is the buckle of a belt. Cf. Viollet-le-Duc, III, 61 ; Enlart, 274 ; Schultz, I, 206.

Boucle is found as an ornament along with a list of other ornaments :

(c 1157), Brut, 10690 : Var.

Rices noches, rices fremaus,
Rices aniaus, rices çaintures,
Et les boucles d'or a paintures. (1)

(a 1200), Athis, 8620, Var. V. :

Aniaus, bocletes, afichez… (2)

When mentioned more specifically, it is as a belt buckle set with precious stones :

(c 1180), C. de P., 941 :

De soie avoit une çainture,
En le boucle avoit une piere,
Qui moult ert presieuse et chiere… (3)

(c 1200), Gal., 6891 :

Et d'un tyssu riche 1'a sainte
A boucle d'or, ouvré de neuf. (4)

The text of Galerent, 6937-39 is not correctly punctuated. It should read :

Es membres (of the belt) a plus de quatre uncez
D'or rouge, et en la boucle riche.
S'a noische dont elle s'afiche. (5)

The omission of the period after riche in Boucherie's edition of Galerent makes it appear as if the noische were in the boucle, but this is not possible, for the noische, q. v. was a brooch worn at the neck.

For other examples of boucle, cf. Marie, Guig. 573, (cited by Godefroy, Comp. s. v.) and membre (4).

The membre, espine and mordant are mentioned along with the buckle as parts of the belt. The espine, q. v. was probably the tongue, in which case boucle corresponds to the modern conception. Used with mordant, however, boucle may indicate a clasp. For further discussion of this point see s. v. mordant.

For illustrations cf. Enlart, fig. 291-293.

BOURRE, s. f.

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The term bourre occurring in G. d'A., 636, cf. s. v. farder (2) is defined by Foerster as Polster, Polsterung, i.e. « stuffing, padding ». It is used in this passage along with garmos and farder as an artificial aid to beauty. The iconography shows no evidences of padding used on the figure, such as one might assume that bourre meant, but a reasonable explanation may be found in the supposition that the sack-like envelope, cf. s. v. fourriaus, which sometimes covered the long braids of hair, cf. fig. 10b, Schultz, I, fig. 41 ; Strutt, I, pl. XXXVIII, was stuffed with false hair or some other kind of padding by ladies whose tresses lacked the abundance and length which was considered a sign of beauty. This supposition finds support in a thirteenth century text :

Rom. de la Rose, 13283 :

E s'ele voait dechoeir,
Don granz deaus serait a voeir,
Les beaus crins de sa teste blonde ;
Ou s'il couvient que l'en les tonde,
Pour aucune grant maladie,
Don beautez est tost enlaidie ;
Ou s'il avient que par courrouz
Les ait aucuns ribauz touz rouz
Si que de ceus ne puisse ouvrer,
Pour grosses treces recouvrer,
Face tant que l'en li aporte
Cheveus de quelque fame morte,
Ou de seie blonde bourreaus,
E boute tout en ses fourreaus.

BOUTON, s. m.

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In relation to dress, bouton is found in the modern sense of the word as used as an ornament or to fasten a garment. Cf. Enlart, 37, 247.

Boutons of gold or precious stones as decoration on articles other than clothes appear Chan. d'Ant., II, 263 ; Aspr., I, 1617 ; Conq. J., 5973 ; Folq., I, Anl., II, 6, 1324 ; Ales., 2585 ; Part., 10363 ; Gal., 441 ; Ipom., 2733, 5006 ; Prot., 4810. As an ornament on clothes :

(c 1160), Enéas, 4023 :

une sozceinte a or brosdée
Menuement ert botonnée. (studded with buttons) (1)

(a 1200), Aye, 3287 :

Cuirs aflubent de cerf a botons d'or desus. (2)

Cf. also chapel (6), treceor (9), (10), Perc., 19030 ; Mon. G., I,365 ; II,740; C. de P., 1336; Conq. J., 1614; Esc., 8954, Fils. Aym., 3621.

Buttons are definitely mentioned as used for fastening in

(a 1200), Athis, 6835 :

A boutons d'or li fu fermée
Soz le menton la colerée. (3)

(c 1200) Gal., 4791 :

Un surcot clos a boutons… (4)

cf. s. v. surcot.

In chainse (17), jupe (8), they may have been used either as an ornament or as a fastening.

Illustrations of buttons used as ornaments are shown by Enlart, fig. 269 ; a double button used as fastening at the neck, Enlart, fig. 267, of approximately the same date as the first mention of them in the texts for this purpose.

The expression ne valoir un bouton which occurs Mon. G., I, 884, II, 1916, 2646, 2662, 3961, 4262, 5640; Aspr., I, 5294 ; Cor. L., 1008, 1819 does not refer to boutons used as ornaments, as these were of great value, but in the sense as found :

(1170-90), Mon. G., II, 551 :

S'il m'ocioient, par le cors saint Ylaire
Vous n'en donriés pas un boton de haie. (5)

CEINTURE. s. f.

The ceinture is a belt worn with the dress. The elaborate and costly belts worn at this period have been described at length in the histories of costume, cf. Viollet-le-Duc, III, 104 ; Enlart, 273 ; Schultz, I, 204 ; Weinhold, II, 281. From the texts we have further evidence as to the materials, which were of silk, or similar fabrics embroidered in gold, and of orfrois :

(a 1200), Biaus, 5147 :

… une çainture de soie,
A or broudée tot entor ;
Si s'en estoit çainte a .i. tor… (1)

(a 1200), Athis, 14468 :

Un ceinturel qu'ele avoit ceint
D'or et de soie trop bien fet… (2)

Cf. the German version of Athis^* 67 :

Mit guotin gurtlin langin
beslagin mit goltspangin… (3)

(1199), G. de D., 4335^[68] :

… une ceinturete
Broudés d'or a escutiaus…. (4)

4810:

Savez-vos de quele feture
Cele ceinture estoit ouvrée?
El estoit de fin or broudée
A poissonez et a oisiaus. (5)

This embroidery might take the form of a portrait : (a 1204), Esc., 2060 :

Mout lor sot en une chainture
Portraire l'ami et 1'amie… (6)

In connection with portraits embroidered on materials, cf. Söhring, p. 611, p. 622.

The ornamentation is of silver :

(1199), G. de D., 1833 :

Sa ceinture d'argent ferrée… (7)

Cf. also Fier., 2019 (cited by Godefroy, s.v. singladoire); Ivain, 1891 ;Athis, 14626 ; Perc., 21440, and boucle, (1), (3), (4).

The illustrations show that the man's belt was often made of leather, but the woman's costume shows as a rule the twisted and knotted belt of silk (fig. 8b, Enlart, fig. 20-22). Since there are two specific words to denote a leather belt, coroie and baudré, q. v., it is possible that ceinture was not used for a leather belt. There is one case in which a distinction is made between a ceinture (of cloth ?) and a corroiete :

(1199), G. de D., 252 :

Et si li change sa ceinture
A une corroiete blanche… (8)

The illustrations show that the lady's belt was often wound twice around the waist and then tied in a loose knot, cf. Viollet-le-Duc, III, 107 ; Enlart, fig. 20-23 ; sometimes only once (1) above, and

(c 1164), Erec, 1649 :

Puis vest le bliaut, si se çaint,
D'un orfrois a un tor s'estraint… (9)

In the case of the tight fitting dresses, in which the belt was not needed to hold in the material at the waist, a sozceinte is mentioned as loosely tied :

(c 1160), Enéas, 4021 :

Vestue fu estreitement,
Desus fu ceinte laschement
D'un sozceinte a or brosdée… (10)

I have not noted porceint except in the passage mentioned by Godefroy, s. v.

The monuments show us that a belt was not always worn, or that if it was, it was often concealed by a fold of the dress. This is especially true of the eleventh century and the first part of the twelfth, cf. fig. 2 and Tapestry of Bayeux, reproduction by Montfaucon, II, p. 24, (1023). Ms. de Montecassin, Tav. XXXVI, XXXVIII, CXI, (a simple fold of cloth worn as a belt is shown Tav. XCVI, CIII) ; (c 1132) Vézelay, fig. 6 and the statues of Judith and Mary Magdalen. Later in the century, it is occasionally lacking, cf. fig. 10b, l1b, 12 ; Herrad v. Landsberg, pl. LIV, LVI ; Demay, fig. 31, but toward the middle of the century it is often worn in a very elaborate and costly form, cf. fig. 8a, Enlart fig. 20-23, 291, 292 ; Quicherat, 162 ; Viollet-le-Duc, III, 107.

It is of interest to make the following comparison between the statues and the texts : the belt does not appear on the statues of women on the capitals (c 1132) at Vézelay nor is it mentioned in the Roman de Troie, one of the earliest romances to describe a lady's costume in detail, 13325-13392 ; it is shown on the statues of the Portail Royal (c 1150) at Chartres^[69] in the style which corresponds to the description in (cll60) Enéas, cf.(10) above. This may be an argument for the priority of Troie to Enéas, the possibility of which has been under discussion^[70]. For the appearance of the leather belt in the illustrations cf. s. v. coroie.

CERCLE, s. m.

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The cercle, cercel, cercelet was a chaplet of gold, worn by a lady of high rank as an ornament, and to hold the hair in place. Cf. Winter, p. 44 ; Enlart, p. 178.

(1174-90), Ipom., 2227 :

Entur sun chef out un cercel,
De fin or ovré ben e bel,
Ke ses cheveus ensemble tint… (1)

It appears sometimes to have been a simple band of gold.

(c 1160), Enéas, Ms. G. F. D., p. 391 :

D'un cercle d'or fu coronée… (2)

(c 1180), Perc., (B.) 7865 :

Sor son chief un cercelet d'or… (3)

(1190-1200), Trist. (B.), 3913 :

Un cercle d'or out sor son chief… (4)

(a 1200), Biaus, 145 :

En son chief ot un cercle d'or… (5)

Very often it was set with jewels, in which case it is practically a crown, though not always used as the insignia of royalty :

(c 1200), Gal., 2013 :

D'une cercle non guaires lée,
Ouvrée a pierres et a flours,
D'or et d'asur et de couleurs,
Tient les cheveux, ce m'est advis,
Qu'il ne lui voisent vers le vis. (6)

6888:

Puis li a sur sa sore teste
Une cercle estroicte d'or mise,
Ou il [a] mainte pierre assise,
Rubiz et esmeraudez mainte. (7)

(a 1200), Athis, 6915 :

Un cercle d'or petit, estroit,
Qui de pierres porpris estoit
Ot an son chief la dameisele… (8)

497:

An son chief ot un cercle d'or…
De riches pierres precieuses…
Ert li cercles antor porpris… (9)

(a 1200), Aye, 3704 :

Et fu d'un cercle d'or son chief avironnez
A riches esmeraudes qui getent grant clartez. (10)

(a 1200), Saisnes, LXIX, 1 :

Un cercle ot en son chief, qui porte médecine
Car les pierres en valent d'argent plaine une mine… (11)

(c 1165), Troie, 14771 :

L'image ot son chief coroné
D'un cercle d'or mout bien ovré
O esmeraudes, o rubis… (12)

Cercle, in this passage, is correctly defined in the glossary of Troie as diadème, but in the passage :

14699 :

… se lor mantel
Lor estoit bien e lor cercel
E lor guimples e lor fermal. (13)

it is translated as boucle de cheveux, though it should be as above « diadem » or « chaplet ».

In three cases the cercle or cercelet is of orfrois, which makes it synonymous with one meaning of chapel, q. v.

(c 1180), C. de P., 950 :

Sor le blonde crine luisant…
Si ot. i. cercle a or batu. (14)

(a 1204), Esc., 3300 :

.i. cercelet petit d'orfrois
Ot en son chief en liu de gimple. (15)

Chrétien makes the band of orfrois synonymous with corone, indicating that there was not a sharp distinction between the words :

(c 1180), Perc., 8046 :

D'un cerkelet estroit d'orfrois
Ot fait entor son cief corone. (16)

Cf. (2) above and under galoné and bendé.

Gay considers the cercle to have been a wreath of flowers as well as a chaplet of gold or ribbon, but it is probable that in the two cases where flowers are mentioned, (6) above and

(c 1164), Erec, 1659 :

Un cercelet ovré a flors
De mainte diverses colors
Les puceles el chief li metent. (17)

a design of flowers worked in the metal is meant. This is supported by the reading of ms. C : un cercle d'or ; ms. H reads uns laceles ovres. In regard to this point of flower designs executed in gold and gems, cf. Söhring, op. cit., § 61.

For illustrations of the cercle cf. fig. 5, ; Enlart, fig. 20-24 ; Quicherat, p. 188 (thirteenth century). The cercle in its most elaborate form as a crown is frequently seen as in fig. 7 ; in the simpler form it is rare in the illustrations, as it is usually concealed by the mantel worn over the head.

CHAINSE, s. m.

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The chainse was a dress of washable material. It was laid in pleats, and long. Other facts to be noted in regard to it are that at this period it was not synonymous with chemise, but distinct from the chemise and worn over it ; nor was it a dress worn under the bliaut, but an outer dress, worn as a house dress or at court ; also that it was more specifically a woman's dress, though there is one case where it is mentioned as worn by a man.

The chainse is mentioned in the texts as being freshly washed :

(c 1155), Sept Sages, 2624 :

La dame ot un cainse vestu
Noviel lavé et ridés fu. (1)

(p 1185). Orson, 624 : (man's dress)

Un peliçon vesti derout et depané
Et par desor un chainse, ne fu piece a lavez. (2)

The view that the chainse was made of washable material is supported also by the very frequent references to chainses blancs, which convey the idea that they were of linen or a similar material. We have, moreover, not a single clear reference to a chainse being made of wool or silk, which would not be easily washable. Chainse blanc is mentioned Erec, 405, 1075, 1355, 1382, 1569, 1633 ;

Marie, Lanval, 565 ; Perc., 38038 ; (5), (7), (8), (9), below. The passage

(1199), G. de D., 3252 :

La dame…
…n'ama onques chainse sale. (3)

also indicates that the chainse was of linen, as this becomes soiled more quickly than silk or wool.

This material was one which lent itself readily to pleating, probably by ironing after being washed :

(c 1159), Rich., 477 :

0 prist ele si bon mantel
Et cel chainse ridé novel,
Qui si traïne ? (4)

(1153-88), Part., 8004 :

…blans cainses ridés… (5)

(1199), G. de D., 194 :

…jamès… ne verrai…
… tante dame estroite a laz,
en chainses ridez lor biauz cors… (6)

See also (1) above, (8) below.

Like all ladies' dresses of this period, it was very long, (4) above and :

(c 1200), Ombre, 314 :

Un chainsse blanc et deliié
Ot vestu la preus, la cortoise,
Qui trainoit pres d'une toise… (7)

Some erroneous opinions in regard to chainse need discussion. Viollet-le-Duc, III, 173 considers it as identical with the chemise, as do Racinet, Glos. s. v. chemise and Enlart, Glos. s. v. Chemise and p. 25, but it is specifically mentioned as a separate dress worn with the chemise :

(c 1164), Erec, 402 :

Et sa fille qui fu vestue
D'une chemise par panz lée,
Deliée, blanche et ridée ;
Un blanc chainse ot vestu dessus ;
N'avoit robe ne mains ne plus. (8)

(this last line does not mean that it was unusual for her to appear in a chainse, but rather that she was not wearing a mantel as was customary, see s. v. mantel)

(c 1164), Erec, 1382 :

An blanc chainse et en sa chemise… (9)

(a 1200), A. et Y., 3275 :

Ydoine s'est desafublée
A tere a sa cape jetée
En cainse remest seulement,
Et en cemise sainglement. (10)

(Cited by Gay). Quicherat, p. 147, p. 163, also considered the chainse an undergarment, and thought that it was worn under the bliaut, showing only at the sleeves and neck. His only reference to the texts is Ainsi l'on voit la Béatrice du roman de Raoul de Cambrai s'habiller successivement du chainse, du pelisson, et du bliaud, for which he does not give the exact reference. There is only one manuscript of Raoul de Cambrai, of which there have been two editions, that of Le Glay, in 1840, probably the one used by Quicherat, and that of Meyer and Longnon^[71] which contains the variants from Fauchet's copy of a since lost manuscript. In both the editions the passage to which Quicherat must refer reads : ed. Le Glay, p. 218 ; ed. Meyer et Longnon I.5561 :

Li sors G. a une belle fille…
Qant ot novele de la chevalerie…
Lors a vestu .j. peliçon d'ermine,
Et par deseur .j. ver bliaut de siie. (11)

and there is no mention of a chainse here or elsewhere in the story in either edition. Quicherat's assumption that the chainse was worn under the bliaut, which has been followed by others^[72] is based therefore on a mistaken quotation. He was probably led into this error by the desire to give a name to the garment worn under the bliaut, showing at the neck, sleeves and often at the hem, which we are justified in identifying as the chemise. But whatever this under garment was called, there is no authority for thinking it the chainse, which is never mentioned as worn under another dress, but which was rather an outer dress interchangeable with the bliaut.

Quicherat's opinion that the chainse was an undergarment has already been disputed by Schultz,I, 192, who quotes, however, for the twelfth century, only the passage from Erec, (8) above. Other passages from Erec can be mentioned in confirmation of Schultz' statement that the chainse was not an undergament. Enid arrives at court wearing :

1569 :

Cest blanc chainse, tant que as cotes
An sont andeus les manches rotes. (12)

The queen offers her a new bliaut, described at length, cf. introduction, p. 17, saying :

1635 :

Ma damoiselle, a cest bliaut,
Qui plus de çant mars d'arjant vaut,
os covient cest chainse changier… (13)

She accepts :

1645 :

La a son chainse desvestu…
Puis vest le bliaut, si se çaint… (14)

Moreover, the following texts give additional evidence that the chainse was an outer garment. When Aelis goes to court :

(a 1204), Esc, 5650 :

D'un chainse a pointes bien asises
Estoit la pucele vestue… (15)

In (1199), G. de D., 301, a song is sung after dinner to the assembled company by

Une pucele secorcie
D'un trop biau chainze… (16)

(cited by Godefroy from the manuscript). It is obviously impossible for the chainse to be anything but an outer dress, in these cases. It is worn as a house dress by Lu-siane :

(p 1200), Aiol, 2105 :

Adont vint la pucele par la maison
Rebracie d'un cai[n]se fait a boton. (17)

Cf. also Anseis, 7486.

The only garment worn over it was the mantel, (4) above, or the cape (10), a further proof that it was an' outer dress, not an undergarment. It is worn with the pelice :

(1190-95), Pr. de C., 895 :

La gentis dame ne s'an atarge mie,
Halce lo chainse et lieve la pelice,
Feurs do palais s'an torne la meschine… (18)

but in (2) above it is definitely said to be worn over the peliçon.

M. Servois in the Glossary to his edition of Guillaume de Dole has also noted the chainse as a garment worn over others, but his definition for the passages quoted above (3), (6), (16), vêtement de femme qui se porte par-dessus les autres, is indefinite, as by vêtement we might understand either a dress or a wrap. Also the definition of M. Bédier in the glossary to his edition of Lai de l'Ombre is misleading when he calls it, in the passage cited as (7) above, tunique légère qui se portait par-dessus la robe, for this implies that the chainse was a superfluous garment which could be removed, and the lady still be fully dressed, whereas as a matter of fact it was la robe, the dress itself.

All the above passages with the exception of (2), refer to the chainse as a woman's dress.

The remaining examples add little information. For chainses gironez, (a 1200), Mort A. 2386 cf. s. v. gironé. It was worn under more varying conditions than the elaborate bliaut, for while it is mentioned as a court dress in (15), (16) above, and as a luxurious dress :

(a 1200) Ver. d. j. (B), 40 :

tant enbrache richeises, et cheinses et trains

(cf. also 32B,196B),it is a work dress in (17), since Lusiane has her sleeves rolled up, and a poor garment in Erec, (12-14). In (4) it is worn by a bourgeoise. The chainse seems to have been less elaborate than the bliaut, as embroidery at the neck and sleeves, and elaborate sleeves and belt are not mentioned in connection with it, as they so frequently are in describing the bliaut. In the following passage :

(c 1155) S. S. 1293 :

Ains ne regarderent mantel,
Cote, ne caisse, ne drapiel… (19)

it is possible that the reading for caisse should be cainse. This passage is quoted by Godefroy (Complément) under caisse, which is defined as coffre de bois.

Taking the adjective ridé used in five different texts, cf. (1), (4), (5), (6), (8), as the identifying trait, we may find a representation of the chainse at Vézelay, (fig. 6), in the dress worn by Bathsheba. The dress worn by the queen in fig. 8b, which appears to be laid in fine pleats from neck to waist, may also be a chainse. Both of these examples, Vézelay, (p 1132), Angers, (c 1160), are of about the same date as the earliest appearances of the word in Richeut and Sept Sages.

CHAINSIL, s. m.

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Chainsil is treated here because various scholars (see below) have erroneously considered it as the name of a garment, as well as the material of which the garment was made. As is generally recognized, chainsil was a kind of material which we find used a) as a winding sheet, b) for bed coverings, or c) for garments:

a) (a 1000), Pass., 86 : (cited by Godefroy).

En sos chamsils l'envolopat. (1)

b) (a 1204), Esc., 1772 :

En piors dras que de chainsil
Nel daignoit couchier la norrice. (2)

(Cited by Godefroy from the manuscript, Ars. 3319).

c) (c 1180), Perc., (B.) 1577 :

Chemise et braies de chainsil… (3)

(a 1200), Athis, 8669 :

…chemise de cheinsil… (4)

(1174-90), Ipom., 6532 :

…chemise
D'un blanc cheinsil mut delié… (5)

(p 1200), Aiol, 9822 :

II ot chemises et braies d'un cai[n]sil afloré. (6)

(a 1200), A. et Y., 1468 :

…mances
De cainsil, ridées et blances… (7)

Cf. also s. v. chemise (9), A et Y., 1358.

From the facts that chainsil was especially used as the material for the chemise (see also the examples in Godefroy, s. v. chainsil) and that it is frequently mentioned as white, it has been assumed that chainsil was a kind of linen^[73]. This assumption is strengthened by the fact that it was washable :

(1172-76), Chr. N., 31224 :

Denz le ruissel d'un fontenil
Ou en blanchissait un cheinsil… (8)

The texture of the linen was fine and soft, so that it was highly prized :

(a 1200), Athis, 8617 :

…chensis blancs, deliez. (9)

Cf. (2), (5), and s. v. chemise (9).

Du Cange states that M. L. camisile, q. v. was a Vestis species, eadem quae Alba, seu camisia vel certe tela quaevis linea aut cannabina. A closer investigation of the Middle Latin texts would be necessary to ascertain if the form with the suffix — il — did designate the garment itself, as well as the material of which the garment might be made. In any case, the differentiation between chainse for a garment, and chainsil for material is clear in our period. Godefroy's second definition of chainsil, par extension, diverses choses faites de toile ou de tin, comme chemise, jupon, peignoir, voile, nappe, is not justified by his four examples, in each of which the idea of chainsil as a piece of material is more suitable than any of the meanings he suggests. The reading chainsil for Lanval 565 in Warnke's first edition, 1885, of the Lais of Marie de France has been changed to the preferable reading chainse in the editions of 1900 and 1925.

The passage Alex., ms. 789, 1.1000 is emended by Meyer to read : Il eut chemise et braies d'un cainse bien lavés, but he gives the ms. reading as cainsu. The emendation cainsil from analogy with (3) (6), above would be preferable.

The translation in the glossary of Michelant's edition of Alex., 475, 30 :

Ne li vaut la ventalle plus d'un cansil délié. (10)

for cansil is tige de chanvre, but the meaning given above, « thin piece of linen », is evidently preferable.

CHAPE, s. f.

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The chape was a wide cape with a hood, worn by both sexes and all classes on a journey and for protection against the weather.

As a costly ecclesiastical garment the chape will not be discussed here^[74].

Monks wear the chape as a wrap, as well as a liturgical garment :

(c 1050), Vie S. Alex., 582 :

Clerc revestut en albes et en chapes…

Mon. G., I, 153, II, 539 ; Cor. L., 442, 458 ; Perc. (B.), 2905 ; Trist. (B.), 2982. A thief loses his cape at a game of dice at an inn, Jeu S. N., 825 ; soldiers wear it to conceal or protect their armor, Cor. L., 274, 1341,1349; Pel., 636 ; pilgrims, Fils Aim., 9490 ; a king on a sea voyage, Alex., (ms. 789), 543 ; chevaliers on a journey, Rou, II, 3619.

It is more especially a garment of the lower classes, as the mantel is of the nobility :

(1170-90), Mon. G., II, 6338 :

… Bernars est entrés en la maison,
En sa capete, si come povres home. (1)

(c 1164), Erec, 6537 :

As povres clers et as provoires
Dona, que droiz fu, chapes noires
Et chaudes pelices dessoz. (2)

Worn by the lower classes it was of cheap material, cf. chaperon (5) and

(1190-1200), Trist. (B.), 3575 :

Une chape de burel lee… (3)

When adopted by noblemen it is of material better, though less costly, than that of the mantel, as it underwent a harder usage :

(c 1165), Troie, 18341 : (the Duke of Athens)

D'une chape d'un drap en graine —
Onc si buens ne fu faiz de laine —
Traist ariere le chaperon… (4)

(p 1206), Perc., 20863 :

…demanda
Une cape, si l'affubla
D'escarlate et de cisemus. (5)

In Chron. N., 28529 a viez chape senz manjoz is mentioned ; it is probable that, as Godefroy thinks, (s. v. manjot) senz manjoz means « sleeveless » and that chapes were occasionnally provided with sleeves of some sort, though these do not appear in the twelfth century illustrations. Cappas manicatas are mentioned in a decree of the Lateran Council in 1215^[75].

A rain cape is mentioned several times : chape a pluie, G. d'A., 1634 ; Part., 5126 ; Vie S. Th., 5948 ; A. et Y. (lady), 3234 ; chape a aige (man and woman both) Esc., 3583 ; cf. s. v. cote (3).

It was sometimes lined : (c 1200) Fils A., 4320 : une grant cape fourée. A. et Y., 3788, (cited by Viollet-le-Duc, III, 94).

The chape is also mentioned in the following passages : Trist. (B.) 1254, 3859, 3967, 4407, 4427 ; Aiol, 6678 ; Rou, II, 1240 ; G. de D., 1816.

That the hood was an essential part of the chape is shown by the sayings :

(c 1200), Prov. vil., 132 :

Mai fait la chape qui ne fait le chaperon.

99:

Qui boit sa chape atout le chaperon… (6)

and the description of a clever fellow :

(c 1200), Ren., VI, 486 :

sens caperon set taillier cape. (7)

For discussion of the chaperon see under that word.

A lady's chape was similar to the man's ; it also had a chaperon.

(1190-95), Pr. de C., 1236 :

…afublée la chaspe de Palerne ;
Li chaperons l'an sist bien en la teste. (8)

When the wide chape was wrapped around her, and the hood drawn over her face, a lady was well disguised :

(c 1155 ?), S. S., 4560 :

Une chape avoit afublée,
Au miels que pot s'est desgisée. (9)

(c 1200), Gal., 6687 :

…s'ont chappes perses.
A leur chemin se sont aerses,
En semblance de pelerines… (10)

It was the garment worn on a journey on horseback :

(c 1200), Gal., 4099 :

Au monter a Fresne plouré…
D'une chappe s'est affublée
D'un pers drap de Flandres moult chier. (11)

Aelis' riding cape has an opening in the sleeve, through which she passes her arm :

(a 1204), Esc., 7992 :

Jamais ne cuit que nus hom voie
Si tres bele rien a cheval :
Son caperon out trait aval,
Ourlé de seble, plain d'ermine.
La cape n'estoit pas sanguine
Ains ert d'escarlate vermeille…

8012:

Sa cape ert a la manche overte
Par ou elle tient son bras fors… (12)

The chape is also mentioned as a woman's garment in the following passages : Ors., 2017 ; Esc., 4001, 5009 ; Hav., 505 ; A. et Y., 3275.

In a MHG text the cape is of one color, the hood of another :

(c 1170), Trist. (E.v.O.), 8232 :

zwo rôte korze kappen
trugen die garzûne, (girls disguised as boys)
n wârin die schapperûne
von gelwem fritschâle. (13)

A passage from

(1147-51), Gaimar, 3887 :

Une chape out de neire suale,
Ke li trainat en la sale.
De suz aveit un mantelet…
De altre tel paille ert son blialt… (14)

is curious because both a chape and a mantelet are worn over the bliaut, but an illustration of this can be found Bib. Nat. lat. 8878, fol. 52.

In the sense of a complete covering the word is used figuratively, la cape del ciel, Rol., 545 ; Cor. L., 220 ; Mon. G. I, 319 ; II, 758, 6513.

(c 1170), Lanc., 4561 :

Que la nuiz mout noire et oscure
L'ot mis dessoz sa coverture
Et dessoz sa chape afublé. (15)

(1194-97), Vers M. XXXI, 4 :

Morz fait a toz d'isembrun chape… (16)

For discussion of the cape in Old English, cf. Stroebe, p. 24.

It is difficult in the illustrations always to distinguish between the mantel and the chape. The mantel, from the ninth to the eleventh centuries, was worn over the head, (cf. Enlart, fig. 7, 8, 19 ; Quicherat, 117) a fashion which still continues in the twelfth century, cf. fig. 7, though not so universal. When it is shown as a handsome garment, ornamented with embroidered bands, as in fig. 5, 7, 8, it may be considered to be the mantel, as the chape is never described as trimmed, but was a wrap for utility, rather than for dress. As the chape is specifically mentioned as the garment worn on a journey, there is no difficulty in identifying it with the cape shown in fig. 3. Here the circular hood is cut separately ; the chape is worn thrown back, and is shorter than the dress.

A wrap is often shown in which there has been cut a circular opening framing the face ; this part of the garment then forms a kind of chaperon, Enlart, fig. 6. It is probable, however, that the later chaperon proper was cut separately and sewed to the chape at the neck line, thus staying in place better than in the earlier cases discussed above, where there would be a constant pull on the head covering from the heavy material beneath. A hood cut separate from the cape and of a different color appears on the wrap worn by Job's wife, fig. 9. Cf. also Herrad v. Landsberg, pl. LIV, LVI.

In the frescoes at Saint Savin^[76] all three types appear contemporaneously, i.e. 1) a straight piece of goods with one edge worn over the head; 2) a straight piece with an opening which frames the face and covers the head; 3) a wrap cut in two parts, cape and hood, sewed together at the back of the neck. (1) we may identify as a mantel, (3) is undoubtedly the chape, (2) might be either one.

A monk's chape and chaperon in a simple form are shown on the capital of the seventh pillar at Vézelay, and the most elaborate form, with pointed hood and half sleeves (cappa manicata) in the XIIth century in Herrad v. Landsberg, VIII, pl. LVIII. Cf. also Quicherat, p. 150, 169 ; Enlart, fig. 34. The restoration by Viollet-le-Duc, IV, 179, of a garment called by him a peliçon corresponds rather to the description above (12) of a sleeved cape.

CHAPEL, s. m. ; CHAPELET, s. m.

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The chapel or chapelet was 1) a wreath of flowers, 2). a chaplet of metal or ribbon, 3) a hat.

1) A chapel of flowers is worn by a lady :

(1199), G. de D., 3416 :

En son chief ot chapel
De roses frès novel… (1)

(a 1200), Biaus, 2243 :

De roses avoit .i. capiel… (2)

(a 1204), Esc., 4332 :

Des flors qu'il truevent li fait tel
Chapelet qui mout li avient. (3)

It is worn by a man, G. de D., 949, Ombre, 282, Gal., 2051, and in one case, Biaus 1710, on the helmet.

2) The usual word for a chaplet or small crown of gold is cercle, q. v. but the diminutive chapelet in this sense is occasionally found

(a 1200), Garin, I, p. 298, 8 :

Sor ses espaules li gisent si blon crin ;
En son chief ot un chapelet petit
D'or et de pieres qui mout bien li avint. (4)

(1199), G. de D., 198 :

S'ont chevex ondoianz et sors,
Chapelez d'or a clers rubiz. (5)

A knight is described :

(1199), G. de D., 2193 :

De pesne (?) de boutons dorée
Avoit .j. trop beau chapelet. (6)

The word occurs also Gal., 4555 ; Ogier (capelet), 1030 ; Athis, 10399 ; and cf. intro., p. 9, bende 17 ; Winter, p. 43 ; Enlart, Glos. s. v. chapeau, and chapel.

The French word chapel was adopted in Middle High German in the form schapel to indicate a wreath of flowers or a circle of gold or orfrois. Cf. Weinhold, II, 317 ; Schultz, I, 181 ; and Parzival (W.v.E.) 232, 16 ; 234, 11 ; 776, 7.

3) As worn by men, the word chapel indicates a helmet, chapeaus de fer, Troie, 9536, cf. s. v. chaperon (1) and Gay, s. v. chapel d'armes and also a hat : chapel sebelin, Aspr., I, 4138 ; Perc., 4266 ; Doon R., 1948 ; chapel de feutre, Raoul 7161 ; Anseis 8077, 9143 ; Herv., 3923 ; G. de B., 3076 ; chapel de fueilles, Conq. J. 1614 ; chapel ostarin, Mort Aim., 1552 ; chapel de bonet, Perc., 2129, 3972, 12646 ; chapel a bogrois Folq., 10818 ; (chapeaus) faiz de la plume d'uns oiseaus, Troie 6228 ; (7) (11)^[77].

References to the chapel as a lady's hat are rare, but at least three occur, all toward the end of the century. The earliest reference is probably that in Alex. (Mch.), 456, 29 : (speaking of the queen and her ladies, who are on horseback) :

Capiaus ont sebelin por le caut qui n'es broie… (7)

As a protection in the summer they are mentioned not only here but also :

(a 1200), Biaus, 3959 :

En son cief avoit .i. capiel,
Qu'ele portait por le calor;
Ovrés fu de mainte color,
D'inde, de vert, de blanc, de bis ;
Bien li gardoit del caut le vis ;
Portrais i avoit oisials d'or. (8)

(1174-90), Ipom., 2731 :

E pur la hadle out un chapel
De fresaus aturné mut bel,
A or purtreit, a beaus butuns… (9)

In the French versions of Athis, Perceval and Era-clius hats are not mentioned, but they are in the Middle High German paraphrases of these texts :

(1200-1210), Ath. u. Pr. C*72 :

truogins ûf ir huote
daz sie nine virblichin. (10)

(c 1204), Parz., 313,10 :

Von Lunders ein pfaewîn huot
gefurriert mit einem blîalt. (11)

(c 1204), Erac., (Otte) 3816 :

sie fuorte ûf einen huot
von vedern, wîz sam em snê…
er was lieht unde breit
und mit golde wol beleit
ûzen unde innen. (12)

The twelfth century iconography does not show hats as worn by ladies. The earliest illustration which I have noted is in (a 1300) ms. Bib. Nat. 8846, fol. 102. For illustrations of men's hats cf. Viollet-le-Duc, III, 123. The cap worn by Job, fig. 9, may be a chapel de bonet.

CHAPERON, s. m.

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The chaperon was a hood attached to the chape, also a short chape (?).

The meaning « hood » is the usual one in the twelfth century. As has been said, it was a part of the chape, q. v. When the latter was worn over the armor, the chaperon was drawn over the helmet :

(c 1165), Troie, 9536:

Chapeaus de fer et chaperons
De drap de seie nues et freis… (1)

13995 :

Et en son heaume un chaperon
Plus blanc que neif, d'un amiton,
Dont les langues batent a val
Par son la crope del cheval… (2)

In the above case it was long and supplied with streamers ; in another it is wide :

(c 1130), Cor. L., 475 :

Parlez à mei, sire al chaperon large… (3)

It is especially noted as worn by monks : (1170-90), Mon. G., II, 567, 1401, 1973, who are called la gent chaperunee ; (a 1200), Vie S. Th., 5449, 5706.

There are no other details in regard to it, except that a lady's chaperon is lined with ermine and edged with sable, cf. under chape (12). The word occurs also (as applied to men) Trist. (B.) 4409; Troie, 18343 ;Perc., 7618.

A lady draws the chaperon over her guimple so that she will not be recognized, Gal. 6717. She was then embrunchée. Cf. also Vie S. Th., 217, enchaperoné. The two are mentioned in G. de D., 4233 : embrunche et enchaperonée. A person well wrapped up in a chape with the chaperon drawn over the face was said to be enbrunchié, enbuschié, enbrunc, though in (4) below the adjective seems rather to mean « gloomy » and in (6) its meaning is uncertain.

(a 1200), Gar., II, p. 130, 1 :

Ostez vos chape, li quens Fromont a dit,
Molt vos vois ore enbrunchiés et pensis. (4)

(1172-76), Chr. N., 27018 :

La fu alez li dux en chace…
En un chape de burel
Se fu Guillaumes enbuschiez. (5)

(c 1170), Vie S. Gil., 2559 :

Clinent les ches et sunt enbruns…
Plurent desuz lur chaperuns. (6)

Cf. also Rou, II, 3619, III, 1021 ; Alex. (Mch.) 450, 22, and Godefroy, s. v. embronc, embronchier.

Embrunchié is also applied to a lady whose guimple is drawn over her face, cf. s. v. guimple, (7), (9).

In some cases where the chaperon is mentioned

(a 1200), R. le D., 1371 :

… cote a caperon,
Qui li va outre l'esperon, (7)

(c 1200), Fils A., 14486 :

Cote de burel… a tot le chaperon… (8)

it is not clear whether the caperon was a hood attached to the cote or whether it may here mean a small cape, as possibly also in (c 1180), Perc., 1697, where Tristan wears :

… cote e chaperon
Clos de cuir de cers environ. (9)

Here Baist's reading 484 : D'un cuir de cerf clos environ is preferable.

It is true that chaperon later meant « small cape », but I have found before 1200 no other instances than the three above where the meaning « hood » is not imperative, and for that reason it seems probable that a hood was occasionally attached to the cote, and that the use of chaperon to designate a small cape had not yet begun.

For illustrations of the chaperon, cf. s. v. chape.

CHAUCES, s. f. pl. ; CHAUÇON, s. m. ; CHAUCEUR, s. f.

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Chauces are defined by Enlart, Glos. s. v. chausses as vêtement collant couvrant le pied et la jambe. This definition is not very precise, but, as Winter has pointed out, p. 13, the chauces were stockings, worn under the shoes, from which they are sharply distinguished. Godefroy's definition, Comp., s. v. chalce as culotte, caleçon is incorrect, for the culotte is called braies in Old French, and the texts clearly distinguish between chalces and braies, as in

(a 1200), Alex., (ms. Ars.), 244 :

Braies li porta e chauçons ben cosuz,
Chauces de paile e solerez aguz. (1)

(c 1180) Perc., 1694 :

… braies faites a la guise
De Gales u l'en fet ensemble
Braies et cauces, ce me semble. (2)

This second passage proves the inaccuracy of Gay's definition applied to chauces in general: La partie du costume masculin couvrant le corps, de la ceinture aux pieds, for the style here described, while evidently existing, is described as provincial and old fashioned.

Chauces are again distinguished from shoes in

(a 1140), Pt. d'O., 77 :

Chauces de soie, sollers de cordoan. (3)

(cited by Viollet-le-Duc, III, 153).

(a 1200), Aspr., 7727 :

Cauces de palie, de cordoan soller… (4)

J. de B., 1495, (cited by Winter [1]) ;Mon. G., II, 3619.

Although woven stockings already existed at this period, along with those made of cloth, according to M. Enlart, (Glos. s. v. chausses), in the texts they are only mentioned as made of silk, cf. (3) above, siglaton or paile :

(c 1160), Enéas, 4025 :

Chalciée fu d'un siglaton… (5)

Chauces de paile, Trist. (B.), 3729; Alesc., 7596; Thèbes, 5782, cf. also (4), (6), (7). Chauces de brun paile seem to have been fashionable towards the end of the twelfth century, for they are mentioned Gal., 2056 ; Fils Aym., 3621, 3727, 4389 ; Doon N., 25, and as worn by a lady Aiol 2017 (cited by Winter [6]).

That they were cut and sewed to fit is also indicated :

(c 1164), Erec, 99 :

Chauces ot de palie chauciées
Mout bien feites et bien tailliées. (6)

(a 1200), Aspr., 631 :

Cauces de palie estroitement cosu… (7)

(a 1200), A. et Y., 3768 :

Garines l'a mult bien caucié
D'unes cauces bien decaupées [tailliées]
De noir et de Vermel bendées… (8)

Here the bands of black and red are probably cross gaiters, cf. eschapin (3). The same detail of chauces cut to measure is noted of a lady's costume :

(a 1200), Athis, 6923 :

… chauces ot a volanté…
Var. ms. B… cauces ot a sa mesure… (9)

Mention of lacing the chauces as in Ales., 1671 and Perc., 3363 refers to the chauces of mail as part of the armor, cf. Gay, s. v. chauces.

In addition to the example of chauçon (1) above, quoted by Godefroy, Comp. s. v. chauçon, I have noted

(1170-90), Mon. G., II, 1447 :

Lor botes oste et les cauchons des piés… (10)

It is probable that the chauçons were socks, worn inside the shoe.

Cf. also Part., 6271, s. v. coife (3), and Gal., 2056, s. v. forré (8).

Godefroy, Comp. s. v. chalceure gives no twelfth century examples for chauceure, but it occurs with the meaning shoes (and stockings ?), Lanc., 5558 :

… an la taverne avoit mise
Sa cote avuec sa chauceure… (11)

A noun chaucier, meaning « shoes » is mentioned by Godefroy, and cauchement by Gay, s. v. chaussure. Sorchauz or gaiters were also worn, cf. Godefroy, s. v. sorchaus. The passages which he quotes from Tristan (B) are found in the S.A.T.F. ed. 3731, 3734, 3737.

For further discussion as to chauces, cf. Viollet-le-Duc, III, 151-153 ; Schultz, I, 187.

The illustrations add nothing to our knowledge of the chauces. The lady's stockings are rarely seen, even in glimpses, as they are concealed by the long skirt.

CHAUCIER, vb.

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The verb chaucier has a wider meaning than the noun chauces ; it signifies, in general, to put anything on the feet, as spurs, and with a more restricted meaning, to put on the shoes and stockings. Chalcier, meaning to attach the spurs, is found :

(a 1108), Rol., 3863 :

Lur esperons unt en lur piez calciez… (1)

Cf. also Part., 5549 ; Perc., 2820, and Godefroy, Comp. s. v. chalcier.

With the meaning to put on the shoes, the earliest example I have noted is :

(c 1130), Cor. L., 1731 :

Et le soler que li cuens ot chalcié. (2)

615, 1190 :

A lei de rei est chalciez et vestuz. (3)

Both shoes and stockings are mentioned :

(1150-55), Thèbes, 3815 :

Chauciée fu d'un barragan
Et d'un sollers de cordoan. (4)

For other examples referring to the lady's costume, cf. Winter, Wort-Register, s. v. chaucier.

Descauce, with the meaning « barefooted » occurs, speaking of a lady :

(c 1180), C. de P., 62 :

Ja n'iert si gelé en genvier
Que ne voist descauce au mostier. (5)

Cf. also s.v. bote (3). It is used (c 1200), Ren., XXIII, 1626, 1653 as referring to mouffles, q. v.

CHEMISE, s. f.

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The chemise was an undergarment. The word occurs in the eighth century, Glos. Cas., 112 : camisia pheit, and in the tenth, Pas., 267 : soe chamisae, chi sens custurae fo faitice. In the twelfth century references to it are very frequent, and we may learn the following details, which seem to have been identical for the two sexes, except in the matter of length.

It was the garment worn next the skin :

(c 1170), Lanc., 1480:

An son sain pres del cuer les fiche
Antre sa chemise et sa char. (1)

(a 1200), Mort A., 3069 :

… la sainte chemise
Qu'enpres sa char avoit sainte Marie… (2)

Cf. also Marie, Lanv., 99 ; Dous Amanz, 183 ; Yonec, 345 ; Mon. G., II,3875 ; Ren., XI, 1369.

It was sometimes worn as a night garment (fig. 11) though usually no night clothes were worn :

(c 1170), Lanc., 1214 :

Et la dameisele se couche
Mes n'oste mie sa chemise. (3)

cf. 1280 :

… s'est couchiée tote nue… (4)

(a 1204), Esc., 3280 :

…Ele s'est nue
Levée en son lit en estant. (5)

Cf. also Main., V,b, 49, and for further discussion, Winter, p. 15 ; Schultz, p. 189 ; Enlart, p. 59 and Glos. s. v. chemise ; Viollet-le-Duc, III, 173 ; Weinhold, II, 259. It was usually made of chainsil, q. v. but also of lin, Alex., 423, 31 ch. deliié de lin; Folq., 11513, Vie S. Gil., 2758 ; of chanvre, Perc., 1693, 2357 ; of cendal, Folq., 692 ; of samis, Girb., p. 491, 26 ; of silk, Clig., 1153 :

… une chemise…
De soie blanche mout bien feite,
Mout deliée et mout sotil.
Es costures n'avoit nul fil,
Ne fust d'or ou d'arjant au mains. (6)

The material was often very soft and fine, (6), (11), (12).

(c 1180), C. de P., 933 :

Fu vestue d'une cemise
Plus delie d'un fil d'iragne ;
Ouvrée fu dedens Espagne. (7)

(c 1174), Enseign., 207 :

…sa camisa…
Blanca, molla et dolguada. (8)

It was sometimes ridée (pleated) with great care and therefore wide :

(a 1200), Athis, 8669 :

Une chemise de cheinsil,
De fil et d'uevre mout soutil ;
Gaite l'ot feite et cousue…
Blanche est, nete et bien ridée ;
Ele s'an est asez penée. (9)

(c 1200), Omb., 281 :

… chemise ridée et blanche… (10)

(a 1204), Esc., 3293 :

… une blanche chemise.
Au rider ot grant paine mise
Une pucele mout cortoise.
Ele ot par pans plus d'une toise
Et si estoit mout deliie. (11)

(c 1164), Erec, 403 :

D'une chemise par panz lée,
Deliée, blanche et ridée. (12)

Cf. also Ivain, 5420 and s. v. ridé.

Pleated chemises are also found in M.H.G. texts (c 1204), Erac., (Otte), 3793 :

daz vil minneliche wîp
het ze naehste an ir lîp
ein hemede geprîset…
wiz unde kleine. (13)

The chemise was laced on the sides :

(1160-74), Rou, III, 1882 :

… vesteient chemises blanches ;
Par les flancs à laz s'estreneient… (14)

(1199), G. de D., 249 :

Des laz de sa blanche chemise… (15)

(a 1200), Athis, 6833 :

De cheinsil vest une chemise…
Par devers destre li laz fu,
Et li braz furent bien vestu. (16)

This lacing might correspond to the lacing of the garment worn over the chemise, so that the flesh was exposed, cf. s.v. bliaut (31), (32); fresel (3); laz (21).

(a 1167 ?), Marie, Lanval, 565 :

Ele ert vestue en itel guise
De chainse blanc et de chemise,
Que tuit li costé li pareient
Qui de dous parz lacié esteient. (17)

The opening at the neck was closed by a brooch, or by buttons :

(1199), G. de D., 4363 :

Por sa gorge parembelir
Mist .j. fermail à sa chemise… (18)

(a 1200), Athis, 6835 :

A boutons d'or li fu fermée (the chemise)
Soz le menton la colerée. (19)

The brooch at the neck of the chemise is illustrated in fig. 7 ; the buttons in Enlart, fig. 267.

A lady's chemise was long, extending to the feet, as in fig. 1, 8a, b.

(1160-74), Rou, III, 2843 :

La chemise…
tresqu'as piez aval fendue. (20)

but the man's was shorter. The illustrations show the man's dress to be shorter than the lady's as a rule :

(1174-90), Ipom., 8635 :

II out une curte chemise,
Camoissé[e] d'estrange guise… (21)

It had long sleeves, (16) above and :

(a 1204), Esc., 7049 :

Ele estoit…
En .j. frès vair pliçon sans mances.
Celes erent beles et blances
De la chemise et bien tendans. (22)

These sleeves show very frequently in the illustrations, fig. 1, 2, 5, 7, 8a ; Enlart, fig. 21 bis, 22 bis.

The cote, pelice or bliaut was worn directly over the chemise :

(1199), G. de D., 4345 :

Sor chemise blanche aflourée
Ot vesti la coste… (23)

(c 1164), Erec, 2651 :

Que s'il eust sor la chemise
Une cote de soie mise. (24)

(1169-73), Ivain, 5202 :

Estoient lor cotes desrotes
Et les chemises au dos sales. (25)

(1150-55), Thèbes, 793 :

Que solement sor sa chemise
Vesti une pelice grise (26)

(1172-76), Chr. N., II, 31342 :

…d'une mult bele chemise
E sus d'une pelice grise… (27)

(c 1165), Troie, 1619 :

Une pelice vaire e grise
Vest Medea sor sa chemise. (28)

(1164-70), Clig., 856 :

… li bliauz et la chemise ;
Don la pucele estoit vestue. (29)

(a 1177), Alex., (Mch.) 552, 35 :

Vestu ot .i. bliaut pardesous se kemise. (30)

It was also worn with the chainse (17) above, or sorcot, q. v. (2), (8).

In warm weather a man might remove the cote or bliaut worn over the chemise, braies and chauces :

(c 1170), Lanc., 1668 :

Por le bel tans iert an chemise… (31)

(a 1200), Athis, 8669 :

… une chemise…
… ot li dameisiaus vestue…
Ne vesti plus, ce fu asez,
Car li granz chauz ert ja levez. (32)

but the lady's was distinctly an undergarment, as there is a note of surprise if the chemise is the only garment worn :

(c 1170), Lanc., 4596 :

… la reine ert venue
An une mout blanche chemise
N'ot sus bliaut ne cote mise,
Mes un cort mantel ot dessus… (33)

Cf. also Iv., 4322 ; Narc., 434.

On occasion no chemise was worn under the dress :

(a 1167 ?) Marie, Lanval, 477 :

De cendal purpre sunt vestues
Tut senglement a lur chars nues. (34)

Cf. also bliaut (32).

In many of the statues and illuminations of the period^[78] there is apparent a garment worn under the outer dress and showing at the neck and sleeves. This has incorrectly been assumed to be the chainse, (cf. s. v. chainse), but it is really the chemise, which, as was shown above (22-30) was often the only garment worn under the bliaut, cote or pelice. In the illuminations it is shown as white, and in both statues and illuminations it is often laid in fine pleats as it is described in the texts. The materials of which the chemise was made were very fine and were evidently intended for display ; cf. (22) above. This is in reference to the chemise as worn by nobles. That of the lower classes was undoubtedly of coarser material as chanvre, (see above, p. 92), and simpler in style. An illustration of its cut may be found in the amulets of the fourteenth century modelled after the relic of an earlier period, la chemise de la Sainte Vierge^[79], which was preserved at Chartres. This relic is referred to in the texts, Pel., 189, Marienleg., p. 128, 1.33, and (2) above.

CHEVEÇAILLE, s. f. CHEVESCE. s. f.

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Cheveçaille, chevesce, are apparently two names for the same article designating (1) part of a horse's harness, probably the head-stall, i.e. that part of the bridle or halter that fits around the head ; and (2) the neck or collar of a dress. For examples of the first meaning cf. Godefroy and Gay, also

(1150-55), Thèbes, 3833 :

Le frein ot precios et gent,
Les renes sont de fil d'argent,
La cheveçaille de fin or. (1)

In the sense of the neck or collar of a dress it appears in the following passages :

(c 1180), Perc., (B), 7958 :

E son col d'un fermail afiche
Qui pandoit a la cheveçaille. (2)

(c 1164), Erec, 1597 :

As poinz et a la cheveçaille (of the bliaut)
Avoit, sanz nule devinaille,
Plus de demi-marc d'or batu. (3)

(Cited by Godefroy from the ms.)

(a 1204), Esc., 8926 :

Ele ot a son col unne afiche
Qui li clot .j. poi le cevesce
De son vestement noir… (4)

(Cited by Godefroy from the ms. Ars. 3319).

Esc., 8931 :

Cil qui ovra cele cevesce…
I mist pieres a grant plenté. (5)

Cf. also Gal., 2049, s. v. surcot (16), and Glos. Tours, 93 : Hoc capitium chevazalie.

The passage in Biaus 3269 in Hippeau's edition

(a 1200) :

Plus de .v. onces d'or sans faille,
Avoit entor le kievetaille (of the bliaut) (6)

has been corrected in Williams' edition, 3283, to kieveçaille. Viollet-le-Duc, IV,243, quotes Hippeau's reading with the definition, which must obviously be discarded, of kievetaille as partie des robes qui entourail la taille. For other passages in which one of these forms occurs, cf. Cliges, 842; Perc., 22986 ; Gal., 7213 ; Ren., II, 156; Godefroy and Gay, s. v. cheveçaille, chevesce cheveceure. I have noted no examples of the last form in our period. The further definitions added by Godefroy under the above headings, of couvre-chef, coiffure, capuchon, and that by Gay, ornement sur le bord d'un capuchon ou sur l'encolure d'une chemise, and by Roquefort tresse de cheveux, voile, coiffure, find no justification in the passages quoted by them, which the meaning « neck of the dress » satisfies entirely.

The cheveçaille as the collar of the dress embroidered with gold (3), (6) or set with jewels (5), and fastened by a brooch (2), (4), is frequently shown in the iconography, In fact the heavily embroidered band at the neck laid on flat, (for standing collars do not appear until the end of the thirteenth century, cf. Viollet-le-Duc, III, 253), is one of the distinguishing characteristics of the twelfth century, and one which is not seen in the thirteenth, This flat collar may be cut square, round, or in a V, and often extended down the front of the dress. Cf. fig. 1, 5, 7, 10 ; Enlart fig. 21 bis;23 bis, 12 ; Quicherat, p. 149. 162.

COE, s. f.

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Coe is synonymous with train, q. v. The earliest example appears (1159) in Richeut 486 : Grant coe trait par la podriere. An invective is uttered against this fashion (p 1200) in Miserere, CIII :

Dieus se plaint de le gironée
Ki est par terre traïnée…
… le coue, ki n'est pas pure
Ki trainée est pas l'ordure.
Maus est ke sans coue fu née,
Ki met a coue si grant cure.
Mieus vausist coue de nature
Asses ke ne fait coue entée. (1)

For later examples cf. Godefroy, s. v. coé and Comp., s. v. queue. For illustrations cf. s. v. train.

The form coetée, derived from the diminutive coete (cf. Godefroy, s. v.), is found :

(c 1159), Rich., 628 :

Coetée a sa vesteure. (2)

COIFE, s. f.

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The coife is (1) the head piece of the armor ; (2) a style of head dress. For (1) see Gay, s. v. coiffe à armer, and Godefroy, Comp. s. v. coife, also Mon. G., II, 6117 ; Aspr., 4685, 4918 ; Cor. L., 1039, 1118.

It is found as a head dress in O. E., cf. Stroebe, p. 26, s. v. cuffie. Its occurrence in the twelfth century is rare. I have noted only the following examples. One is the head dress of pilgrims :

(a 1200), Aye, 1848 :

Et le bon pelerin…
Coifes orent vermeilles de paille et d'aqueton. (1)

In another it appears as a woman's head dress, different from a guimple in that it was a less formal head dress :

(1174-90), Prot., 9874 :

La dameisele ad avisé[e]
Sanz guimple, tut[e] eschevelé[e]
Fors une coife el chef posée,
De bende[s] a fin or listée. (2)

In the third the reference is to a man's clothing :

(1153-88), Part., 6270 :

Et taillent et keusent ses dras,
Coifes, cemises et cauçons… (3)

The cap worn by the woman in fig. 1 is probably one style of the coife for the eleventh century, and fig. 4, for the twelfth. Cf. also Herrad v. Landsberg, VIII, pl. LVI, LVII.

COL, s. m.

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Col as the part of the dress around the neck occurs in Chrétien, but the usual term is cheveçaille, q. v.

(1160-70), Cliges, 1160 :

S'avoit antrecosu par leus
Lez l'or de son chief un chevol
Et as deus manches et au col (of the chemise). (1)

Cf. also Erec, 1611, 1667.

The form la colerée appears to be more of a technical term and to have the same meaning :

(a 1200), Athis, 6835 :

A boutons d'or li fu fermée
Soz le menton la colerée. (2)

but the variant readings, St., la corolee; L, la corole; B., la couronee ; A, sa gorge couloree, show it to have been a term not widely known (cf. Godefroy, s. v. colerée).

CORDOAN, s. m.

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Cordoan, originally leather of which the shoes were made, (cf. s. v. soller), is used by extension to mean the shoe itself :

(1170-90), Mon. G., II, 3445 :

Cauces de paile et cordoans joliés. (1)

(Var. C ; de cordoan solliers ; for joliés : B entiers ; D1 trencies ; D2 chauciez).

(p 1200), Huon, 398 :

… son cordewan lacié. (2)

The second example is cited by Godefroy, s. v. cordoan, q. v. for other examples. Cf. also Enlart, p. 263, and Lacroix, op. cit., p. 35.

COR(R)OIE, s. f.

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Worn as a part of the costume, the cor(r)oie is a belt of leather. That this belt was of leather is assumed from the use of the word courreie to indicate saddle straps, etc. The material is not mentioned in the texts of this period, though it is later. Cf. Godefroy, Comp. s. v. couroie. As part of the nobleman's dress one is described :

(a 1200), Biaus, 2582 :

Et d'une coroie barée
Fu çains, a argent bien ouvrée. (1)

Cf. also Lanc., 1315 and under membre (4).

Coroie does not occur in the texts until the end of the twelfth century :

(a 1177), Alex., (Mch.), 456, 30 :

Le roine fu çainte d'une large coroie… (2)

(1199) G. de D., 1921 :

Si envoia a sa seror (3)
Une corroie et .j. fermail…

2460:

… corroie fresche et novele… (4)

(a 1204), Esc., 4571 :

Et l'aumosniere a ma coroie… (5)

(p 1200) G. de B., 23, 4 :

D'une coroie ert chainte… (6)

Cf. also under ceinture (8).

For illustrations cf. fig. 11 ; Quicherat, 183 ; Schultz, 206 ; Viollet-le-Duc, III, 109 ; Enlart, fig. 38. It is to be noted that the frequent appearance of cor(r)oie in the texts coincides with the more frequent appearance in the illustrations of the leather belt, which, in the thirteenth century, supersedes the belt of silk or orfrois.

CORS, s. m.

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With reference to clothing, cors means the bodice [of] a bliaut. Godefroy does not give it in this sense. The meaning is clearly shown in a metaphorical passage inIlle 6265, in which Ille is described as making a dress ; two parts are mentioned, le cors du bliaut and la gironée (the skirt), q. v. The same terms are used in (1170) Folq.,

915 :

Dame Guibors…
… fu vestue d'une porpre roée
Estroite a cors, a large gironée. (1)

(c 1200), Conq. J., 2311 :

Vestu ot .i. samit, à or fu colorés
Et fu estrois el cors, largement girones… (2)

When the mantel was removed, the bodice of the dress, concealed before, was shown, as is indicated in the passage :

(c 1200), Ogier 57 :

Son mantel a au Danois afulé;
Ele remest en paile d'outre-mer,
Estroit as las por le cors qui li pert. (3)

(Quoted by Winter under las [108]). In this case cors is equivalent to « bodice » rather than to « figure ». Cf. also s. v. bendé (11), cote (1).

It also means « bodice » in the passage describing a tight fitting bliaut, Athis 2635 :

Endroit les flans le cors mollé, (4)

meaning the bodice fitting closely around the hips, as is evident in the illustrations of the bliaut, q. v.

In other cases, as Ipom., 2218, Part., 4887, either translation, « bodice », or « figure » is possible.

For the frequent expression en pur le cors see under desfublÊ, 8ff.

Illustrations of the dress cut in two distinct parts, i.e. cors and gironee are found fig. 5, 8c, 10a, Enlart, fig. 20-22.

COTE, s. f.

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The cote represents a simple type of everyday dress worn by both sexes and all classes. A related word occurs at an early date in OHG.: St-S. 3, 148, 9:lacerna, kôzzo ; 3,278,47 : lacerna, vesti fimbriata, cozo. That it was the simplest and most general form of garment is shown by its use to express a primitive garment. Adam and Eve make themselves coteles de fueilles qu'ensemble acousirent, (a 1200) Rom. S. Gr. 123 ; Joseph's coat is expressed by li cotelle vaire, (c 1150) Hist. Jos., 186, cotelete, 310.

As a man's garment it is worn by all classes : by a peasant, (a 1200), Gar., II, 153, 6, cotele ot courte, jusqu'aus genous li vint ; Perc., (B) 483 ; by a vaslet, Perc., (B.) 7850 ; A. et. Y 1681 ; by sergenz, (1150-55), Theb., 5426 ; by Tristan disguised as a leper, Trist. (B.)3573 ; by a courier, Ipom., 1624 ; a fool, R. le D. 1371 ; a monk, Mon. G., 200, 338 ; merchants, Aiol, 9444, 9472 ; by a child, Erac.,458 (in the German version 614, the word hemd is used) ; a youth, Troie, 30007 ; frequently by noblemen, Gar., II, 125, 2 and below, though it was not specifically a court garment as was the bliaut ; it is worn by the king going to the forest, Erec, 72, and by a king doing penance, Vie S. Th. 5603. These examples range over the second half of the twelfth century.

The materials of which it was made are sometimes mentioned : the leper's cote is of de let burel, Tris. (B), 3573; a hunter's of burel, Biaus 1302 ; d'un burel enfumé, Char. N. 991 ; de burel, Fils A., 14486 ; de cerf, Perc., (B), 1400 ; the merchants have cotes bougerens, Aiol 9444, 9472 ; as a knight's dress the material is more expensive, de soie, Erec, 2652 ; de soie en greine, Ivain 2974 ; d'un drap de sorinde (Foerster, Wb. s. v. sorinde suggests soie inde); Perc., 2795 ; de dras de soie gambisie, Perc., 2348 ; de dyapre, Erec, 97 ; Gal., 2044 ; a lady's cote is d'un drap flamenc, Esc., 3996 ; d'un drap de Flandre, 3584, cf. infra (3) ; de diapre (1170) Fier., 5267 ;cf. also s. v. mantel (2).

It was a house or work dress worn over the chemise : Erec, 2651 ; Ivain, 2979 ; but with the addition of the chape, Tris. (B) 3575, or mantel, Troie, 30007 ; Erec, 97 ; Ivain, 2974 ; Perc., (B). 4504 ; or peliçon, Part., 5061. Toward the end of the century it is worn under the surcot, q. v.

As a lower class dress it has a chaperon, cf. s. v. chaperon, (7), (8), (9). Though it is early mentioned as worn with armor, Cor. L. 1582; Garin, II, 266; Tris. (B), 4001, the term cote d'armes, which becomes frequent later, is not found until p. 1206, Perc., 12372.

The omission of other details, and the lack of the epithets so often applied to more elaborate garments, confirm the conclusion stated above, that the man's cote was the simplest form of dress used. The same is true in regard to the cote as a lady's dress, which is mentioned frequently but without description. It is worn by all classes : by children's nurses, Gal., 1123 ; the women kept as prisoners wear cotes derotes, Ivain 5202 ; a cote is offered Lunete, who wearing only a chemise, is about to be burned at the stake, Ivain 4375 ; Aelis, who previously was wearing a bliaut, puts on a cote, coterel and chape for a journey, Esc., 3990. The cote is long, Esc., 4004, and wide, making a circle around her when she sits down, Esc, 4418. It is a queen's dress, Lanc., 4598 ; Alex. (Mch.) 450, 21. It is worn with the surcot, Gal., 6951, 1122.

Towards the end of the twelfth century the lady's cote, of simple cut but of costly material, is more frequently mentioned and can be worn at court :

(1199), G. de D., 4345 :

Sor chemise blanche aflourée
Ot vesti la coste, en pure ert,
Mes el estoit d'un cendal vert,
Tote forrée et cors et manches. (1)

(a 1204), Esc., 8914 :

Ele ot d'un biface treslis
Cote et mantel qui li traïne. (2)

A cotele, cotelete is a diminutive of cote, Hist. Jos., 186, 310 ; Troie, 30007 ; G. de D., 511 ; but a coterel is a separate garment, distinct from the cote and worn over it ; in one case synonymous with the jupe, q. v. :

(a 1204), Esc., 3583 :

Chapes a aige et cotes bures
Et coteriax a nos mesures
D'un drap de Flandres poleté. (3)

5342:

Cote ot tot d'un et cape bele
Et coterel d'un drap mellé
Dont li giron furent mout lé. (4)

As a simple, everyday dress, we find the cote illustrated as worn in the eleventh century in fig. 1 ; about the middle of the twelfth century in fig. 4, in the dress worn by a woman in a series illustrating scenes from household life ; in the dress worn by a servant in the Hortus Deliciarum of Herrad v. Landsberg, pl. XXXVI, reproduced by Quicherat, p. 166 ; and worn by a lady of rank towards the end of the twelfth century, fig. 11b, and the statue formerly at S. Germain l'Auxerrois reproduced by Quicherat, p. 183. These types of dress differ in some details, but they represent the plain house dress as contrasted with the bliaut worn on important occasions. As has been said before, it is a mistake to look for a style unvarying in cut over a long period of time.

A child's cotele is shown in fig. 3 and 12. In general, any dress of a very plain style in our period may be identified with the cote, which in the thirteenth century became the prevailing type, perhaps through the simplicity characterising the reign of St Louis. The more frequent mention in the texts, towards the end of the twelfth century, of the cote as a dress worn by a noble lady, coincides with its more frequent appearance in the iconography.

COUVRECHEF, s. m.

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I have noted only a doubtful case of couvrechef in our period :

(c 1150), Adgar, Mleg., p. 22, 1. 79 :

De sun cheurechief (Ms. cheiue chief) e blanc e gent
Mult se delita estrangement. (1)

The form chief occurs :

(a 1167 ?), Marie, Fraisne 121 :

En un chief de mult bon cheinsil
Envolupent l'enfant gentil… (2)

Ms. H. reads en une chme (chemise ?) de mut bon chesil, which was transcribed by De Roquefort, I, 146 as En une chince de chesil. The third edition (1925) of Warnke translates chief as « Zipfel ». The form chief appears to be an emendation of a later scribe, as S was written in the last part of the thirteenth century, at which time the meaning of chief and couvrechef had been extended beyond the idea of a cloth worn on the head (cf. Enlart, Glos., s. v. couvrechef), to cloth in general.

Another case occurs in Le jugement d'amour 176 :

De flors de lis ont keuvrekies. (3)

but the date of this text is doubtful. Faral^[80] ascribes it to the end of the twelfth or the beginning of the thirteenth century.

Couvrechef, if to be read at all in our period, is probably a generic term, including coife, guimple, orel, louaille, q. v. for illustrations.

CRIOREAUS, s. m. pl.

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Crioreaus, a word of uncertain meaning, occurs only once :

(1153-88), Partonopeus 10117 :

A lor menus bareteles
Rentendoient ces damoiseles,
De guimples et de crioreaus,
De ridoires et freseaus ;
Cascune met entente et cure
A aprester sa tiffeure.

It is translated by Godefroy as ajustement de femme placé sur la tête ou sur la poitrine. It is not in Gay.

DESFUBLER, vb.

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Desfubler, the opposite of afubler, q. v. means « to remove the mantel or cape », and desfublé, « not wearing a mantel or cape », as suggested by Winter, p. 32. Godefroy's definition, enlever en parlant d'un vêtement is too broad for our period, for the later extension of the action to other garments and to headwear had not yet taken place.

The mantel is specifically mentioned in the following passages :

(a 1167 ?), Marie, Fraisne, 402 :

De sun mantel s'est desfublée… (1)

(1169-73), Iv., 2712 :

… si leissa jus cheoir
Son mantel et desafublée
S'an est el paveillon antrée. (2)

(1153-88), Part., 4507 :

De son mantel est desfublée… (3)

(a 1200), Gar., I, 297, 11 :

Desafublée en fut en un samis… (4)

En may stand for de son mantel, though this has not been previously mentioned. The foot note in this edition les cheveux dénoués is not correct.

Cf. also Perc., 15805, 11493 ; cape desfubler : Aiol, 6678 ; piax desfubler ; Enf. G., 2418, (piax is synonymous for mantels).

The word frequently means « without a mantel », no mention being made of the mantel, as in :

(c 1170), Fier., 5266 :

Trestoute deffublée en cote repaira. (5)

(1153-88), Part., 3995 :

Desfubleé est en un samit… (6)

9168:

Desfublés fu en un bliaut… (7)

Cf. also Gar., II, 112, 1 ; Tris. (Th.), 3074 ; Esc., 8970 ; Part., 10779 and s. v. lier (11) (13).

Toward the end of the twelfth century there appears a synonymous expression for desfublé, em pur le cors, i.e. with the laced bodice (cors q. v.) of the bliaut showing, unconcealed by the mantel, or as it is defined by MM. Meyer and Michelant, s. v. pur, in the Glossary of Escoufle : en taille comme on dit en parlant des femmes, sans pardessus.

(a 1200), R. le D., 4666 :

De son mantel se desafuble
Tout sainglement en pur le cors. (8)

(a 1204), Esc., 6112:

Quant ele fu em pur le cors
Et sans mantel et sans touaille… (9)

(1199), G. de D., 200 :

Et cez contesses en samiz
Et en draz d'or emperials,
Em pur lor biax cors sanz mantiaus… (10)

2477 :

Si ert chascuns en .j. bliaut
Toz deflublez em pur le cors. (11)

(c 1200), G. de P., 7601 :

Em pur le cors fu defublés… (12)

(c 1200), G. de P., 4061 :

Car vos metés de la pel fors (i. e. bearskins worn as a disguise)
Et vos metés em pur le cors. (13)

Cf. also G. de D., 506, 5455 (cited by Godefroy from the ms.), Esc., 4416, 6875.

An expression such as en pure (la cote) means « wearing only the cote ».

(1199), G. de D., 4345 :

Sor chemise blanche aflourée
Ot vestu la coste, en pure ert… (14)

An analogous expression is Fier, 2691 :

en la pure cemise. (15)

Cf. also Amis 614. The translation for (14) and for (10) above suggested by M. Servois in his Glossary for Guillaume de Dole, s. v. pur, n'ayant que les vêtements de dessous, is misleading, as a cote is decidedly a vetement de dessus, and, as is apparent in (10), the complete court costume was worn, with the exception of the mantel. For en pure le chief, cf. s. v. lier, (14).

Godefroy's definition, s. v. pur : nu, simple for thirteenth century passages, such as em pure sa gonelle is incorrect, for the term nu does not apply at all. Foerster, s. v. pur, defines en pur cors as bloss, nackt, with reference to Erec, 4384 :

Et vit le chevalier an cors
Deschauz et nu sor un roncin… (16)

Ms. C reads. Le chl'r vit an pur cors. Foerster's view is apparently correct in this passage, but merely on account of the addition of nu, and it does not hold in the other instances cited.

The extension of desfubler to other garments, which took place later, as shown by the examples in Godefroy and by (1588) Montaigne :

Deffublé d'un couvre chef et puis d'une calotte[] (17)

is not generally used in this period. I have noted one case, however, in Mon G. II, 1406. In this connection cf. also afubler.

EMINGAUT, s. m.

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The word mingaut or emingaut appearing in Esc., 7055, is evidently the same as amigaut found later, cf. Godefroy, s. v. amigault, ouverture, fente, which is defined by Enlart, Glossary, as fente de l'encolure d'un vêtement. This passage is cited by Godefroy, loc. laud., who follows the ms. Ars., 3319 : Elle a son destre bras jeté parmi l'emingaut de son col. In the S.A.T.F. edition of L'Escoufle by MM. Michelant and Meyer, the passage is as follows, 7054 :

Ele a son destre bras geté
Parmi le mingaut du surcot (ms. de son col)
Le conte, qui son chief li ot (ms. ol)
Mis par chierté en son devant…

The emendation of the edition of Michelant and Meyer is evidently occasioned by the desire to secure a text that reads smoothly without the assumption of a lacuna or unusual syntax. It is not very satisfactory, however, as it involves two changes. The form ol is to some extent supported by the ou of the Anglo-Norman Vie de S. Gilles, 1. 2798 (cited by Fritz Holle, Avoir u. savoir in den altfrz. Mundarten [Marburg, 1900], p. 60).

Professor Thomas has discussed this word in Romania, XLIII (1914), 255, and XLIV (1915-17), 344-5. He shows that forms related to it survive in Western dialects, sometimes in the sense of « slit in a garment, giving access to a pocket ».

An illustration of the emingaut and the method of drawing the garment over the head is shown in Herrad v. Landsberg, pl. L.

ESCHAPIN, ESCARPIN, s. m.

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Godefroy defines eschapin as soulier léger. Three of the passages on which he bases his definition are from two mss. of Les Loherains, Richel., 1622, and Montp. Two of these passages are found in Loh. (Vietor, Hds.), Anl., 9, 49 :

Il saut do lit en eschapins chaciez. (1)

Gar. le Loh. (P. Paris), II, 111, 20 :

Toute dolante hors de la chambre iasit
Desafublée, chaucie d'escapins. (2)

Var. a eschapins, en escapins, en chapins. Cf. also Quicherat, p. 157.

Confirming this definition that it was a light weight shoe, (i.e. compared to those made of leather) is the following description :

(1150-55), Thèbes, App., I, 2885 :

Ele ot chaucié uns eschapins ;
Sollers ne sunt cordouanins,
Mais d'un[e] pe(i)l de chameil
Ffurent cosu o(ue) tout le peil ;
O(ue) quatre braces de funeals
Les ot estreiz par les trumeals… (3)

Here the eschapins are fastened with cross garters, and may be identified with the type of shoe shown in the mural paintings of S. Savin^[82], a light shoe, apparently made of cloth or a very soft skin, judging by the way it closely fits the foot, and attached with cross garters, which may not, however, have been a necessary accompaniment of the eschapin. The word also appears in Chr. N., 28510, cited by Godefroy. Gay gives, s. v. escarpin, a passage from Part., 10608 which he has misquoted as escarpins, but which reads escapins à or luisant.

The passage from Alex. (ms. Ven.), p. 246, 1.212 :

(a 1200) :

Olimpias i estoit la reine
D'un vert samit vestu en escarpine… (4)

is explained by M. Meyer in the Glossary as « en écharpe, à la façon d'une écharpe ou d'un baudrier. I have noted no other examples. The ms. of the Arsenal reads here, (ed. Meyer, p. 35, 1.218) :

D'un vert samiz vestue e eschevie.

ESPINE, s. f.

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The espine was probably the tongue of a buckle. It is not in Godefroy or Gay in this sense, but is defined as ardillon by Cloetta in the Glossary of Mon. G.

(p 1200), G. de B., 601 :

D'une coroie ert chainte…
La bocle ert d'un topasse, qui luist et enlumine,
Et d'un riche achatois estoit faite l'espine,
Entor avoit asise mainte riche sardine,
Mainte brasine (read brasme) et maint saffre… (1)

(1170-90), Mon G., II, 739 :

La boucle ert grosse, toute de fin or mier,
Rices lasnieres, et li bouton forgiet ;
Blous l'espine vaut cent saus de deniers,
Li bous devant del braier envoisié. (2)

The word dorn «thorn » is used in M.H.G. in the same way, clearly meaning the tongue or pin of a clasp.

(c 1200) Wigalois, 10564 :

Die frouwe truoc ein fürspan
Da enwas niht mêr gesmîdes an
Niwan ein dorn guldîin :
Dâ mit haft si den buosen în[]. (3)

Cf. the other passages quoted by Lexer, s. v. Dorn, with the definition Schnallenzunge and also Neidhart v. Reuenthal, XLI, 32, cited by Schultz, I, 206.

FARDER, vb.

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Farder has the modern meaning of « to rouge ». I have noted two cases of its occurrence: Chr. N. App., III, 473 :

(1172-76) :

Tele se fait molt regarder
Par son blanchir, par son farder… (1)

The other case is quoted by Godefroy from a manuscript of Guillaume d'Angleterre, s. v. garmos :

(p 1170), G. d'A., 635 :

A la reine regardée :
Ceste, fet il, n'est pas fardée
N'i a ne bourre ne garmos. (2)

For its use in the thirteenth century and later, cf. Godefroy, s. v. (1) farde, and Comp. fart.

Other reference to the use of rouge occur :

(c 1159), Rich., 1040 :

De blanchet li poroi[n]t la face
Et lo menton ;
El vis asist lo vermeillon
Desor lo blanc… (3)

(c 1170), Livre Man., CCLXV :

Fors de sei faire belle et gente
Et sei peindre blanche ou rovente… (4)

(Cf. also CCLIV), and, using the word depaint, Miserere LXXXVI, 6; rogist, Poème morale, 129, cf. introduction, page 23. This gives a date earlier than that given by Racinet who says, Glossary, s. v. fard, that rouging, common among the Greeks and Romans, reappeared in Europe in the sixteenth century. Further evidence to the same effect has been mentioned by Weinhold, II, 334 ; Wright, op. cit., p. 62 ; Lecoy de la Marche, op. cit., p. 443 ; Hentsch, p. 43.

FERMAIL, s. m. ; FERMER, vb.

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As is generally recognized, the fermail was a brooch. It is synonymous with afiche and nosche, q. v. Fermer, to fasten, is occasionally used of garments (see below).

The fermail is mentioned as a brooch of gold and precious stones, worn at the neck, and fastening the opening of the chemise or dress :

(1169-73), Iv., 1888 :

Fermail d'or a son col fermer,
Ovrée a pierres precieuses… (1)

(c 1180), C. de P., 948 :

Li fermaus qu'ele ot a son col
Valoit .xiiij besans d'or. (2)

(1199), G. de D., 4363 :

Por sa gorge parembelir,
Mist .j. fermail a sa chemise,
Ouvré par grande majestrise,
>Riche d'or et bel de feture… (3)

(c 1180), Perc. (B.), 7956 :

Et mesire Gauvains s'atorne
De la robe qui molt fu riche
E son col d'un fermail afiche
Qui pandoit a la cheveçaille. (4)

This appears in Potvin's edition, 9366, as :

Et mesire Gauvains s'atorne
De la reube qui moult fu rice
A son col, d'une noire afice
Qui pendoit a se keveçalle.

The reading of Baist's edition is preferable.

The fermaillet is double in : (c 1164), Erec, 1665 :

Deus fermailles d'or neelez
An une cople anseelez
Li mist au col une pucele… (5)

The form afremail appears Biaus 2245, Williams' ed., 2233, Hippeau's ed.

The form fermal is found in Troie 14701, fermax in Perc., (B), 5738 ; fremaus, Perc., 7154 ; fermail, Cliges 843, G. de D., 1002, 1922 ; fremail, A. et Y.,1640; Brut 10690 ; Part., 7463 ; cf. also s. v. boucle (1), jupe (8).

The verb fermer, as has been said, is found occasionally with the meaning to fasten, in speaking of garments :

(1153-88), Part., 4904 :

… ele vient son col fremant… (6)

10705 :

… (le manteaus)
…fu moult bien al col fremés,
A lioncels d'or tresgetés… (7)

Cf. also Athis 6835, s. v. bouton (3).

For illustrations of the fermail cf. s. v. afiche.

FORRÉ, p. p.; FORREURE, s. f.

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There is no discussion necessary in regard to the meaning of forré as related to garments, defined by Godefroy, Comp. s. v. fourrer as doubler de quelque chose qui garnit, but it is of interest to note its appearance in a number of twelfth century texts not mentioned by Godefroy. The lining is of fur :

(c 1165), Troie, 13335 :

Ot un bliaut forré d'ermine… (1)

(1169-73), Ivain, 1884 :

Robe d'escarlate vermoille
De ver forrée… (2)

(c 1200), Gal., 2007 :

(surcot)… fourré de cisemus… (3)

(c 1180), C. de P., 1353 :

De chers pailes gregois, fourés
De gris et par desor ouvrés,
Erent coviert mul et destrier. (4)

Michel's edition of C. de P. has a comma after foures and none after gregois and ouvrés. Cf. also Perc., 17912, Saisnes 1518 h, and s. v. bliaut, II, (4), (5), (9), (19),(20); III, (13), (14) ; cote (1).

The lining is of another material than fur :

(a 1200), Athis, 18498 :

…un jupel… forré de coton… (5)

(a 1200), A. et Y., 1685 :

(mantel)… Fourré d'un porpre cendal cier. (6)

(p 1200), Herv., 7881 :

(un bliaut) d'un diaspre d'osterine fourré… (7)

(c 1200), Gal., 2058 :

(chausses) Qu[e] il a faictes…
…fourrer de paile vermeil. (8)

(p 1200), Huon, 7164 :

…un mantel d'escrelate fouré… (9)

The noun forreure, meaning lining, does not occur often. Besides the examples cited by Godefroy, Comp. s. v. fourreure I have noted only Lanc., 517, in which it appears as the fur lining of the cover on a bed, and Conq. J. 5568, cited s. v. jupe (3). For forreure meaning « sheath », cf. s. v. fouriaus.

Illustrations of the fur lining of a mantel in the twelfth century are shown in the mss. Bib. S. Gen., q, fol. 258; Huntingfield Psalter, fol. 89 r ; in the thirteenth century in Bib. Nat. Lat. 8846, fol. 64; Bib. Nat. lat. 10525, LXVII.

FOURIAUS, s. m. pl.

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Fouriaus occurs as an accessory of the lady's dress :

(p 1206), Perc., 21438 :

Pucieles, iiii., vint u cent,
Qui faisoient las et fouriaus,
Ausmonieres et çainturiaus. (1)

Its meaning is made clear by two later passages, one of which has been cited s. v. bourre, in which false hair or bourreaus is used to stuff the fourreaus, i.e. sheaths or sack-like envelopes which were sometimes worn over the two braids, cf. fig. 10b and under bourre. The other passage has been quoted by Godefroy, s. v. forreure, with the incorrect definition postiche, faux cheveux :

(p 1200), Jong, et Trouv., Des Cornetes, p. 87 :

Fame n'est pas de pechié monde
Qui a sa crine noire ou blonde
Selonc nature,
Qui i met s'entente et sa cure
A ajouster .i. forreure
Au lonc des treces[] (2)

This use of fouriaus, forreure as a sheath covering the braids is evidently an extension of fourreau as a sheath used for other purposes, as to cover a sword.

FRANGE, s. f.

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Godefroy, Comp., defines frenge, appearing in the thirteenth century, as « frange ». It appears earlier, in a passage in which it may be interpreted either as « fringe », or more probably as a synonym for laz :

(c 1159), Richeut, 626 :

Ses costez lace a longues franjes,
Et sa çainture… (1)

FRESÉ, p. p.

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Fresé (also frois ?) means « embroidered ». Nouns of the same origin are fresel, orfrois, q. v. Godefroy's definition, s. v. frasé, as galonné, plissé, en forme de fraise ? might possibly stand as far as galonné goes, but the other meanings given have no justification from the texts. The meaning « embroidered » is clear from the following passage in which fresé merely repeats brodé :

(p 1206), Perc., 11297 :

Une ensagne i ot bien brodée,
De ses armes toute fresée… (1)

Cf. (1150-55), Thèbes, 9105 :

Une porpre inde clavelée,
Menuement a or fresée. (2)

In the passages given below, as well as in those quoted by Godefroy, a meaning other than « embroidered »is hard to imagine. Passages not cited by Godefroy are :

(c 1165), Troie, 8078, 22652 :

…enseigne(s) orfresée(s)… (3)

(1172-76), Chr. N., II, 18360 :

…mainte tente a or fresée. (4)

(a 1177), Alex., (Mch.), 6, 19 :

…d'un cier pale or fresé… (5)

371,31 :

…porpre a or frisé… (6)

(c 1200), Fils Aym., 6274 :

Le keute fu de paile galasien fresé. (7)

(a 1200), Aspr., I, 1550 :

Çaint a le brant a la renge fresée. (8)

(a 1200), Alex., (Ms. 789), 244 :

D'un chier paile orferré (read orfresé ?) estoit sa couvreture (9)

(c 1170), Folq., 12329:

…la manche frasée… (10)

For illustrations cf. s. v. orfrois.

FRESEL, s. m. ; FRESELE, s. f. ; FRESELÉ, p. p.

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A fresel or fresele is a ribbon of silk or embroidery. The term is obviously related to orfrois, q. v. Freselé is synonymous with lacié, cf. infra. The meaning of fresel is clear from the following passage :

(c 1160) Enéas, Mss. F D, p. 391 :

Od un fresol ert galonnée,
D'un cercle d'or fu coronée. (1)

G:

D'un chier fresel molt bien olvrée. (2)

Galonée used with reference to the coiffure means « to braid », therefore fresel must be something with which one can braid, i.e. a ribbon. This meaning is supported by the following passage, quoted in part by Godefroy from the manuscript, in which freselé is equivalent to lacié, q. v.

(1174-90), Prot., 2949 :

El ot un bliaut freselé
Par les braz et par les costez.
Unc si bels cors ne fu furmez ;
La char parmi les laz paroit
Qui plus blanche que nef esteit. (3)

Godefroy's punctuation as given above is preferable to that of Kluckow's edition which has a semi-colon after freselê, and no punctuation mark after costez, for a parallel passage is found :

(1153-88), Part., 10645 :

Vestues sont estroitement
Od freseles d'or et d'argent,
Des les poins desci que as hances… (4)

Here, as (3) above, freseles represents the ribbons which were used to lace both the sleeves and the bodice in order to insure a snug fit, cf. s. v. laz, manche. Godefroy quoted the above passage, s. v. fresele, with the definition fraisée, i.e. « pleated », but this finds no support in the illustrations, whereas they testify to lacings. Of the definitions given by Godefroy, s. v. fresel : garniture fraisée, surtout garniture de manteau, frange, galon, ruban, the last two are satisfactory meanings for all the passages he quotes and all those I have noted. Quicherat, p. 163, defines frézeaux as garnitures bouillonées, evidently with reference to the pleated and ruffled sleeves shown on the opposite page in the so-called statue of Clotilde, but ridé, q. v. and not freselé is the term applied to such sleeves. Viollet-le-Duc's explanation, III, 384, which is repeated by Godefroy, s. v. fresel, of freisaus as peigne is incorrect. He gives an elaborate reconstruction, III, 385 of this " peigne-ornement de tête " which I have not been able to identify, and quotes the passage :

(1172-76), Chron. N., 31348 :

Bendé son chief…
D'une bende lascheitement
Od uns freiseaus de fin argent. (5)

Here bende is a generic term and freiseaus de fin argent indicates the special kind of band of silver ribbon. In the same way a hat is trimmed with fresaus or ribbon (cf. s. v. chapel, [9]) :

(1174-90), Ipom., 2731 :

E pur la hadle out un chapel
De fresaus aturné mut bel… (6)

Fresel and laz both occur :

Ipom., 6033 :

Del vert heaume…
E laz e freisel sunt rumpu. (7)

(1174-90), Prot., 8016 :

Rumpent li laz et li fresel (of the helmet)… (8)

In the passage Perc. 21439 cited under fouriaus the reading of the Ms. Montp. H, 249, as quoted by Godefroy, is fresiaus. Cf. also s. v. crioreaus.

As a ribbon on a sword or lance it occurs :

(1174-90), Ipom., 3635 :

Il out un vermeil penuncel
Fermé el gleive od un frecel. (9)

5005:

A la lance od plusors freseaus… (10)

And as a trimming on a pillow :

(c 1160), Enéas, 7642 :

La taie en fu d'un drap molt chier
Et fu cosuz toz de fresels. (11)

For illustrations cf. s. v. laz and orfrois.

FROIS, adj.

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It is difficult to determine whether frois always means « fresh », « new », or whether it may sometimes mean « embroidered » in passages referring to the bliaut, or to material, as :

(c 1165), Troie, 6514 :

E bons pailes riches et freis. (1)

30007 :

Cotele ot longe e cort mantel
D'un vermeillon e freis e bel. (2)

(c 1155 ?), S. S., 1210 :

…les dames as bliaus frois… (3)

(c 1170), Folq., 10949 :

…manches vermeilles d'un cendal d'Andre frois… (4)

(a 1204), Esc., 3299 :

…le bon bliaut tot frois. (5)

3829:

…un samit vermeil, fin et frois… (6)

3661 :

(la robe) Dont li samis estoit tos frois. (7)

Cf. also Prot., 10813, 11440. In the above passages it is easy to see a possible connection between frois and orfrois, or gold embroidery, and this meaning seems to be suitable in :

(c 1165) Troie, 1567:

…un drap sarragoceis
D'or e de seie trestot freis. (8)

On the other hand the identical form means « fresh » in other passages in Troie, and is quite possible above, especially if a comma is placed after seie.

Troie 2719 :

Cil furent las, cist furent freis. (9)

The meanings frais, nouveau ; reposé are the only ones given in the Glossary of Troie, and also in Foerster's Wörterbuch to Chrétien, where both the forms fres and frois occur :

(c 1164), Erec, 1607 :

Car toz estoit fres et noviaus
Et li bliaut et li mantiaus. (10)

(1169-73), Ivain, 4738 :

Afublée d'un mantel cort
D'escarlate et de frois ermine. (11)

When referring to fur, the meaning is most probably « new », rather than fourrure garnie d'orfrois, as suggested by Meyer in his edition of Raoul for the passage 712, vestus d'un ermins frois, since ermine, especially, shows wear very quickly. In view of the frequent reference to the newness of material as :

(a 1204), Esc., 3651 :

…robe enterine et fresce. (12)

(c 1170), Vie S. Gil, 2654 :

…un tapit tut nof e freis… (13)

and the lack of any positive example for the meaning « embroidered », we cannot say that the latter meaning is justified.

FRONCER, vb.

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Froncir is defined by Godefroy, s. v. froncir 1, as se rider, plisser. The form froncer is found with this second definition as applied to garments:

(c 1200), Doon R., 2568 :

Si la tienent as poinz de la manche froncée.

Cf. also Flam., 5829, and rider, infra.

GALONER, vb.

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Galoner means to braid the hair with a ribbon. The past participial form is used in all but two cases :

(a 1200), Alex., (Ms. de Venise), 169 :

…la reine…
Ensemble lui une noble meschine
Que (read qui) d'un fil d'or le ganolot (for galonot)
sa crine. (1)

(a 1200), Athis, 19626 :

El mont plus bele ne se mire
Ne ne se tresce ne galone. (2)

Trescier, q, v. means simply to braid ; galoner indicates the addition of a ribbon used in place of one strand in braiding, as shown by the reconstruction of Viollet-le-Duc, III, 188, 189.

The form engalounée is found once, in a text of doubtful date :

Folq., I, Anlage, I, c, 1.44 :

A un fil d'or sa crine engalounée… (3)

Godefroy's more general definition : orner la tête avec des fils d'or, tresser les cheveux avec des rubans, may be made more specific by limiting it to the second statement, for, in the following passages, galoné is distinguished from the other methods of ornamenting the coiffure, as by wearing a wreath of flowers, (4), a chaplet of gold, (5), (6), or a ribbon bandeau (7) :

(a 1200), Biaus, 2241 :

Et deriere ot ses crins jetés
D'un fil d'or les ot galonnés ;
De roses avoit un capel… (4)

(c 1164), Erec, 1655 :

Les deus puceles d'un fil d'or
Li ont galonné son crin sor ;…
Un cercelet ovré a flors
De maintes diverses colors
Les puceles el chief li metent. (5)

(1174-90), Ipom., 2227 :

Entur sun chef out un cercel
De fin or ovré ben e bel,
Ke ses cheveus ensemble tint…
A deus tresces trescée esteit,
A un fil d'or fut galuné[e]… (6)

(c 1160), Enéas, 1473 :

A un fil d'or ert galonée
Et sa teste ot d'orfrois bendée… (7)

A narrow ribbon of gold is expressly mentioned as used for the braiding, cf. above and.

(c 1200), Gal., 7708 :

…s'est d'un fil d'or gallonnée. (8)

Cf. also Doon R., 2010 ; Biaus 3968 ; Part. 4892, 10709 ; Fils Aym. 5089 ; Ales. (in. G. d' O.) 3105, (cited by Viollet-le-Duc, III, 186).

We also hear of a thread of silver :

(1150-55), Thèbes, 3821 :

Les cheveus ot et lons et sors…
D'un fil d'argent sont galoné,
Pendirent lé sor le baudré. (9)

Cf. also Biaus 1540, and under trece (10). A ribbon of silk is mentioned Herv. 887, and a fresel, q. v. (1). Bender, q. v. is sometimes synonymous with galoner. I have noted no cases of the substantive galon in this period.

This method of braiding or winding the hair with a ribbon, mentioned in the texts from 1160 on, is plainly shown in many of the statues. Cf. fig. 8 bc ; Enlart, fig. 23 ; Quicherat, p. 162 ; Schultz, I. fig. 45.

GANT, s. m.

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The same distinction between the gant or glove, and the miton, or mitten, (cf. also s. v. moufle) which exists today, also existed in the Middle Ages, according to M. Enlart, p. 255, the distinction being that the mitten had a division for the thumb, but none for the separate fingers, such as the glove had. This distinction seems altogether probable, for both styles of hand covering appear in the iconography. The texts in our period, however, give us information only as to the materials of which gloves were made and their use. They were of skin or fur and were often trimmed with fur of another sort, or with gold embroidery :

uuanz irhiner (i.e. of white dressed leather), (a 900) Glos. Cassel, 118 ; wanti castanei auro parati, (831) Chron. Ab. S. R. p. 88 ; guant de cerf, (c1100) Rol. 3845 ; guant ad or, 2677 ; gant d'ermine, (1190-1200) Tris. (B.) 2032, gant paré du blanc hermine, 2075 ; gant a orfreis, (a1200) Aye 2417 ; gant a or parés, (cl200) Fils Aym. 8857 ; blans ganz, (1199) G. de D. 1539, 2459, 4335. (1)

For the use of the glove, cf. Enlart, 256 ; Viollet-le Duc, III, 395, Weinhold, II, 296 ; Grimm^[85], p. 209.

Ladies' gloves are mentioned by S. Aldhelm in the eighth century, (cf. Enlart, p. 256), and 1098 we read of a wantonem foemineum variis coloris distinctum in Murat. Ant. Ital. III, 648 (mentioned by Weinhold, II, 296, n. 4), but there are but few references to them in the Old French texts. In Amadas et Ydoine 1697, (cited by Gay and Viollet-le-Duc), a lady wears :

Pour le caut du soleil ardant,
A garandir ses beles mains…
Ot un blans gans de Castiaudun. (2)

Cf. Rom. de la Rose 563. Winter quotes (292) two passages from Folque de Candie where a lady's glove is mentioned, to which we may add :

(a 1200), Narcisus, 523 :

Les mains plus blancs que n'est nois,
Nues sans gans et sans orfrois. (3)

From the fact that on the tombs at Fontevrault, Richard Cœur de Lion (died 1199) is represented as wearing gloves, while Eleanor de Guyenne^[86], (died 1204) has none, and from the sparseness of reference to them in the texts, we may conclude that they were a less important part of the noble lady's costume than of the nobleman's. The more retired life of the mediaeval woman perhaps explains this difference. The earliest representation which I have noted of a woman's glove (of the gauntlet type), is in 1259 on the seal of Yolande de Bretagne, cf. Demay, fig. 43.

GARLANDESCHE, s. f.

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Garlandesche appears as a synonym of cercle, q. v.

(1169-73), Ivain, 2362 :

Sor son chief une garlandesche
Tote de rubiz atiriée…

Foerster defines it : Gewinde von Laub, Goldfaden u. a., Gehänge von Edelsteinen, Diadem, citing only this passage, from which the definition Gewinde von Laub can not be drawn. Godefroy gives the definition guirlande but omits in his citation of this passage the reference to its being decorated with rubies. Godefroy's other quotations from a later period also point to the garlandesche as being an artificial garland, rather than one of natural foliage.

GARMOS, s. m.

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Garmos, cited by Godefroy from a ms. of Guillaume d'Angleterre, since published by Foerster, cf. s. v. farder (2), is defined by him as tout ce qui sert à farder. The definition Schminke is given by Foerster. A more probable definition is suggested by M. Thomas^[87] who cites also a passage from Livre des Mestiers, LXXVI, 6 : on défend aux fripiers «de nule chause lange engarmouser, ce est a savoir de fesil de charbon et de huile» and says: Il m'apparaît comme très vraisemblable que le mot a pu être appliqué dans la langue des ouvriers à une preparation faite de charbon pilé et d'huile et à toute autre drogue analogue. Applying this suggestion to a possible use in the lady's toilet, garmos would be, instead of rouge, which has already been mentioned in the passage, an artificial dye, either a preparation of charcoal for darkening the eyebrows, or a dye for the hair. For proof that this latter process was resorted to in the Middle Ages, cf. Clef d'Amors, 2413,2151^[88].

GARNEMENT, s. m.

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Godefroy defines garnement as (1) défence, protection, (2) Tout ce qui garnit, équipement, armure, vêtement, ornement. I have noted several examples earlier than those given by Godefroy. With the meaning « equipment », guarnement occurs Chanson de Roland (ed. Müller), 100, 343, 1003. Other examples are :

(c1109), Pel., 83:

Et font pleines les males entre or fin et argent,
De vaissels, de deniers et d'autre guarnement. (1)

(1172-76), Chr.N., 38741 :

Tant riche orfreis, tant garnement
Et tant estruit d'or et d'argent… (2)

(c1130), Cor. L., Ms. C., 2119:

Les chevaliers faites par tot mander,
Toz cheus qui puent lor garnimens porter,
Et les serjans, que bien font a loer,
Qui ceval puent et garnimens porter. (3)

With the meaning vêtement :

(1150-55), Thèbes, 791 :

Li reis se lieve isnelement :
Onc n'i prist drap ne garnement,
Que solement sor sa chemise
Vesti une pelice grise. (4)

(c 1165) Troie, 13331 :

Son cors vesti e atorna
Des plus chiers guarnemenz qu'ele a. (5)

Cf. also Cov. V., 1799 ; Brut, 10631, 10692 ; Mort A. 2385 ; Erec, 1556 ; Trist., (B) 4025 ; Aspr., I, 4358.

Foerster has noted, Wb. to Chrétien, the appearance in (c 1170) Lanc., 5556 of garnement with the meaning « worthless fellow ». This meaning is given by Godefroy, Comp.,s. v. for a passage dated 1386. Other texts of the same century are cited by Littré, s.v., as Foerster states in his note to Lanc. 5556.

GIRONÉE, s. f. ; GIRON, s. m. ; GIRONÉ, adj.

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La gironée is the skirt of a dress as distinguished from the bodice or cors, q. v., (1), (2). There may be added to the passages just indicated the following :

(p 1200), Miserère, CIII :

Dieus se plaint de la gironée
Ki est par terre trainée…

(Cited by Godefroy, s. v. gironée). Godefroy's definition « tablier » finds no positive justification in any of the passages he quotes.

The adjective gironé as in bliaut (12),Fils A.,3621: bliaus gironés ; Mort. A., 2386: chainsez gironez, cf. also Biaus, 1523, Folq., 12579, and the noun giron, G. de B., 3222: bliaus entailliés à girons, occur much more frequently in describing tents, banners, sails and horse trappings than garments. A study of all these passages and comparison with the iconography should be made to determine the precise meaning.

For illustrations of la gironée cf. s. v. cors.

GOLE, s. f.

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The gole of a garment was the part around the throat, usually a border of fur, and engoulé means « provided with a gole or collar » ; cf. Godefroy., s. v. gole, engolé. The definition given is supported not only by the derivation from gula « throat », but also by passages in which tears fall on the goles :

(1150-55), Thèbes, 6375 :

Par la chière l'ève li cole,
Del peliçon moille la gole.   (1)

Cf. also Troie, 15544; G. de P., 2762 ; Athis,5218 ; Folq., 2163, 4220. The term is most frequently used in connection with the peliçon :

(a 1200), Alex., (Ms. 789) 1004 :

Peliçons ont de martre el d'ermins engoulés.   (2)

Doon R., 800 : …les goles de martres dou peliçon hermin. Aye 175 : Les gueules de l'ermin peliçon ; Mort G., 812 ; Folq., 7464 ; Saisnes, 7277 : goles de l'ermin peliçon ; Folq., 4220 : goles del peliçon ; Gorm., 496 ; Poème Mor., 507,2 : peliçon engoulé; Fils A., 3571,8867 ; Mon. G. II,77, 1064 ; Raoul, 5817 ; Ogier, 896, 1434,8921 ; Elie, 1694 ; Doon R., 105, 1571 ; Huon, 7164 : hermin engoulé ; Ver d. j., 434 ; Raoul, 6227 : go(u)les de martre.

Instead of fur, a border of gold embroidery is mentioned :

(p 1185), Ors., 901 :

Vestu ot un ermin angolé a or fin.   (3)

(p 1200), Aiol, 9824 :

Et peliçon hermin tout d'orfroi[s] engoulé …   (4)

and in the cock's dream of a peliçon, Ren., II, 141,

Les goles étoient d'os   (5)

A bliaut engoulé is mentioned Elie 1125, Herv., 1959, cf. also Raoul, 1553. With the meaning extended to that of « border in general », it occurs, referring to sleeves :

(1150-55), Thèbes, 3853 :

Les manches sont bien engoulées ;
A terre tochent, tant sont lées.   (6)

and to a cover on a bed :

(c 1200), Ogier, 8918 :

Li covertors d'un hermin engolé.   (7)

Viollet-le-Duc explains, IV, 110, mantiax engolez by saying that un capuchon est quelquefois adapté au col du manteau, but as the mantel does not appear in the iconography with a hood, this explanation may be rejected in favor of that given above. Viollet-le-Duc's assignment of the above passage to Cor. L., in G. d'O., 3737 is incorrect ; it occurs in the same volume in Aleschans, 3737.

The translation in Michelant's edition of Alexandre of engolée for 3, 17 : hermine engolé, as teinte en rouge is incorrect. Cf. mod. Fr. gueules, for an explanation of which, as used in heraldry, cf. Quicherat, 153 ; cf. also Enlart, p. 231.

Since we are not sure of the appearance of the peliçon in the illustrations, it is not possible to identify the goles either. Bands of embroidery around the neck of the bliaut or mantel are frequent, but I have noted none which appear to be made of fur.

GONE, s. f.

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The gone or gonele was a loose garment worn especially by members of religious orders. Godefroy's definition, s. v. gonele as longue cotte is preferable to that of Viollet-le-Duc, III, 413, as sorte de cape sans manches. The sobriquet Grisegonelle is applied to Geoffrey, Comte d'Anjou, 958-987, at least as early as 1037^[89]. It occurs also in a twelfth century text:

(a 1200), Aspr., I, 1744 :

…dans Joifrois de Paris,
Grise Gonele, uns dus de molt grant pris.   (1)

As the characteristic dress of a monk the gonele is mentioned as worn by Guillaume de Courb Nez, the typical soldier-monk :

(a 1140), Char. N., 1037 :

Le cuens Guillaume vesti une gonnele
De tel burel come il ot en la terre…   (2)

(c 1160), Mon. G., I, 150 :

Un moine apele,…
« Ales moi tost querre une noire gonne… »   (3)

(c 1170), Folq., 6433 :

Li cuens Guillelme…
D'un burel gris, n'iert pas de Normandie,
Fu sa gonele et s'aumuce fornie.   (4)

The bishop Thiodames wears a gone :

(1150-55), Thèbes, 5150 :

Ot vestu une neire gone
Et après sa char une haire.   (5)

Cf. also Char. N., 1315 ; Mon. G., II, 198, 338, 533; 2079 ; Vie S. Gil., 540.

That the gonele was a wide loose dress may be concluded from the passages :

(c 1160), Mon. G., I, 198 :

Quant nos avons cine aunes en nos gones,
Il est si grans que il l'en covient dose…   (6)

Cf. also Ales., 4147 ; Char. N., 1331 (cited by Viollet-le-Duc, III, 413).

As Godefroy has noted, it was worn in battle over the armor, and is mentioned as so used, in an early passage :

(1080 ?), Ch. de Guil., 1834 :

Colpet le piz suz la large gonele,
Mort le trebuchet des arçuns de la sele…   (7)

The choice of gonele here, rather than bliaut or peliçon, both of which were also worn over the armor, is probably determined by the rhyme, as also in other passages in which it is mentioned as worn in battle, Quatre Fils A., 15919 ; Chr. N., 5851, 32786 ; Trist., (B) 1013 ; Alex., (Mch.) 440, 30 ; Conq. J., 8364 ; Raoul, 1757, 4688. A bon verte corte gonele is worn by a hunter, in a passage from Part., 5063 which has been paraphrased by M. Enlart, p. 53. In Ren., I, 2020 ; II, 459, 619 ; III, 79, a gone or gonele is worn by animals typifying the lower classes of society. In the latter case it is probably a loose dress of cheap material, as burel, cf. (2), (4) above, as contrasted with the costly, fitted bliaul worn by nobles.

The woman's gone is also the mark of a religious order :

(c 1167), Ille, 4223 :

Un vol et une blance gone
Comme rencluse et comme none…   (8)

There are few other references to it as a woman's dress. Godefroy quotes the passages from Livres des Rois, II, 13, 18 :

La meschine fud vestue de une gunele ki li batid al talun.   (9)

It occurs also :

(c 1150), Floov., 1770 :

Puis vesti autres dras por desus sa gonnale.   (10)

(c 1200), Cart. Hosp. Dauph., 54 :

…e sa moller n'ag XVIII. sol. per una gonella.   (11)

44 :

…e l'Ospitauz donet li VIII sol. e sos filz n'ot
I gonella de X. sol.   (12)

For M. Lat. references to gone, cf. Du Cange, s. v. gunna, gunella.

We may identify the gone as the ordinary dress worn by monks. The reconstruction shown by Quicherat, p. 169, appears to be correct. The gone is the long under dress, and the outer garment slit up the side is the froc, (cf. Enlart, fig. 324). The gone is also shown in the dress worn by St. Peter and St. Paul, at Vézelay, Capital of the second pillar of the narthex, east side, and by the two monks on fol. 75 of the ms. Bib. Nat. 8846 (thirteenth century). The nun's gone is illustrated and described by Quicherat, p. 170, after an illustration in Herrad v. Landsberg, pl. LVI, LXXIX.

GRÈVE, s. f.

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Grève has been correctly defined by Godefroy and Gay as a part in the hair. Godefroy's quotation from a manuscript of Guillaume de Dole is line 4719 in the S.A.T.F. edition. Gay's example from Athis is line 3332 in the edition of the Ges. f. rom. Lit. Cf. also

(a 1200) Athis 2617 :

La greve ot droite et le front blanc…   (1)

2624 (ms. of Tours) :

La greve ot droite contre mont…   (2)

(c 1200), Gal., 1246 :

S'a suer son chief bien faire (read faite ?) greve…
Si depart les cheveux a droit.   (3)

Cf. also Floire, 2595.

A Hebrew commentary to the Song of Songs^[90], written in North France in the thirteenth century speaks, in commenting on Chapter IV, verse 1, of the « greve on the head of women which goes from the forehead to the nape of the neck », which is of course the case when the hair is braided in two treces, the popular style of the time. For illustrations see s. v. trece, and fig. 6, 7.

GUIMPLE, s. f.

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The guimple was a kind of woman's headdress, consisting of a piece of linen or silk wound around the head and neck in such a way that it could be drawn over the face ; the guimple also meant a pennant on a lance, or a band by which a shield is hung.

Guimple is generally conceded to be derived from the Germanic, cf. Diez, p. 608, and Kluge, s. v. wimpel ; the meaning « headdress » is found in O. H. G. wimpal, theristrum, (Graff); in M. H. G. wimpel« Stirnbinde », Kopftuch (Lexer), and in 0. E. wimpel « covering for head or neck », Stroebe, op. cit. Cf. also Enlart, Glossary s. v. guimpe, and Weinhold, II, 329. Viollet-le-Duc's description, III, 428, applies to the guimple as worn during the latter part of the twelfth century, as well as in the thirteenth and fourteenth. Godefroy's definition, ornement de tête is not sufficiently precise, as it might apply to a crown, bandeau or comb. Terms very nearly synonymous with guimple are touaille, orel, but guimple appears more frequently than either of these, and is found in the French texts at an earlier date, 1160-70 in Eracle, Erec, Enéas, Troie and Chronique des Ducs de Normandie, cf. below. Perhaps the oldest example is found in the Glossary of Tours, 1.95 : Hoc peplum et mamphora, wimple rubeum.

There is no doubt as to the material and manner of wearing the guimple in the thirteenth century, in which illustrations are numerous, (cf. below), but in the twelfth century, especially toward the middle, it is more difficult to tell just what form the guimple took. It is mentioned as deliée e blanche :

(c 1180), Perc., 8310 :

… une guimple deliée…
Por bendiaus faire i covenroit.

(Ed B.), 6913 :

Por bien lier (his wounds) i covandroit.

8316:

La guimple a de son chief ostée
Qui molt fu deliie e blance…   (1)

It is white in Piram., 687 :

Vit la guimple blanchoiier.   (2)

and twice in Galerent (7), (8) below. As these are the same adjectives which are applied to chainsil, q. v. we may assume that in these cases the guimple was of linen. This is supported by the fact that it is used to make bandages for a wound, cf. (1) above and Prot., 5851. It is spoken of as of silk, (3), (11) below and S.S., 4468 :

Et si ot guimple en sa frence (?)
De soie qui fu desguissée.   (3)

Were it not for the fact that these two lines are the conclusion of a description of a lady's dress, we might interpret guimple as the pennant of a lance. As it is, the passage is obscure.

The guimple is worn over the face as a veil :

(c 1159), Richeut, 1076 :

Tint soi moult simple
Qu'il ne s'averte, mist sa guimple
Sor son viaire.   (4)

(c 1164), Erec, 3981 :

Por le hasle et por la poudriere,
Mist sa guinple devant sa chiere.   (5)

(p 1170), G. d'A., 2561 :

Jusqu'au manton sa guinple avale.   (6)

(c 1200), Gal., 4164 :

Ne veult que nus on vis la voye,
Ainz chevauche toute la voye,
Soubz sa blanche guimple embronchie.   (7)

6945 :

De blanche guymple est atournée ;
S'en a repost e[t] nez et face.   (8)

(a 1200), Athis, 4663 :

Enbruncha soi desoz sa guinple…   (9)

(c 1200), Doon R., 2974 :

De l'eve de ses ieus fu la guimple moillié.   (10)

Cf. also Perc., 8195 ; Gal., 5229, 7268 ; Ille, 1264 ; Esc., 4904 ; Rou, III, 540 ; Biaus, 2384.

That the guimple was wound around the head and not merely worn over the face as a veil is indicated by the use of the verb lier, q. v. to signify its adjustment, and also by a passage from La Mort Aymeri, where knights are disguising themselves in women's clothing :

2388 :

De chieres guinples de soie d'otre mer,
Estroitement ferons nos chiés bender
Que ne reluisent li vert elme jemé.   (11)

The guimple was then worn around the head as a turban ; in this case it was also arranged so that it could be drawn over the face, for one of these knights thus disguised is mistaken by Corsolz for his sweetheart:

2625 :

Besier le vult, mes la guinple est devant.

In one case a gem is worn on the guimple :

(p. 1200), Enf. G., 1762 :

Une escharboucle ot devant en sa guimple.   (12)

An illustration of this of about the same date is seen as worn by one of the figures formerly at S. Denis, (c 1135)^[91], reproduced in Montfaucon, I, pl. XVII.

It is to be noted that in Galerent, Escoufle and Athis it is a young girl who wears the guimple, and in Richeut a bourgeoise, so that it is not confined to the nobility, nor is it the mark of a married woman or widow.

When the guimple was removed, it was replaced by a chaplet to hold the hair in place :

(1153-88), Part., 4891 :

Et vient sans guimple, eschievelée,
A an filet d'or galonée.   (13)

(c 1200), Ogier, 1029 :

Osté sa guinple por le caut qu'ele avoit,
En son chief mist un capelet estroit…   (14)

The guimple is distinguished from the coife, q. v.

The only example of a verb guimpler which I have noted, besides that from L. Reis, IV, 9, 30, (quoted by Godefroy), is :

(1174-90), Prot., 12468 :

De grosse gimple s'est gimplé[e].   (15)

When the guimple is worn by men, there is a special situation. In the Chanson d'Antioche, II, 764, cf.jupe (1), it is a question of Saracen warriors, and in this case, as suggested by a note of P. Paris, guimple is probably to be understood as « turban ». For the passage Doon R. guintes sarrazines, 3160, cf. s.v.afublé (19 f). In Trist. (B) it is again a question of disguise ; Tristan has his face covered with a black veil, cf. voil (4), and, 3994 :

Une guinple blanche de soie
Out Governal sor son chief mise :
N'en pert que l'uel en nule guise.   (16)

A guimple plays a leading role in Piramus, 671, 678, 718 etc., but it is not described, except as in (2) above. In a list of other accessories of a lady's toilet it occurs Troie, 14701 ; Athis, 8617, 14616 ; Part., 10119 ; Gal., 4279 ; Erac., 2168, cf. also s. v. lier.

As a pennant on a lance the guimple was given by the lady as a gage, as was the manche :

(c 1164), Erec, 2138 :

La ot tante vermoille ansaigne…
Et tante guinple et tante manche…   (17)

(1174-90), Ipom., 3172 :

E funt afermer en ces lances
Guimples de druerie e manches…   (18)

Cf. also Enéas, 9334; Chr. N., III, 33310 ; Biaus, 5580. In these cases guimple as a pennant seems to be a derived use, but it is possible that the original meaning was merely « strip of cloth », which could be used for various purposes, as a headdress, a pennant, or as a band by which the shield is hung. The last sense, « shield-strap » is not given in Godefroy, in Gay, nor by Foerster in his glossary for Chretien's works. It is supported by only two passages from Perceval, but its use there is clear :

(p 1206), Perc., 15573 :

…i. escu…
La guimple en fu d'un bon drap pers.   (19)

18652 :

Par la guimple a son col le pent.   (20)

Some early styles of the guimple are shown by Quicherat, p. 142, 143, 145. As seen on one of the statues of the Portail Royal at Chartres, cf. Enlart, fig. 24, it is not lié estroitement, but consists of a long strip worn loosely over the head and under the chin with one end thrown over the shoulder, and a crown is worn over it. Other twelfth century styles are shown in fig. 11; Strutt, pl. XL; Herrad v. Landsberg, pl. XIII. Illustrations in the thirteenth century are very frequent in the manuscripts. Cf. Bib. Nat. lat. 8846, fol. 64, 84, 92, etc. ; lat. 10525, fol. LXVII etc.; Bib. Ars. 1186, fol. XXX ; in the statues, cf. Enlart, fig. 180-182, 184 ; and the tombs, cf. that of Eleanor of Guyenne at Fontevrault, cf. also Quicherat, p. 183, 186.

JUPE, s. f.

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The jupe seems to have been a short upper garment worn by both men and women. Its etymology has been debated, Regnaud^[92] thinking it of Germanic origin on account of the existence of the O. N. kiupa along with Germ. güppe and joppe, while Diez^[93], Dozy^[94], and Pihan^[95] find the origin in the Arabian aljubbah. The latter opinion finds support in the texts, as it is mentioned as a garment worn by Saracens.

(a 1200), Chan. d'A., II, 764 :

Les guimples lor destrenchent et lor jupes d'orfrois.

VIII, 820 :

Les clavains lor desrompent et les jupes d'orfrois.   (1)

(a 1200), Aspr., 215 :

S'est d'une jupe de palie despollié (pagan messenger)
Et remest sengles el bliaut entallié…   (2)

(c 1200), Con. J., 5665 :

Li Amiraus (of Persia) avoit une jupe vestie ;
De sadoine ert li dras plus vermax d'une alie ;
a forreure en est de beste marmorie…
De perres presioses fu la jupe closie…
.i. topasse ot Sodans a son col, qui verdie.   (3)

(cited by Viollet-le-Duc, IV, 61).

The earliest appearance of jupe I have noted is 1165 in Middle Latin, Obert's Annales Genuenses^[96] as juppum, a military garment, as cited by Du Gange, from Muratori^[97].

Booty gathered on the battle field includes Aq. 1090:

Jupes de peiles, ciclatons de cendé.   (4)

G. de B., App. Episode des Chétifs, p. 256 :

(in battle is worn a) jupe qui de vair ert forée…   (5)

This same use is seen in (1), (3) above, while in (2) it is worn by a messenger. Porphilias wears :

(a 1200), Athis, 18497 :

…un jupel cort d'auqueton,
Porpoint et forré de coton…   (6)

Schultz concludes, II, 198, and probably rightly, that the jupe was a short jacket, from a passage in Lanzelet describing a mantel, which reached only to the belt like a juppe.

(c 1200), Lanzelet, 6062^[98] :

Dô war er (the mantel) als ein juppe
daz er ir fürnamens nie
fir den gurtel nidergie.   (7)

A knight who is ill in bed wears a jupe de porpre, Perc., 21251.

A lady's jupe is mentioned in Herv., 2940, 2972, 3268 as ma grant jupe de gris. It is worn over the bliaut, Herv., 882, but a mantel is also worn. In Esc., 3997, Aelis wears a cote, a coterel and a chape, and in 4414, a continuation of the same episode, she is described as taking off the chape and the jupe on account of the heat, and remaining in her cote, so that jupe and coterel are used synonymously, and jupe appears to be a small (short) cote, as the man's jupe is described above.

As is evident from the passages quoted, the jupe was made of various fabrics and also of fur, or trimmed with fur. It appears as an expensive garment :

(1153-88), Part., 7457 :

Ele a une jupe porprine,
Bien faite a oevre sarasine :
Saingle est por le caure d'esté,
Liié d'un orfrois bendé
Al cief des mances et al col :
Li gent i musent comme fol.
Li fremail desos le menton
Sont de rubi et li boton.   (8)

It seems from this and from (3) that there was an opening in front closed by jeweled buttons and a brooch at the neck. I have found no authority for Quicherat's statement, p. 164, that it was a tight fitting garment hooked up the side. The front opening described above would seem to indicate the contrary. The illustration from Herrad v. Landsberg, pl. LX, shown by Quicherat, p. 164, and called a jupe, is certainly a bliaut, of which we have definite knowledge that it was laced up the side, while this detail is never mentioned of the jupe. M. Enlart, p. 37, has followed Quicherat in his description of the jupe as made of toile gaufrée, but I have not been able to find any passage which authorizes this.

An interesting question of dating comes up in regard to the appearance of jupe in the texts. With the possible exception of Partonopeus, all the other French texts in which jupe occurs as a civilian dress are well toward the end of the twelfth century. Partonopeus is thought by Kawczynski to have been written in 1153 ; Voretzsch gives the terminus ad quern as 1188 ; the appearance of jupe in this text may indicate the later date to be more nearly correct^[99].

The variant corset for jupe in ms. P. of Athis, cf. (6) above, is certainly a change made by a later scribe. The variant of ms. V. sorcot might date either from the end of the twelfth century or any time in the thirteenth.

A change in meaning which has taken place is to be noted in regard to the word jupe : in German the words jope, jobbe, jupe have remained in use to denote a waist (Jacke)^[100]. In French jupe has come to designate a woman's skirt, and jupon an underskirt. Racinet^[101] states that the change took place in the first half of the 18th century, when the jupe was divided into corps de jupe and bas de jupe. The same change in use, i.e., a garment originally covering the whole body becoming in some cases a garment for the upper part merely and in others for the lower, has taken place in Eng. skirt, from ON. skyrta, « shirt », while the cognate OE. scyrte gives Eng. shirt^[102]; also OE. cote gives Eng. coat and petticoat, and OHG. roc gives Mod. G. Rock which is a coat as a man's garment and a skirt as a woman's.

There is no illustration of this period which can be pointed to with certainty as being a jupe. Viollet-le-Duc's elaborate reconstruction, IV, 63, of the man's « jube orientale » (the source of which I have not been able to identify) is possibly correct. Investigation of the many illustrations of the Magi^[103] in this period show them usually represented as in the contemporary occidental dress, but one illustration in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Lat. 12117, fol. 108, reproduced by Viollet-le-Duc, III, 70, similar in many respects to his reconstruction, IV, 63, may also represent the oriental jupe as worn by men. A Spanish monument of the twelfth century^[104] shows a lady's garment, the cut of which differs from the usual French fashion in having an upper over blouse reaching only a few inches below the waist line, and this may be one style cf a woman's jupe, as it corresponds in some of its details to the description in Part. (8) above. If jupe is of Arabic origin, as seems likely, it presumably entered Europe by way of Spain, and this special style may also have come from there.

LAZ, s. m. pl. ; LACIER, vb.

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Laz are lacings ; lacier means to lace. Godefroy does not treat laz or lacier with reference to costume ; for their use with armor, cf. Comp. s. v. laz. I have noted no cases of laciere or laçon before 1200.

The tight fitting bliaut of the twelfth century was adjusted to the figure by means of lacings on the sides, as is evident from the illustrations, (cf. below), as well as the texts. The undergarment, the chemise, is occasionally mentioned as laced, cf. infra (14), chemise (14-17), and the references to the outer dress, on which the lacings were visible, are frequent : the bliaut is several times mentioned as laced, cf. bliaut, II, 28-32 ; III, 15, and the chainse twice, cf. chainse (6), chemise (17), but the cote, jupe, gonelle, and peliçon are not so described. The examples below in which lacing is mentioned without specific reference to the type of dress indicate probably that the nobleman or lady was wearing a bliaut, as the materials are those of which the bliaut was made. References to lacing are also frequent in MHG., cf. Weinhold, II, 262, 277.

The man's dress is laced :

(c 1159), Richeut, 626 :

Ses costez lace a longues franjes…   (1)

(p 1164), Erac., 3462 :

D'uns dras de soie bien viestus;
Se fut molt bien laciés as las.   (2)

(1160-74), Rou, III, 1883 :

Par les flancs a laz s'estreneient…   (3)

(1160-70), Floire (1st ver.), 2587 :

Reube porprine vestue ot ;
Si fu laciés au mius qu'il pot.   (4)

(a 1200), Athis, 3941 :

Gent desfublé, estroit lacié…   (5)

The lady's dress is also laced :

(c 1160 ?), Philom., 207 :

An un samit estoit laciée…   (6)

(c 1167), Ille, 3090 :

Et je suis assez costumiere…
De moi lacier et de bender.   (7)

(1174-90), Prot., 10810 :

Vestue ert ben la dameisele…
Lacée en un vermel samit…   (8)

(1153-88), Part., 8005 :

…laz de soie a lor costés…   (9)

(a 1200), Athis, 8654 :

Qui de cors ot bele façon :
A laz se vest estroitement
Et se demostre bonemant.   (10)

(1199) G. de D., 196:

…tante dame estroite a laz…   (11)

The extreme of this fashion, with a reproof from the poet, appears :

(a 1200), Poème Mor., 129 :

Esgardiez grant folie : si forment lace et loie
Les braz et les costeiz k'a grant paine soi ploe.   (12)

The passage Richeut (ed. Méon), 1037 :

D'orfrois li lace les deus costez, et entrebrace…   (13)

has been changed in Lecompte's edition to et en rebrace, but as O. F. entrebracier is a synonym of embracier (cf. Godefroy, s. v.), it is thinkable that in this passage entrebrace is simply a synonym for lace, and is the preferable reading.

A passage in Athis appears in one version to refer to a chemise as laced :

(a 1200), Athis, 6833 :

De cheinsil vest une chemise ;
N'ot pas mellor de si qu'an Frise :
A boutons d'or li fu fermée
Soz le manton la colerée.
Par devers destre li laz fu,
Et li braz furent bien vestu.   (14)

But after 6836 there follows in B :

Et desor un rice bliaut
Qe ses dis pois de fin or vaut  . (15)

This reading is preferable, as the next garment put on, 1. 6845, is the mantel, and Gaite then, 6939, goes for a ride on horseback. With this reading of B, the lacing on the right refers to the bliaut and not to the chemise.

Cf. also Erac., 2003, 3376 ; Floov., 1762.

A paraphrase for a laced dress is estroitement vestue :

(c 1160), Enéas, mss. GFD, p. 391 :

Estroitement estoit vestue.   (16)

(1150-55), Thèbes, 2579 :

Bien ert vestue estreit son cors.   (17)

Cf. Conq. J., 2699, and s. v. ceinture (10), bliaut (25) (29).

The verb estraindre is also used :

(1153-88), Part., 10649 :

En estant se sont afublées,
Et estraintes et acesmées.   (18)

(p 1200), Elie, 1695 :

D'une lasnete d'or ot estrai[n]s les costés…   (19)

(Cited by Godefroy, s. v. lasnete). Cf. also Erec 1649.

The form destraint occurs Ille, 6270.

The lacings were sometimes arranged so that the chemise showed :

(1153-88), Part., 4885 :

Vestue est d'un vermeil samit,
Si n'en a lacié c'un petit ;
Li cors pert par som la çainture,
Parmi le las, en la devise,
Pert la blançors de la cemise.   (20)

The fashion which has been described under bliaut,II, (31), (32), chemise (17) and fresel (3), of lacing both the dress and the chemise in such a manner as to expose the flesh on the sides is also referred to :

(1174-90), Ipom., 2219 :

De chef en chef lacé esteit ;
Sa nue char parmi pareit
Tut des la centure en amunt.   (21)

This fashion is described by both Quicherat, p. 185, and M. Enlart, p. 60, as belonging to the thirteenth century. It is, however, a fashion of the twelfth century, when the laced bliaut made it possible, as is indicated by the texts cited here. I have observed no signs of this style in the iconography of the thirteenth century.

When the word lacié indicates a manner of fastening the mantel, it is probably synonymous with atachier. There is no evidence in the frequent illustrations of the mantel for parallel sets of eyelets for lacing as on the bliaul, but as the ataches of the mantel were passed though the tassel, q. v., the crossing and tieing of these would be equivalent to a lacing :

(1160-74), Rou, III, 5883 :

Sovent a son mantel lacié,
Et sovent l'a desatachié.   (22)

Cf. also Trist. (B) 1981 ; Enf. G., 2419 ; Part., 4903, and mantel (14) espine (2).

The laz are described as of silk (9) and as of orfrois (13) above. They are given as a gage, Athis 14624 ; Marie, Fraisne 127. They are mentioned in lists of other accessories of costume, Perc., 21439 ; Athis, 8619 ; Part., 6274 ; Gal., 1163. The word orlaz which occurs Troie 1245 : A ses cheveus esteit orlaz is not found in Godefroy. It is defined by Constans in the Glossary to Troie as résille de fil d'or, but there is no evidence in the illustrations at this date of a net worn on the hair such as there is in the thirteenth century. Other synonyms are lasnete, cf. above (19), frange (1) and fresel, (3), (7). Laz is also used figuratively Troie 1294, 15175, 17688, etc. The passage, Gal., 5045 : Qui le tient priz aux courans laz, is explained by Boucherie in the notes in his edition of Galerent as noeud coulant.

For illustrations in the second half of the twelfth century of the dress laced on the sides see Schultz, I, fig. 46, 51, 53. Viollet-le-Duc's reconstruction, III, 43, of the dress of the statue called Clotilde, (reproduced also in Schultz, I, fig. 45) showing the bliaut laced up the back is probably not correct, for all references to lacing are as at the sides of the dress. His reconstruction of the lacing of a mantel, IV, 71, is very possibly correct.

LIER, vb.

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When used with reference to costume, lier is a specific term indicating the manner of adjusting the guimple. It is defined in Godefroy, Comp. s. v. lier as lacer, with a thirteenth century example from which no definite conclusion can be drawn ; Cf. also s. v. jupe (8). Other passages, however, make clear its use :

(c 1200), Gal., 6715 :

D'une blanche guymple ausques lée
Lie son chief tout environ,
Et dessur met son chapperon…   (1)

(a 1200), Chan. d'A., VIII, 491 :

En son lient lor guimples pour au vent refremir.   (2)

(1199), G. de D., 4371 :

…ele se ceint et lia
De sa guimple et de sa ceinture…   (3)

It is used as synonymous with bender :

(a 1200), Mort Aym., 2388 :

De chieres guinples de soie d'otre mer
Estroitement ferons nos chies bender…   (4)

2544:

Estroitement lient lor chies de guinples.   (5)

Illustrations of the guimple. q. v. show that it was worn wrapped around the head and under the chin. We may then infer that lier means to adjust the guimple in this manner, and, when the verb occurs without an object, that the guimple is meant :

(1160-74), Rou, III, 575 :

Bien iert vestue e bien chauciée,
Bien afublée e bien liée.   (6)

(a 1200), Aye, 184 :

Bele dame s'acesme et vest et chauce et lie.   (7)

(c 1180), Perc., 8257 :

Issi la puciele est montée
Si s'est liié et affublée.   (8)

(a 1204), Esc., 3863 :

Ele se chauce et vest et lie…   (9)

Conversely, in the two following passages, the lady who is on horseback does not wear the customary guimple :

(1172-76), Chr. N., 31352 :

Senz seie lier est si montée…   (10)

(c 1170), Lanc., 2795 :

Une pucele…
Venir sor une fauve mure
Desafublée et desliiée.   (11)

Deslier in the passage in Esc., 7048 : Ele estoit toute desliée is translated in the Glossary as délier, dégrafer (une dame).

(1169-73), Ivain, 5199 :

…desliiées et desçaintes…   (12)

(c 1180), Perc., 4904 ; Erec, 739 :

Desliiée et desafublee…   (13)

are interpreted by Foerster (Glos.) as ohne Gürtel. In all these texts desliée means « without a guimple ». Cf. s. v. desafublé.

As the espression em pur le cors is equivalent to desafublé q. v., so em pur le chief is synonymous with deslié. I have noted only one example of this :

(c 1200), G. de P., 7077 :

Em pur le chies et desliiés,
Mult erent bien apareilliés…   (14)

For illustrations of what is meant by lier, cf. fig. 11 and s. v. guimple.

LISTE, s. f.

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Liste may be defined as « a band of embroidery used for decoration », and the past participle listé as bordered, or decorated with a band. Godefroy, s. v. liste, listé adds to this idea the definition frange, for which I have found no justification, cf. s.v. frange. Lislt and listé are almost synonymous with bende, bendé, q. v. but are less often used.

The most frequent occurrence of listé is as an epithet applied to a shield or to the walls or pavement of a palace.

(a 1108), Rol., 3150:

D'or est la bucle e de cristal listé…   (1)

(c 1165), Troie, 14810, 22248, 22299 :

…le pavement listé…   (2)

16809 :

Et si ot d'or plus de set listes (le pavement)   (3)

(1170-90), Mon. G., II, 3529 :

…mon marbre listé…  (4)

3542:

…cel palais listé…   (5)

(c 1180), Raoul, 5289, 5818, 8226 :

…palais listé…   (6)

4074, 6638 :

…escu listé…   (7)

(1190-95), Pr. de C., 696, 828 :

…mabre listé…   (8)

2163 :

…palais listé…   (9)

1186:

…escus listés…   (10)

(a 1200), Aiol, 4951 :

…escus a or listés…   (11)

Cf. also Godefroy, s. v. listé.

In German, whence the word liste comes, it is used as early as about 1140 to mean « bands of gold embroidery » :

(c 1140), Rolandslied (Konrad), 1611 :

…einen blîalt
ûz golde geweben.
tha mahte man wole sehen
thie tiuren goltporten,
wâhe geworhte.
zobel was thar under.
thiu lîste nithene umbe…   (12)

Cf. also Erac., (Otte) 1934, Herzog Ernst, 3078, and the passages in Lexer, s. v. liste.

This meaning of strips of embroidery, worked in gold thread, and used either to edge a garment or to join its seams, is clear also in the Old French texts :

(a 1204), Esc., 8920 :

Une grant liste d'or, qui fine
La ou dras faut, bordoit entour
Le mantel…   (13)

(a 1200), Mort A., 306 :

A listes d'or furent conjoint li pan… (of the mantel)   (14)

(c 1200), Gal., 4788 :

Des robes pairent d'or les listes.   (15)

2010 :

Listé d'un[e] liste d'or…   (16)

Listé is used with bendé, q. v. : (p 1200), G. de B., 1780 :

Chascuns avoit bliaut, ou hermin pelichon,
As bendes d'or listées entor et environ…   (17)

In one case the border is of the skin of a more or less real fish :

(a 1200), Athis, 6895 :

E la liste (of the mantel) fu d'un poisson ;
En Oriant lo troeve l'on,
Mes ce n'avient mie sovant
Qu'il puist venir as meins de gent.   (18)

Its earliest appearance as used on garments is (p 1160) in Erec, 6672, cf. s. v. orfrois (4).

Bands of embroidery edging the mantel and the hem of the bliaut are very frequently found in the iconography, cf. fig. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10 and s. v. orfrois. They are also used on the sleeve to cover the seam where the material is pieced. Cf. Quicherat, 149, 152, 158, 162 ; Enlart, fig. 21 bis, 25 bis.

MANCHE, s. f.

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The meaning of manche as the sleeve of a dress needs no discussion, as it is well established. It is of interest, however, to compare the texts with the iconography of the period as an aid in clearing up some obscure passages, and possibly as an aid in dating texts.

The wide and long sleeves which the manuscripts and statues show us to have been one of the striking characteristics of the court dress of the period are mentioned in the texts :

(1150-55), Thèbes, 3853 :

Les manches sont bien engolées ;
A terre tochent, tant son lées.   (1)

9372:

…le cors esvente
O une lée mance hermine…   (2)

(a 1200), Ver d. j., B., 437 :

Et les manches de paile par terre trainant…   (3)

(c 1180), Perc., (B), 5415 :

Une manche bien longue e lée…   (4)

By manche ridée in Alex., 122, 19 ; Part., 8007, mance froncée, Doon R., 2568, we may understand an accordion pleated sleeve of the type seen on the statue called Clotilde, cf. Quicherat, p. 162, and s. v. ridé, froncé.

A wide sleeve is implied, (cf. [2] above), in the passage

(a 1200), Aye, 3104 :

De la manche d'ermine l'esvente et esbalaie.   (5)

Cf. also (c 1200), Gal., 4952 :

Esmerée…
A ris souvent dessouz sa manche…   (6)

Articles were sometimes carried in the sleeve, as Viollet-le-Duc has noted, IV, 83. He reconstructs a type of sleeve with which this would be possible, as it would be with a sleeve of the « maunch » or English heraldic type^[105].

(c 1150), Floov., 1762 :

Ja ai ici un dras en ma mange senestre.   (7)

(Cited by Winter [112]).

(a 1150), Vie Pape Gr., 76, 14 ;

Les tables trai fors de sa manche.   (8)

In a passage in Alex. (Mch.) 508, 15 the king obliges all those who serve him at table to remove the sleeves from their cotes and to serve him bare armed, as he fears to be poisoned. Stones are carried in the sleeves, Chan. d'A. VIII, 491.

Very tight sleeves are noted once as a departure from the usual custom :

(c 1180), Perc., 6364 : ed. B. 4948 :)

…la mandre (younger daughter)
Qui si cointement se vestoit
De manches qu'apelée estoit
La pucele as manches petites
Que es bras les avoit escrites.   (9)

Baist omits escrit from his glossary. The meaning brodé is sometimes possible for escrit^[106],and is suitable; here it is some times used with the meaning dessiné, i.e. « outlined », as suggested in the glossary of La Clef d'Amors, 2513^[107] :

Grans mameles soient bendées
Ou en tel chemise serrées,
Ou les formes soient escrites
De .ii. mameletes petites.   (10)

The word also occurs Athis 6851.

The sleeve fitting well at the wrist is not necessarily the upper sleeve ; it may refer equally well to the sleeve of the under garment, which is always visible when the upper sleeve is wide and falls away from the arm, for a striking characteristic of this period, as noted in the introduction, is that the arm is always covered completely by a long tight fitting sleeve. How was this tightness of fit provided for? M. Enlart, p. 53, explains it by assuming that the sleeve was sewed over the forearm every time it was put on. On avait abandonné, vers 1180 ou 1200 les vastes manches de bliauds qui balayaient le sol, et l'on passa a une exagération opposée. Les manches, assez amples de l'épaule au coude, devinrent excessivement ajustées du coude au poignet. Impossible d'y passer les mains si elles n'eussent été boutonnées, mais divers monuments figurés, pourtant, exécutés avec soin et correction, montrent des manches sans boulons et parfaitement collantes. La littérature fournit l'explication de cette étrangeté ; vers 1200, en effet, le roman de Guillaume de Dole décrit le tableau d'une très noble compagnie qui va s'ebattre au bois le matin :

261 :

Toz deschaus, manches descousues,   (11)

et plus loin on y dépeint les pucelles s'occupant à recoudre les manches avec le fil qu'elles ont emporté dans leurs aumônières. (272). Plus loin encore, en décrivant les préparatifs d'un tournoi, l'auteur note qu'on apporte du fil pour coudre les manches des chevaliers (2581). Donc, quelque étrange que soit cette mode, nous ne pouvons la révoquer en doute : lorsqu'on s'était vêtu, on se faisait coudre les manches qu'il fallait ensuite découdre pour se dévêtir.

Other passages referring to the custom of sewing the sleeves are :

(1169-73), Ivain, 5420 :

Chemise ridée li tret
Fors de son cofre et braies blanches
Et fil et aguille a ses manches,
Si li vest et ses braz li cost.   (12)

(1194-97), Vers de la mort, X, 11 :

… tu fais t'aguille enfiler
Dont tu lor veus cosdre lor manches.   (13)

(p 1206), Perc., 19007 :

Mesire Gauvains le vesti (the auqueton)
A son brac sa mance cousi…   (14)

The same custom appears also in MHG.

(c 1204), Erac., (Otte), 1943 :

dâ wart benaet manec arm…   (15)

(1200-1210), Athis Pr., C*. 65 :

ir arme sûbre virnât
sô die werlt noch site hât.   (16)

This sewing the sleeves over the forearm is a perfectly logical explanation of the passages above. It is supported, moreover, by an illustration of a manche descousue in the caricature of the devil in women's clothes mentioned under bliaut, p. 48. Here one sleeve is exaggeratedly long as a symbol of extravagance, and the other is unsewed, leaving the forearm exposed, as a sign of slovenliness. The passage

(c 1200), G. de P., 5160 :

bien lacié et bien cousue   (17)

may then be interpreted « her bodice well laced, and her sleeves neatly sewed over the forearm ». A second explanation of coudre les manches, as given by Quicherat, 184 ; Schultz, I, 190, is far from satisfactory. On the basis of the fact that a sleeve was often given by a lady to a knight as a gage, they conclude that the sleeves were removable from the dress, and that the whole sleeve was sewed into the arm's eye each time the dress was put on. Granting the fact that the extremely wide sleeves of a bliaut must have been cut separate from the bodice, and therefore could easily be removed and given as a gage, there is no reason for thinking that the sleeves were sewed into the armhole each time after the dress was put on. In the first place, this is a very tedious operation, compared with sewing the sleeve at the wrist; and in the second place the necessity would not exist as it did in the case of the tight sleeve, as M. Enlart has shown. It is true that manches de rechange were worn with the surcot in the second half of the thirteenth century, (cf. Enlart, p. 55), but there is no direct evidence of this for the twelfth century, and, as a rule, the sleeve appears to have been cut in one piece with the dress. The adjective estroitement used in a passage from Roman de la Rose, 560, (cited by Meyer in his edition of Flanenca [1865], p. 315, n. 2) :

Bien e bel e estroitement
Ot andeus cousues ses manches.   (18)

could hardly apply to the manner of sewing the sleeve at the arm's eye. M. Enlart's explanation, that the sleeve was sewed over the lower arm to provide for the fashionable snugness of fit, is so much more reasonable for our century that we may accept it without hesitation. Another way of providing for the tight fitting sleeve was by lacing instead of sewing. This is mentioned :

(c 1180), C. de P., 1439 :

De soie desronpent lor las
Dont avoient lacié lor bras.   (19)

(c 1200), G. de P., 7934 :

Li ont les deux biax bras laciés.   (20)

Cf. also laz (12). An illustration of a sleeve laced over the forearm in the thirteenth century is shown in Quicherat, p. 183, which is an additional bit of evidence in favor of M. Enlart's theory.

A passage in Flamenca 2225 :

Guilhens lava, pois si cusi
Las margas (manches) mout cortesamen
Ab un' agulleta d'argent.   (21)

is translated by M. Meyer, op. cit., p. 315, as laça élégamment ses manches au moyen d'un passe-lacet d'argent, but there is no reason for not using the literal translation of coudre and aiguille as « sewed with a needle of silver », since we have other texts in which the same custom is mentioned, and since lacing and sewing seem to be differentiated in (17) above.

The sleeves given as a gage mentioned above are frequently referred to in the texts :

(c 1170), Folq., 10443 :

Et Fol s'i prent, s'amie, li ot fait envoier
De son bliaut la manche d'un blanc dyaspre chier.   (22)

Such a manche is carried as a banner :

(c 1165), Troie, 15176 :

La destre manche de son braz
Nueve e fresche d'un ciglaton
Li bailie en lieu de confanon.   (23)

Cf. also Gal., 5915 ; Alex., (Mch), 122, 19; Athis, 14624; Erec, 2140 ; Ivain, 5423; Enéas, 9331 ; Doon N., 177.

It was worn on the right arm :

(a 1177), Alex., (Mch.), 401, 7 :

Et porte en son brac destre une mance s'amie ;
De fin or et de pieres ert environ heudie.   (24)

Cf. also Esc., 1140.

The expression tenir les manches remains to be explained. This occurs :

(p 1170), G. d'A., 2564 :

Et l'an li a l'eve donée
As mains qu'ele ot beles et blanches ;
Li rois li vet tenir les manches…   (25)

(a 1177), Alex., (Mch.), 413, 16 :

Il a demandé l'iave, on li porte devant ;
Ses mances tout por l'iave li tiennent doi enfant.   (26)

(c 1200), Gal, 4795 :

Au laver li tient une manche
Un ducs et l'autre une duchesse…   (27)

(1199), G. de D., 393 :

Li vallet saillent erroment
Por l'eve as bacins, si la donent.
Sachiez que maint s'i abandonent
Por tenir au bon roi ses manches…   (28)

This custom as explained by Schultz, I,225, with examples from S.S. 4709, 4968, was that the long and full sleeves of the upper dress were an embarrassment in washing the hands, hence the custom, considered as a privilege in the case of royalty, of holding them back. But these wide sleeves disappear toward the end of the century, (cf. introduction, p. 12), and the necessity for the custom would no longer exist, therefore a text of doubtful date like Galerent, in which this custom is mentioned, may be ascribed to the period when the custom still existed, i.e. the end of the twelfth century, rather than to 1230, the date assigned to it by Gaston Paris^[108].

For references to illustrations, cf. introduction, p. 11.

MANICLES. s. m. pl.

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The meaning of manicles may be bracelet as Laborde maintains. The word occurs at the end of a description of a lady's jupe, q. v. (8) :

(1153-88), Part., 7465 :

Si brac sont fors par les manicles,
Qui sont faites d'or et d'onicles.

(Godefroy and Gay print fort). This passage is incorrectly placed by Godefroy, s.v. manicle, under the definition partie de l'armure qui couvrait la main. Godefroy gives the meaning « bracelet » only for much later texts. I have noted no other examples, nor any illustrations of bracelets worn in our period. It is possible that manicles may mean « cuffs of the sleeve », (cf. Murray, s. v. manacle « handcuff »), and that the gold and onyx may refer to the ornamentation on these. Such cuffs are very frequent in our period, cf. fig. 7, 9. This meaning would also be somewhat similar to that of manicle given by Godefroy, cf. supra. The usual word for bracelet was bou, q. v. in Godefroy, for which I have noted no examples as worn by women.

MANTEL, s. m.

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The mantel was an integral part of the costume of a person of rank, essential to a complete toilet. The lower classes wore the chape, as did nobles on a journey, or in bad weather, but are not mentioned as wearing a mantel, which, while permitted to the lower nobility, was distinctly a sign of rank. Towards the end of the twelfth century the mantel was removed in the presence of a person of higher rank, G. de D., 970, 4702, 5250, Introduction, XI, note 1, and Prot., 2994 ; and for a noble of considerable station to appear without the mantel was considered as a sign of negligence and lack of dignity. A person without a mantel was described as desfublé, or em pur le cors, etc. (cf. s. v. desfublé), while afublé denotes the presence of the mantel.

As the mantel was the part most in evidence of a nobleman's or noble lady's costume, it is also the most costly and sumptuous garment, made of the richest materials, embroidered with gold thread, the lining, (la pene) of rare fur, sometimes two contrasting furs, bordered (orlé) with fur or bands set with precious stones, with jewelled plaques (tassel) on the shoulders, through which passed ribbons (ataches) of silk by means of which it could be tied and worn partly open. It is the garment of this period which offers to the poet the best means of indicating the wealth and importance of his hero or heroine. In his description of Briseide's mantel in the Roman de Troie the poet gives full play to his erudition, his imagination, and his ideas of luxury. Her mantel is of rose and white cloth from India, woven or embroidered with figures of animals and flowers, cut in one piece, lined with scented fur, and with collar and border, spotted with dark blue and yellow, made of the skin of a rare animal from the river of Paradise ; the tassel formed by two rubies :

(c 1165), Troie, 13341 :

En Inde la Superior
Firent un drap enchanteor…

13344 :

N'est pas la rose si vermeille
Ne si blanche la flor de lis…

13348 :

Si n'a soz ciel bestes ne flors
Dont l'om n'i veie portraitures,…

13353-6 :

Un sage poète Indiien…
Li enveia de son pais.

13361 :

Del mantel fu la pane chiere,
Tote enterine e tote entiere:
N'i ot ni pièce ne costure…

13365-72 :

…bestes a vers Oriant,…
L'om les claime dindialos ;
Mout vaut la pel e plus li os…

13391 :

D'icele beste fu la pane :
Basmes, encens ne tumiame
N'uelent si bien come el faiseit;
Tot le drap del mantel covreit ;
Deugiée ert plus que nus ermines.
L'orles n'ert pas de sebelines,
Qui d'unes bestes de grant pris :
Dedenz le flun de Paradis
Sont e conversent, ço set l'om…

13401 :

D'inde e de jaune sont gotées.

13407 :

De dous robins sont li tassel :
Onques si riche ne si bel
Ne furent veu n'esguardé. (1)

The description of Aelis' coronation mantel in Escoufle, while more sober in tone, also conveys the impression of luxury :

(a 1204), Esc., 8914 :

Ele ot d'un biface treslis
Cote et mantel qui li traïne.
La pen' ert a pourfil d'ermine,
D'un sebelin noir losengié.

8920 :

Une grant liste d'or, qui fine
La ou dras faut, bordoit entour
Le mantel, et sor l'or del tour
Ot tante piere et tante geme… (2)

Cf. also Enéas, 741 ; Part., 10616 ; Athis, 8679 ; Conq. J., 2314, for long descriptions of a mantel, also Erec, 1609 (cited in the introduction, p. 17).

Details as to the mantel are numerous. The phrases mantel d'ermine, mantel de sebelin, mantel vair, gris convey the impression that the fur was worn outside, though we have no definite statement to this effect : Lanc., 452 ; Aspr., 401 ; Raoul, 7248 ; Ales., 4701 ; Doon R., 1945 ; Serm. en vers, 36 ; Thèbes, 3817 ; Og., 2055 ; Aye, 914 ; G. de D., 1906 ; Folq., I, Anl., C, 43.

Pels is sometimes used by metonomy for the mantel: Rol., 302, 515, 3940 ; Enf. G., 2418, 2439 ; Amis, 2155 ; Prot., 4834.

Frequently the mantel was of expensive cloth, and the fur formed the lining, (penne), q. v.: ermine, sabelin, gris, vair, are mentioned, Perc., 9288 ; Aq., 315 ; Fier., 2041 ;

(a 1108), Rol., 462 :

Afublez est d'un mantel sabelin
Qui fu cuverz d'un palie alexandrin. (3)

(1147-51), Gaimar, 3889 :

(un mantelet) Dedenz de gris, defors dowet. (4)

(c 1180), C. de P., 946 :

Mantel ot de sidoine ouvré,
Par dedens de sable fourré. (5)

The lining is in some cases of another cloth, instead of fur : Folq. p. 146^[109] : mantel fourré de syglaton (cited by Winter [39]). Cf. also s. v. vols.

Materials mentioned are : palie, Aspr., 633 ; Fier., 2222 ; escarlate, Chr. N., 7699, 19197 ; Perc., (B), 3035 ; Iv., 233, 4739 ; Lanc., 1022 ; Troie, 20628 ; samit, Biaus, 2385 ; Omb., 303 ; soie en graine, Perc., (B), 1928 ; A. et Y., 1684 ; diaspe, Biaus, 4226 ; Erec, 6671 ; ciglaton, Athis, 8679 ; Fier., 2035 ; sidoine, C. de P., 946 ; porprine, Ales., 4727 ; osterin, Folq., 6198 ; tyret osterin, Ipom., 7957 ; eschafite, Thèbes, 8440 ; lustamez, Folq., 9563 ; bofu, Fils Aim., 5088 ; mantel de soal, Folq., 7588 (var. seal) and (2) (4) (5) above.

The material sometimes had a design woven in the texture, or was embroidered or painted (?) with figures to which precious stones might be added :

(c 1165), Troie, 11708 :

D'un mantel gris s'est afublez
D'un drap de seie a or ovré. (6)

(c 1160), Enéas, 1472 :

(Un mantel) memuement a or goté… (7)

(1153-88), Part., 10695 :

Par roies entor les aigleaus
Fu trestos parés le manteaus
De pieres de pluisors manieres… (8)

(a 1177), Alex., (Mch.), 382, 32 :

,i. mantiel sebelin d'un pale paint a flor. (9)

In regard to peindre used in a wider sense as pictured, embroidered, cf. Söhring, op. cit., § 115.

(a 1200), Mort Aim., 1279 :

…un mantel vermeillon,
Entailliez fut a bestes et a flors. (10)

Cf. also Raoul, 6258 (cited by Winter [44]).

In these cases, referring to the material of which a mantel was made, entailliet probably means that the design was in cut work or in appliqué^[110].

The material was sometimes woven all in one piece, cf. (1) above; or, if there were seams, these might be concealed by bands of gold, cf. listé (14).

The mantel was very frequently bordered (orlé) with fur on the edge and around the neck, sometimes with bands of orfrois or a row of gems, cf. above (2) and under orlé, pourfil, listé and orfrois.

In the illustrations the mantel is long, very nearly reaching the hem of the bliaut, and sometimes touching the ground, as is indicated in the texts :

(a 1200), Vers d. j. (B), 433 :

mantials trainans… (11)

(c 1170), Folq., 6199 :

…mantelz envoux qui li traine… (12)

(a 1200), Doon N., p. 14 :

Mantel ot d'escarlate trainant contreval… (13)

(1153-88), Part., 7447 :

Ele a son mantel deslacié
Dont le cor le vinrent al pié… (14)

(Text cited by Godefroy, s. v. cor). Cf. also s. v. bliaut II (22) and (2) above.

It was short on occasion :

(1169-73), Ivain, 4737 :

A tant, vint l'autre suer a cort
Afublée d'un mantel cort,
D'escarlate et de frois ermine. (15)

Cf. also Ivain, 232 ; Perc., (B)., 1529 ; Troie, 30007 ; Lanc., 1022 ; Marie, Eliduc, 798 ; Folq., I, Anl. c, 42. Hue de Rotelande speaks of mantels luncs de tut sens having been worn in the period in which his story is told, whereas now, he says, they are worn short :

(1174-90), Prot., 11404 :

Mais or est li secle muez,
Or sunt les curz mantels amez,
Or n'est amé ne vair ne gris,
[Kar] tuz jor[z] va de mal en pis :
Li riche homme aiment les burels
Et sanz urle, pané d'aignels. (16)

As we notice in the iconography and elsewhere in the texts a general tendency to simplicity beginning in the reign of Philippe Auguste (1180-1223), this passage indicates that the text is nearer 1190 than 1174, the termini given by Kluckow^[111].

In summer the mantel was of lighter weight, but still furred :

(1174-90), Ipom., 2213 :

Li manteaus fut de vair furré,
Legers fut cum el tens d'esté,
Ankes fut curt, bien li avint,
A ses ataches sa main tint… (17)

It was fastened in front or on the shoulder by a costly fermal, q. v. or by ataches passed through the tassels, q. v. of gold and jewels. Boutons, q. v. are also mentioned on a mantel, C. de P., 1336.

The act of putting on the mantel was called afubler and its removal desfubler, q. v. Emmantelé, which is more common later, cf. Godefroy, s. v. enmanteler, occurs :

(p l200), Carité, CLXXVII, 3:

De court mantel emmantelés… (18)

The action of tying or untying was called lacier, deslacier, q. v. The mantel fastened on one shoulder was called en travers, cf. afiche (14). For illustrations cf. fig. 8b, and Enlart, fig. 16, 17, 18, 25.

(1150-55), Thèbes, 3817 :

Ses manteaus fu, ço m'est vis, vairs,
Et afubla s'en en travers :
Les panz en ot bien entroverz
Que li costez fu descoverz. (19)

The fastening was usually on the right shoulder, in order to leave that arm free, cf. above en travers, but it is occasionally shown in the illustrations as fastened on the left : fig. 9 ; Demay, fig. 41 ; Quicherat, p. 152, and see Michel, Histoire de l'art, I, 2, p. 767. It is shown clasped at the center in Enlart, fig. 24, 15 ; thrown back fig. 8a and fastened by ataches, fig. 8c ; Enlart, fig. 21. The fashion of wearing the mantel over the head so common in the previous centuries, cf. Enlart, fig. 6-8, is still seen in the illustrations of a later period, cf. fig. 7; Enlart fig. 19, 41 ; Quicherat, p. 170; Herrad v. Landsberg, XXV ter, Saint Savin, op. cit., pl. XIX ; cf. also s. v. chape, p. 81. This custom is also referred to in the texts :

(1169-73), Ivain, 3966 :

En lor mantiaux anvelopées
Vindrent par lor lermes covrir ;
Et il lor comande a ovrir
Les mantiaus et les chies lever… (20)

(c 1200), G. de P., 1278 :

Fors de la sale en est issus,
Son chief cuevre de son mantel. (21)

(a 1200), Biaus, 2390 :

Desus sa teste le tenoit (le mantel)
L'orlé lés sa face portoit.
Li sebelins, qui noirs estoit
>Lés le blanc vis moult avenoit. (22)

Cf. also Aub., 91 under afubler (23).

For description of the cut of the mantel, cf. Viollet-le-Duc, IV, 101-111.

MEMBRE, s. m.

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Used in costume, the term membres means parts of a belt. Godefroy gives the definition as anneau with reference to the passage :

(c 1155), S. S., 4462 :

E si avoit une chainture…
Le menbre en estoient d'argent
Et li pendant en furent gent. (1)

The word also occurs :

(1170-90), Mon. G., II, (Var. B.), 740 :

Et tout li membres (of a braier) ricement entailliet… (2)

(c 1200), G. de P., 7940 :

Une çainture…
A menbres d'or merveilles riche. (3)

(c 1180), Perc., 3982 :

…coroie…
Dont la boucle et trestuit le membre
Estoient d'or… (4)

Ed. Baist 2767 reads la boclete e tuit le mambre. Baist does not give mambre is his glossary. Cf. also Gal., 6937, s. v. boucle (5).

It is not possible to say precisely what the membres were. That they were different from the buckle is evident from (4). The use in the plural and a description of the fourteenth century, (cf. Enlart, p. 282), suggests that they were metal plaques forming the belt or inserted at intervals on it. A belt made of plates of metal is shown on the stained glass window at Chartres (1240) representing Jeanne de Boulogne, reproduced by Quicherat, p. 188.

MITAINE,s. f.

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Mitaines, or a covering for the hand with one division for the thumb and one for the fingers, are not mentioned in the Old French texts as worn by women in our period, but as they appear in the iconography they are discussed here. Planché^[112] shows a reproduction from ms. Cot. Nero C. 4, in which a woman is represented as wearing on the left hand a loose mitten with long streamers. Godefroy, s. v. mitons, mitonier gives no quotations for miton before the fourteenth century, but cites, Comp. s. v. mitaine, a passage from Partonopeus 5070 describing the costume of a hunter who wears mitaines de mutabet. Cf. also s. v. moufles.

MORS, s. m. ; MORDANT, s. m.

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Mors and mordant are two forms with the same meaning as M. L. mordaculum, a clasp, the only difference, and this may be fortuitous, being that the mordant is part of a belt, while the one case of mors in our period shows it attached to a mantel. The passage containing mors, Enéas 750, cf. tassel (10), does not establish the meaning « clasp », which rests upon later examples of the word as given by Laborde, s. v. mors, who defines it as l'agrafe qui retient sur la poitrine les bords de la chape et qui la mord, pour ainsi dire. It is probable, however, that mors in the Enéas has the same meaning as in later texts. Godefroy, s. v. mors 2, states that mors is synonymous with mordant. Du Cange defines mordacium, s. v. as agraffe alias mordant. He explains morsus, s. v. morsus 2, as meaning fermail and in the Glos. Fr. mordant, s. v., is translated agrafe, boucle garnie de son ardillon. Laborde appears to have interpreted incorrectly this last statement, for he says, s. v. mordant : le mordant n'est pas l'ardillon de la boucle comme on le dit dans le Glossaire de Du Cange. Laborde justifies this assertion by citing from J. de Garlande : lingula, de lingua, dicitur gallice hardilon — mordaculum, id est mordant. This definition ardillon d'une boucle is given in the Glossary of L'Escoufle for the passage :

5578 :

Anelet et boucle et mordant
Fist faire d'or en la çainture. (1)

but should be discarded as Laborde has shown. The O.F. word for the tongue of a buckle, Mod. Fr. ardillon, is espine, q. v.

Laborde continues : (Le mordant)… (est) encore moins une même chose que le mors ou mors de chappe… Le mordant est la pièce de métal qui s'applique à l'extrémité de cette partie de la ceinture qu'on laissait pendre… This definition is followed by Godefroy, Viollet-le-Duc, Murray and Cloetta (Glos. Mon. Guil.).

M. Enlart on p. 275 uses mordant as synonymous with passant, pendant, giving practically the same description as Laborde, but on p. 241, 287, he takes it as equivalent to agrafe. But mordant and pendant are not synonymous, for they are differentiated in a passage quoted by Laborde from Gautier de Bibbesworth :

De la ceynture le pendaunt
Passe par my le mordaunt[]. (2)

We may therefore consider the word pendant, q. v., to be the word for the article described by Laborde under mordant and follow Enlart, p. 241, p. 287, in accepting mordant as practically synonymous with mors as defined in his Glossary, s. v. mors: Variété d'agrafe pour chapes et demi-ceints, etc. Son dispositif essentiel consiste en une lame de métal repliée formant crochet.

Applying M. Enlart's definition to the passage from Escoufle given above (1), we may consider the boucle to be a plaque provided with a ring, anelet, into which would hook the mordant fastened to the other end of the belt. If this definition is accepted, we shall have to enlarge our conception of boucle, q. v. and instead of thinking of it as merely a buckle with a tongue, we shall have to consider the boucle also as part of a clasp bearing an eye, and the mordant as the other part, having a hook. Cf. also the thirteenth century passages quoted by Godefroy, and the variant reading of the Ms. C. of Mon. G., II, 742 :

(1170-90) :

Et li bouton li mordant et l'espiez. (3)

For the preceding lines cf. s. v. espine (2). The addition of this line makes the passage confused.

For illustrations of mors and mordant, cf. Enlart, pp. 242, 244, 290, 291.

MOUFLE, s. m.

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It is possible that the definition given for mitaines applies also to moufles, cf. Viollet-le-Duc, III, 395, and that they are synonymous. M. Enlart, however, describes the moufle (Glossary) as prolongement de la manche qui s'évase en entonnoir pour couvrir la main. Les moufles furent usitées dans la seconde moitié du XIV^e et le début du XV^e siècle. Twelfth century illustrations of this style of hand covering are found, worn by women, in a miniature from Cott. Claudius B. 4, reproduced by Fairholt^[114] and Strutt, pl. XI, and worn by men in an illustration reproduced by Strutt, pl. XXV, and (c 1130-50) on the portail of the cathedral of Vézelay.

An objection to accepting the definition of M. Enlart is found in the eighth century gloss, Gl. Cas., 117 : mufflas, hantscoh. From this it would appear that mufflas were gloves as a separate article of dress, and not merely a continuation of the sleeve in which the hand could be muffled. They may have been like the mitaine, cf. above and Godefroy, s. v. mofle, sorte de gros gants sans séparation (of the fingers), or they may have been a loose, coarse glove.

In (c 1200), Conq. J., 2427, laborers wear grans moffles as bras, and they are mentioned (c 1200). Ren., XXIII, 1626, 1635, 1653, 1659, 1687. They were, then, evidently worn by the poorer classes, while the more expensive and elaborate gloves were worn by nobles.

In the passage cited in Hatzfeld-Darmesteter, Dict.. Gén., s. v. moufle, G. de D., 5404 :

Il fu en aniaus et en moufles
De fer orainz mis en la tor. (1)

moufles appears to mean « bonds ». The Glossary of G. de D., gives it as chaînes, menottes. Cf. also Murray, s. v. muffle, sb. 5.

NOIEL, s. m.

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Noiels, derived from *nodellus (Meyer-Lübke, R. E. W., § 5943) means « buttons », according to M. Enlart, p. 247, and Laborde, s. v. noiel. This definition is supported by the passages from (1268), Boileau, Livre des M. Titre xliii, 1 :

noiaus a robe que on fait de os, de cor et de yvoire. (1)

I have noted an example for the twelfth century :

(c 1170), Folq., 9389 :

De dras de soie vestues de novel,
Blanches et grailes, estroites a noel. (2)

Cf. Godefroy, s. v. noiel, bouton, agrafe, boucle, who cites from Laborde a passage from Troie 4846. The definition bride is given for noaus in the Glossary of Troie for the passage in question :

Les regnes (of the horse) a noaus d'orfreis. (3)

but « round ornaments resembling buttons » would be preferable, as brides has been covered by regnes. The definition bride would seem to apply to : Troie, 14289 :

Le destrier prent par le noël. (4)

had we not the previous passage. It may refer here to some protuberance of the harness or saddle. Godefroy's definitions as agrafe, boucle find no definite support in the passages he quotes, for which the meaning « button » or « button-like ornament » is satisfactory.

NOSCHE, s. f.

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The nosche was a brooch, synonymous with afiche and fermail, q. v. Compare Winter, p. 51 ; Godefroy, s. v. noche. The O. H. G. glosses also give the meaning brooch. St.-S., 3, 620, 29 : fibula, nusca ; 3, 148,6: fibula, nûchil, nuschel, nuxil, nuscil ; 3, 620, 42 : lunula nuscili vel fibula ; 3, 151, 42 : bulle (a fibula) nusculin, etc. In M. H. G., it appears frequently as a brooch, cf. Schultz, I, 207 ; Weinhold, II, 307.

From several Old French texts we get no information beyond the fact that it was an ornament of gold and precious stones :

(a 1108), Rol., 637 :

A vostre femme enveierai dous nusches,
Bien i ad or, matistes e jacunces… (1)

(1190-1200), Vie S. Ed., 3092 :

Nusches d'or, bos d'or e anelez… (2)

Cf. also Aye, 347, s. v. afice (8);Jord. F., 1190; Brut, 10690, s. v. boucle (1) ; Mort Aim., 1429 ; Enéas, 739.

That it was a brooch, however, is evident from :

(c 1200), Gal., 6939 :

S'a noische dont elle s'afiche.
N'est mie povre ne petite,
Qu'il y a mainte crisolite,
Et berilles et calcidoines,
Et ametixtes, et sardoines… (3)

This brooch was worn on the mantel, Enéas 799 ; Gal., 6949, (s.v. atache [5]).

Godefroy defines nosche, s. v. noche as meaning boucle, fermoir, bracelet, agrafe, but there is no evidence in the texts for the meanings boucle, bracelet, which are represented in Old French by the words boucle, q. v. and bous, cf. s. v.manicle. The supposition that the nosche was an agrafe does not seem probable in the Old French period, from the lack of any certain examples of nosche with the meaning agrafe, and from the fact that the mordant and the tassel, q. v. performed the functions of the modern agrafe.

Quicherat, p. 181, defines nusches as pendants de colliers. This view finds some support in Ver del J., Ms. B. 435 :

Et les nusches d'or qui pendeient devant… (4)

but it is probable that the nusche should be understood here as a brooch with pendants rather than the pendants themselves. Cf. fermail (4).

For illustrations of the nosche, see under afiche.

OREL, s. m.

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Forms related to the Old French word orel are found in O. H. G. St-S., 3, 622, 20: strophium oral ; 3, 620, 37 : strofium, orol vel chelatuoch ; in OE., cf. Stroebe, p. 16, p. 46, as a woman's headdress or garment, and in M. L. both as a priest's and woman's headdress, cf. Du Cange, s. v. orarium, orale. One passage in which orel appears in O. F. has been noted by Winter, (121). This same passage occurs in Schultz-Gora's edition of Folq., 10127:

Et Fausete s'en vait soz son orel gabant.

In both editions the variation souz son mantel is noted, suggesting that orel was archaic and not well known to the scribes. The only other example I have noted is in Esc., 5573, 5663, where orel is used interchangeably, without description, with guimple. We must not infer from this that they were necessarily identical, for the poet of Escoufle uses terms for headdress loosely, cf. s. v. touaille. Both, it is true, were headdresses, but distinguishing characteristics well known to the ladies may have been disregarded by the poet for the sake of the rhyme, as guimple rhymes with simple, and orel with el.

Godefroy, s. v. orel 2, gives as a supposition the meaning pendants d'oreilles ? which must be discarded.

ORFROIS, s. m.

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The derivation of the word orfrois, embroidery done in gold thread, is not certain. Foerster s. v. orfrois, gives it from auru phrygiu, which Diez, p. 649, thinks a back formation from phrygiae vestes. Meyer-Lübke, Rom., étym. Wb., § 6471a, rejects the connection with phrygius as lautlich nicht möglich. For the relation with aurum the use of the expression à or batu as synonymous with à orfrois is of interest :

(c 1160), Enéas, 749 :

(La volsure) Toz fu batuz a or defors. (1)

(c 1180), C. de P., 1439 :

Adont osterent les çaintures
Qui estoient a or batues. (2)

931 :

De dras de soie a or batus… (3)

(c 1200), Fils A., 5089 :

Ses crins ot galonés a un fil d'or batu. (4)

(c 1200), Ogier, 13004 :

Tos les adous furent a or batus. (5)

Cf. also Erec, 1599 ; C. de P., 952 ; Biaus, 3287.

For further discussion of the meaning of or batu, cf. Michel, II, 389, Anm. 4 and Schultz, I, 266.

Orfrois appeared as bands of embroidery in which gold thread predominated, and also as lengths of material woven or embroidered with gold thread. Orfrois in the form of embroidered bands was used for many purposes where a strap or ribbon was needed : for stirrups, Ath., 6953 ; as reins, Troie, 4846 ; Athis, 8700 ; to suspend a shield, Perc., 17777, 21971, 22005 ; Troie,1840 ; as a dog's leash, Perc., 22586 ; as a girdle, Erec, 1649 ; Esc., 3830 ; Main., p. 36, 60 ; G. de B., 8, 6 ; cf. also s. v. ceinture ; as a ribbon on a lady's hair, Enéas, 1474 :

Sa tete ot d'orfreis bendée… (6)

Cf. also Perc., 8046; Esc., 3300 ; and s.v. bendé, chapel, cercle, galonné. It was also used as a trimming on material used for tents :

(c 1180), Perc., (B), 621 :

…Li trez…
L'une partie fu dorée
E l'autre fu d'orfrois bandée. (7)

on banners, Troie, 22710 :

…enseigne d'orfrois bendée. (8)

on gloves, Aye, 2417, s. v. gant ; and especially on garments :

(c 1164), Erec, 6672 :

(un mantel) Listez d'orfrois roides et aspres. (9)

(a 1200), Aiol, 3843 :

…reubes fait a orfrois… (10)

(c 1180), C. de P., 1335 :

Et le mantel bendé d'orfrois… (11)

97:

…bliaut bendé d'orfrois… (12)

(c 1170), Folq., II, Anl, I, c, 192 :

…bliaut a orfrois… (13)

(c 1200), Gal., 2009 :

D'orfrois estoit entour ourlé (the surcot)… (14)

As material woven or embroidered with a design in gold thread it was used for hangings, Folq., 10959 ; bed coverings, Poème Mor., 146 ; Folq., 11367 ; banners, Folq., 12414 ; Athis, 14739 ; Troie, 8683, 18480, 18953, 21283 ; horse trappings, Troie, 11341 ; ausmonières, Esc., 5561 ; and for garments :

(a 1200), Ch. d'Ant., II, 639 :

…robes d'orfrois… (15)

II, 764 ; VIII, 820 :

…jupes d'orfrois… (16)

(a 1200), Asp., I, 4359 :

…garnement d'orfroi… (17)

(1190-1200), Trist. (B), 2989 :

…un garnement…
Un riche paile fait d'orfrois… (18)

(c 1180), Raoul, 6159 :

…vestue d'un orfrois… (19)

In some cases it is clear that the gold thread was woven in the web :

(1169-73), Ivain, 5227 :

Dameiseles…
Qui dras de soie et orfrois tissent… (20)

(c 1167), Ille, 3307 :

…dras de soie a or tissus… (21)

(a 1204), Esc., 3830 :

…son tissu d'orfrois… (22)

In other cases the design was embroidered in gold :

(a 1200), Floire, 976 :

…un brun paile de Castele
Toute florée a flors d'orfrois… (23)

(1199), G. de D., 1158 :

Fille et la mere se sieent a l'orfrois
A un fil d'or i font orieuls croiz ;
Parla la mere…
Aprenez, fille, a coudre et a filer
Et en l'orfrois les oriex crois lever. (24)

(1172-76), Chr. N., 17192 :

…d'un drap od seignes (designs) d'orfreis
ot robe chere et bien seant… (25)

(cited by Viollet-le-Duc, IV, 149).

When the word œvrent is used one cannot tell whether weaving or embroidery is meant :

(1080 ?), Chan. G., 1394 :

…filles de reis…
Mun orfreis oevrent e palies a roeles. (26)

(p 1206), Perc., 30411 :

D'or et de soie orfrois ovroient… (27)

Wright quotes a passage from the (1086) Domesday Book, fol. 149, where lands are given Alwid for teaching King Edward's daughter aurifrisium operari^[115]. Orfrois was therefore both woven and embroidered in France and England, but it was also imported :

(c 1180), Perc. (B), 3126 :

Li fuerres (of the sword) d'orfrois de Venece… (28)

That the art came originally from the East is indicated by the expression œuvre sarasine, which as Söhring §113 has pointed out means « embroidery », cf. jupe (8).

The description in Erec (9) above, of orfrois roides et aspres, corresponds with the illustrations of orfrois as stiff bands of embroidery which are found in abundance in the borders of the garments of many statues. The patterns were often intricate and beautiful. They may be seen in the reproductions in Enlart, fig. 12, 21 bis, 23, 25 bis, Quicherat, p. 148, 149, 155, 162 ; Viollet-le-Duc, IV, 150ff, and, (colored designs on materials), III, 360 ff, 366 ff. For a discussion of the designs cf. Söhring, op. cit., pp. 614-634. In fig. 9 the squares and circles on the bands of embroidery are possibly meant to indicate the use of precious stones as described s. v. mantel (2).

ORLES, s. m. ; ORLER, vb.

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Orle(s) was a border or edging ; orler means to border or edge. As Diez, p. 229, indicates, the word is a diminutive of ora, edge. For orle as the border on a shield, cf. Godefroy, s. v. orle.

Orlé is the favorite word in the twelfth century for designating a border on the edge of a garment ; it is more frequently found than listé, with which it is synonymous, though orlé is more often used for fur borders and listé for bands of orfrois ; it differs from bendé in that bendé may also mean provided with parallel bands, while orlé is a single band on the edge ; cf. also s. v. pourfil.

The most frequent use of orle(s) is as a fur border on a mantel :

(c 1160), Enéas, GFD, p. 391 :

…un chier mantel de blanc hermine,
Covers fu d'un tyret porprine
Et l'orle fu d'un sebelin.   (1)

(c 1164), Erec, 2342 :

A mantiaus gris, orlez de sables.   (2)

(a 1200), Athis, 8679 :

Un mantel ot de siglaton…
La pane ert veire, et l'orles fu
D'un sebelin asez chenu.   (3)

(1174-90), Ipom., 7956 :

D'un mantel vermeil afublée,
D'un mut bon tiret osterin,
Urlez entur de sabelin.   (4)

(a 1200), Biaus, 5136 :

El mantiel ot pene de sable…
Li orles estoit de pantine…   (5)

(1153-88), Part., 7453 :

Li orles est de sebelins
Tres noirs et bien seans et fins,
Qui orient le pene defors
Si duroient desci es cors.   (6)

When the orle(s) is around the neck of the mantel it must be understood as a flat band appliquéd on the edge for ornament and not a wide collar used for warmth, as in the goles of a peliçon :

(c 1180), Perc., 2994 :

D'un sebelin noir et kenu,
Qui n'estoit trop lons ne trop lés,
Fu li mantiaus au col orlés.   (7)

A sorcot is orlé de marterine (c 1200) Godf. de B., 851.

While the orle(s) is almost always of fur, it is once mentioned as of feathers, and in two cases as of gems :

(c 1160), Enéas, 4035 :

Li orles (of the mantel) fu merveilles bels
Et fu de gorges d'uns oisels…   (8)

(a 1200), Aye, 3703 :

Un bliaut…
De pieres precieuses fu tot entor orlés.   (9)

(a 1200), Athis, 6967 :

…les lunetes (on horsetrappings)
Furent orlés de perletes.   (10)

Cf. also Erec, 2342 ; Brut, 1198 ; Ipom., 7958 ; Athis, 8681 ; Biaus, 2240, 2391, 4228 ; G. de B., 849 ; Part., 4899 ; Vie S. Evr., 2277 ; and under mantel (1), (22) ; vols (8), (11) ; chape (12) ; pourfil (3).

The borders used as trimming shown in the statues are of orfrois rather than of fur, perhaps on account of the difficulty of indicating fur in sculpture.

PANNE, PENNE, s. f.

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Panne referring to costume means 1) fur ; 2) fur used as a lining ; 3) a lining of some other material. Godefroy's definition s. v. panne is étoffe de soie à longs poils, drap, tissu, fourrure, but only the last term fourrure, which is suitable for all his examples, finds positive justification in other texts. The definition « fur » or « lining » has been adopted in the glossaries of the majority of texts. An exception is found in G. P. Williams' edition of Li Biaus Desconneus, in which the first term in Godefroy's definition is given in the Glossary, s. v. pene, though all four passages in which the word occurs, 2237, 3270, 4221, 5136, cf. below (9), (11), show plainly the meaning « fur ».

There are a few cases in which panne is mentioned as fur without indication that it was used as a lining:

(c 1180), Perc., 7158 :

De poivre, de cire et de graine,
Et de panes vaires et grises
Et de toutes marceandises.   (1)

(c 1200), Gal., 6675 :

Fresnein a une penne prise
Si l'emmale, d'ermine riche.   (2)

(1199), G. de D., 4173 :

De cendaus, de penes hermines,
De baudequins, de ciglatons,
Ont toz les pignons des mesons
Fit par richece encortiner.   (3)

In the majority of cases the fur forms the lining of a garment, as is made explicit ; cf. s. v. mantel (1) and :

(a 1200), Athis, 6853 :

La pane (of the mantel) fu assez plus chiere…
Tote fu d'unes besteletes…

6893:

La pane fu de si feite œvre
Que li chiers dras par desuz cœvre.   (4)

We may conclude that panne has the same meaning in the following passages :

(c 1164), Erec, 6794 :

(the cloth of the robe is woven with gold, and)
La pane qui i fu cosue
Fu d'unes contrefeites bestes…   (5)

(c 1180), Perc., 2990 :

Li mantiaus fu et ses bliaus
D'une porpre noire…
…et n'estoit mie pelée
La penne qui d'ermine fu.   (6)

(1199), G. de D., 1523 :

D'escarlate noir come meure
Ot robe fresche a pene hermine…   (7)

4340:

La soe robe…
D'un samit inde a pene hermine.   (8)

(quoted by Godefroy from the manuscript Vat. Chr. 1725).

(a 1200), Biaus, 5136 :

El mantiel ot pene de sable…   (9)

The fur was sometimes of two kinds, arranged in a checkered effect :

(1153-88), Part., 4895 :

Li manteaus est et beaus et chiers ;
La pene en est à eschiechiers,
A poins menus, blans et sanguins,
D'ermine et bons sebelins.   (10)

(a 1200), Biaus, 2235 :

Ele estoit d'un samit vestue…
La pene en fu moult ouvrée,
D'ermine tote eschekerée ;
Moult sont bien fait le eschekier.   (11)

(c 1160), Enéas, 742 :

La penne en fu a eschaquiers
D'une biches de .c. colors ;   (12)

Cf. also Erec, 1615 ; Esc., 8916 ; G. de D., 236 ; Gal., 4786 ; Enéas, 4029.

From this frequent use as a lining the meaning is extended to a lining of other material than fur :

(1199), G. de D., 2191 :

La pene (of the sercot) ert d'un cendal vermeil…   (13)

5158:

En vesti une (robe) de samis…
Moult fu legiere por esté
Que la pene en estoit d'oiseaus.   (14)

It is to be noted that in M. H. G. federe means both fur lining and feathers and that Diez, p. 654, believes the origin of penne to be a translation from the German federe.

The expression en paine with the meaning « as a lining » occurs, G. de D., 3272 :

.i. grant mantel gris a porfil,
Dont l'atache n'est pas de fil,
Mès l'escarlate en est en paine.   (15)

For illustrations of fur used as a lining cf. s. v. forré.

PELICE, s. f. ; PELIçON, s. m.

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Pelice and peliçon are synonymous, a furred garment worn by both sexes and all classes. The expressions peliçon hermin, hermin peliçon, pelice grise, pelice vaire, are so frequent that they are practically fixed epithets. Hermin peliçonis the most frequent : it is found as a man's dress in : Ales.,259 ; Aspr., 801, 1346, 5403, 6866 ; Alex. (Ms.Are.), 214, 283 ; Amis, 1642, 2549 ; Aye, 2504,2687 ; Doon B., 26, 800, 2138, 2253, 4015 ; Elie,607, 1125 ; Enf. G., 2163, 2344 et al. ; Erec, 6938; Fils Aym., 3622, 4513, 6709, 6968, et al. ; Floire,2347 ; Folq., 26, 445, 3868 et al. ; Herv., 524 ; Gar.,II, 22, 14 ; 180, 6 ; 221, 12 ; 251, 21 ; G. de B., 848, 1779; Ogier, 2922 ; Pel., 481 ; Raoul,1597,3340, 6767 ; Saisnes, 7277 ; Vie S. Gil.,1649.

Peliçons vairs (et) gris occur : Alex. (Ms.Ars.,) 708 ; Aye, 1944 ; Fils Aym., 3571, 6053,6090, 6750 ; Biaus, 3435, 6098 ; Doon B., 779 ; Folq.,1711, 10541, 11536 et al.; Gar., II, 38, 18; Brut,10633, 10691; Thèbes 794.

On many other occasions peliçon occurs without qualification. It is found especially frequently in Renard,as a middle class dress, XII, 206, 784 ; XIII, 142, 1163, 1328 ; XVI,638 et al. As can be seen from the titles above, peliçon occurs most frequently in the epic poems, and is in these a garment worn for warmth in cold weather and also worn in battle.

As a lady's dress hermin peliçon occurs : Ales.,4700 ; Alex. (Mch.), 373, 11 ; Elie, 2154 ; Gar.,II, 4, 3 ; peliçons vairs, gris : Gal., 1122 ; Raoul,1017 ; Troie, 1619, and cf. infra.

The cheaper furs worn by the lower classes and mentioned by M.Enlart, p. 232, are not mentioned in the chansons de gesteand the romances, with the exception of the passages Prot., 11409, s. v. mantel (16) and Prot., 4834, where a wretchedly dressed girl appears :

(1174-90) :

 Une pels ot mult enfumée
De gros mutuns et mult usée.   (1)

These less expensive furs were therefore scorned by the upper classes. In the Vie de Saint Thomas he is mentioned aswearing sheepskin :

(1172-76), 5787 :

Dous pliçuns out desuz, qui furent curt e lé;
Andui furent d'aignels e fait e aturné.   (2)

The wearing of two peliçons is explained by the fact that Saint Thomas is ill and trying to keep warm. Chaudes pelices are mentioned in Erec, 6539, cf. also Rou,III, 10231 ; Perc. (B), 1400.

It is not stated whether the fur was ever worn outside. M. Enlart, s.v. pellelerie, expresses the opinion that up to the 15th century fur was used only as a lining, though it showed on the turned back edges ; in the case of the mantel the use of pelzas synonymous with mantel would seem to contradict this opinion. In the case of the peliçon, however, the only specific references to the use of fur are when it is used as a lining with cloth on the outside :

(1153-88), Part., 10635 :

…pelice grise
Covert d'un fres palie de Frise.   (3)

(a 1200), Biaus, 4214 :

Vestu ot un vair peliçon
Qui fu covers d'un siglaton.   (4)

In the dream of the cock, Ren., II, 203 the description ofthe pelice worn wrong side out with le poil dehors torné,seems also to indicate that the usual custom was to wear the fur inside.

The few descriptions which we have of the peliçon are not sufficient to warrant us to look for a garment of any particular cut ; on the contrary the adjectives applied to it are so conflicting as to lead us to conclude that we are to understand by the peliçonmerely a furred garment, the details of which changed according to use and period. The lack of details also indicates that it was a rather nondescript garment, and since Dame Guiborc offers hers to her brother,Ales., 4700, we may infer that there was little difference between a man's; and a woman's pelice, just as there was none for the mantel. The only details which I have noted in regard to the pelice are the following : a man's pelice is described as long :

(a 1200), Doon R, 3354:

… .j. peliéon qui jusqu'a[s] piez li bat.   (5)

(p 1206), Perc., 12643 :

Viestu d'un peliçon hermine
Qui jusqu'a tiere li traïne.   (6)

but in (2) above it was described as short. It fits closely, probably at the waistline :

(a 1200), Aspr., I, 801 :

Estroit vestis d'un hermin peliçon.   (7)

the skirt is cut wide :

(p 1200), G. de B., 117, 7 :

…pelichons hermins, qui larges ont les pans.   (8)

it is once described as trimmed :

(c 1200), Fils A., 6090 :

1111. peliçons gris, de fin orfroi bandé.   (9)

The same details as above, a closely fitting waist and full skirt, are mentioned for a lady's pelice :

(1172-76), Chr. N., II, 31342 :

…d'une mult bele chemise
E sus d'une pelice grise,
Blanche, fresche, lée, senz laz,
Seant au cors e mieuz as braz ;
S'out afublé un cort mantel.   (10)

but in Esc., 4100 : une grant pelice large et lée seems to be loose all over. The sleeves in (10) above are tight; in Thèbes3853 they are very wide, cf. s. v. manche (1) ; and at the end of the century the pelice may be sleeveless, cf. s. v. chemise (22).

What part did the pelice play in the costume? Was it an outer garment worn as a wrap, a dress, or an under dress? It appears to have been all three. One would naturally suppose a peliçon vair et gris to be a garment corresponding in use to a modern furred top coat, and it does appear as such :

(a 1140), Pr. d'O., 684 :

Ele est vestue d'un peliçon hermin,
Et par desoz d'un bliaut de samit…   (11)

but in (10) above it is distinctly a dress and a mantel is worn over it. In the other examples quoted above, where it is the only garment mentioned, we may also consider it either a dress or a kind of coat, but in addition to these uses it was also worn under the bliautor chainse:

(1150-55), Thèbes, 3848 :

… ot vestu un ciclaton…
Desoz, une pelice hermine…   (12)

937:

Lor bliaut furent d'orcassin,
Lor peliçon desoz hermin.   (13)

(c 1180), Raoul, 5566 :

Lors a vestu .j. peliçon d'ermine,
Et par deseur .j. ver bliaut de siie.   (14)

(a 1200), Aye, 2504 :

L'enfez fu bien vestu d'un hermin peliçon,
Par desus .j. bliaut d'un vermell ciglaton.   (15)

(c 1185), Ors., 624 :

Un peliçon vesti derout et depané
Et par desor un chainse…   (16)

In Mon. G., II, 1413-1420, Guillaume wears a plice between the estamine and his froc. Cf. also C.de P., 698, Anseis, 801.

It is difficult to imagine how a dress made of fur could be worn under another dress, especially when the latter was tight fitting as we know the bliaut was, and for that reason one questions whether it was entirely of fur, which would seem clumsy, or whether it does not mean, in these cases at least, a fur trimmed garment as in the modern sense, the adjectives hermine or grisapplying merely to bands of fur. Strutt cites an order from King Johnof England of a « gray pelisson with nine bars or rows of fur, unius pelizonis gris de ix fessis » ^[116].

M. Enlart, Glos., s. v. pelisson, states that the pelissonin the modern acceptance of the word is found at the end of the fourteenth century, but the above passage as quoted by Strutt places it definitely at the beginning of the thirteenth century, and in all probability it existed in the twelfth as well.

For the expressions les goles del peliçon and pelice engoulée, cf. s. v. goles.

Though the peliçon is mentioned in the texts veryfrequently, it is not possible to identify it in the iconography, for the one detail which is fixed, that of fur, does not appear in either the statues or the illuminations. Viollet-le-Duc inquires, IV, 177,whether the unusual cut of dress which he reconstructs, IV, p. 176, may not be a peliçon, but this does not seem probable, as it is not a type of garment which would lend itself to a fur lining, and no fur trimming is apparent on it. Calthrop ^[117] has copied this illustration with the downright statement « this is a peliçon» and has not even given Viollet-le-Duc credit for the dubiously valuable suggestion. Viollet-le-Duc's other ideas as to the appearanceof a peliçon are also far from convincing. His reconstructions, IV, 178, 179, have the characteristics of a chapeá manches, q. v. rather than a peliçon. Worn as an outside garment the dress in fig. 3 may possibly be a peliçon of the eleventh century, though, as has been said above, the style ofthe peliçon in details changed with the period.

PENDANT, s. m.

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With reference to costume, a pendant is a hanging ornament. This meaning is not given by Godefroy. It usually designates the part of the belt which was drawn though the buckle and hung down vertically. The term applies probably to either the whole vertical strap of the belt, as defined by Murray, s. v., pendant, sb. II, b, in which case it corresponds in meaning to MHG. senkel, cf. Weinhold, II, 282, or it may apply only to the metal ornament on the end of the belt, as defined by Enlart, p. 275 : pendant de metal… à l'extrémité de la ceinture, maintenant par son poids la verticalité du bout de la ceinture. As part of the belt it is referred to in the texts :

(c 1150), Piram., 330 :

Prist le pendant de sa cainture,
S'en fist outre le chief paroir…   (1)

(1153-88), Part., 10651 :

Devant tornent les overtures(?)
Et les pendans de lor çainture…   (2)

Cf. also Sept. S., 4462 under membre (1).

But pendant also appears as an ornament on an ausmosniere :

(a 1204), Esc, 5844 :

Pres vait qu'il ne ront et descire
De l'aumosniere le pendant…   (3)

and is defined by MM. Michelant and Meyer in the glossary of Escoufle as ornement analogue à un gland. We are therefore justified in the broader definition of it as « a hanging ornament ». Although pendants d'oreilles were worn at this period, cf. Quicherat, p. 166^[118], I have found no mention of them in the texts.

As part of the belt, the pendant is illustrated in Enlart, fig. 20-21 bis, 38, and Quicherat, p. 183 ; as an ornament on an aumosniere, cf. Viollet-le-Duc, III, 27.

PO(U)RFIL, s. m.

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The definition of pourfil given by Godefroy, s. v. porfil as bordure, and porfiler, border, garnir le conture de, with examples from texts of the thirteenth century applies also to the word as it is found in our period. Cf. Murray, s. v. purfle; Enlart, Glos., s. v. parfilure. Fur is the only material mentioned in the texts as used for the pourfil. Cf. in this connection Viollet-le-Duc, III, 265.

(a 1204), Esc., 8916 :

La pen' ert a pourfil d'ermine
D'un sebelin noir losengié.   (1)

(p 1200), Aub., 86 :

Li sorcos fu toz a porfil
Forrez de menuz escuiriaus.   (2)

A distinction is made between orlé and à pourfil in

(c 1160), Enéas, 745 :

Fu bien orlez le mantel toz
Devant et a porfil desoz.   (3)

From this it appears that orlé indicates a border down the front edge of the opening of the mantel, and à po(u)rfil an edging on the bottom hem, but it is not certain whether this was a constant distinction. The expression à po(u)rfil is also found Esc., 2975, 6705 ; G. de D., 3272.

Cotgrave^[119] defines pourfiler as « to purfle, tinsel or overcast with gold threads », an explanation given also by Enlart, p. 233, but this cannot apply to a porfil of fur. There seems to be a connection in meaning with profil, English « profile », and it may have been a technical term designating a border on the extreme edge, forming an outline, possibly laid underneath and projecting as in the modern dressmaking term « piping », or the French passepoil, biais or liseré. This idea of a piping laid underneath would be a satisfactory way of explaining the passage above (3) à pourfil desoz.

REBRACIER, vb.

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The only definition of rebracier given by Godefroy which applies to our period is relever ses manches, and, en parlant d'une personne, qui a les manches retroussées. The following passages may be added to those cited by Godefroy :

(c 1200), Conq. J., 6387 :

Il rebrache ses manches…   (1)

4216:

Les dames i estoient, cascune rebrachie,
Ainc n'i ot une seule n'ait sa robe escorchie.   (2)

For rebrace in Richeut, 1037, cf. s. v. laz (13).

As has been remarked in the introduction, p. 10, the only time when the forearm is seen uncovered in the iconography is when the woman is working, as spinning or washing.

I have noted, for our period, no examples of the later extension of rebracier to mean « to shorten any garment or drapery », for which examples are given by Godefroy.

RIDER, vb. ; RIDOIRE, s. f.

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Rider, to lay in fine pleats, is used with reference the chemise, the chainse, q. v. and sometimes to the manche, q. v. Cf. also s. v. froncer. The German word for this process was brîsen, but the French word is found in

(c 1200), Iwein, 6483 :

wîze lînwât reine,
geridieret cleine.

The form rideler cited by Godefroy from Alexander Neckam, († 1217), which persists in England as late as the sixteenth century, cf. Murray, s. v. ridel, v2, and rideled, is apparently not otherwise found in our period.

The noun ridoire occurs once, in Part., 10119, cf. s. v. crioreaus. Godefroy defines it as sorte d'ornement de femme. From the fact that it occurs in a passage with guimple and fresel we may conclude that it was, like them, an adjunct to the lady's costume, of some material which was capable of being laid in pleats, possibly the type of headdress which is shown fig. 12, in which the pleats plainly appear.

ROBE, s. f.

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Robe is used with various shades of meaning from the generic term of« goods »to the specific one of« a dress ». The following stages may be determined. 1) goods in general, especially booty :

(c 1157), Brut, 10152:

Viles ardoir et robe prandre…   (1)

Cf. also 9447.

(1160-74), Rou, III, 2485 :

Bien aveient pleine[s] lur mains
De robe e de preie as vilains.   (2)

(c 1165), Troie, 4563 :

Et la robe fu mis es nes (in the ship).   (3)

4811 :

L'aveir e la robe ont chargiée
De que la Grece esteit despoilliée.   (4)

(c 1200), Ogier, 3759 :

Tote vo robe a hasart juerés…   (5)

(a 1204), Esc., 3984 :

… sa mere,
Ki gardait les muls et la robe.   (6)

2) clothes in general :

(c 1164), Erec, 402 :

… sa fille qui fu vestue
D'une chemise…
Un blanc chainse ot vestu dessus ;
N'avoit robe ne moins ne plus.   (7)

(c 1160), Mon. G., I, 478 :

Deniers et robes et a mangier doner.   (8)

Cf. also Mon. G., I, 542 ; II, 869, 1664, 1738 ; 2414, et al.

(c 1180), Perc. (B), 9139:

… lor ot robes tailliées…   (9)

9142:

E les robes furent d'ermines.   (10)

(a 1204), Esc., 6046 :

Puis vont metre lour robe es males,
Chainses, mantiaus, pliçons, sorcos.   (11)

(a 1200), Athis, 10030 :

Piec'a n'ot mes robe vestue…   (12)

Cf. also Erec, 1371, 1572, 2113, 4612, 6456 ; Perc., 19365 ; Troie, 13330 ; Gal., 1851, 5572, 7125, 7741 ; Ogier, 7300 ; Iv., 4367 ; Esc., 139, 3763, 5325 ; G. de D., 4056 ; Brut, 9461, 9474, 9487 ; Biaus, 4217, 4232, 5125, 6099 ; Rou, II, 3513.

3) an outfit composed of several garments :

(1169-73), Iv., 2974 :

Robe veire, cote et mantel
A fet porter de soie en grainne.   (13)

(c 1180), Perc., 9285 :

… uns varles i vint
Qui une reube a son col tint
Et cote et mantiel et sourcot.   (14)

5916:

… uns siens cambrelens li trait
Une reube fors d'un sien cofre…
Quant il fu viestus bien et bel
Et de la cote et del mantel…   (15)

(1199), G. de D., 4435 :

…si fai robe vaire,
Bon mantel et cote et sorcot.   (16)

(c 1200), Gal., 6951 :

… une robe neufve
D'escarlate, cote et surcot.   (17)

(a 1204), Esc., 5340 :

Ele ot vestue richement
Ysabel de robe novele :
Cote ot tot d'un et cape bele
Et coterel d'un drap mellé
Dont li giron furent mout lé.   (18)

Cf. also G. de D., 1821 in which roube is equivalent to sorcot and chape, though translated in the Glossary as mantel.

4) a single garment. In this case it is not necessarily a dress, for la robe and li mantials are used interchangeably in Biaus, 4217, 4221, 4230, 4232, but as a rule it is evidently used as in the modern sense. It represents the bliaut :

(a 1200), Floire, 2587 :

Reube porprine vestue ot ;
Si fu laciés au mius qu'il pot.   (19)

As a man's dress cf. also Perc., 9367 ; Gal., 4781 ; Esc., 3660.

As a lady's dress, equivalent to the bliaut or cote, it is so frequently mentioned that only a choice of the passages is given here :

(c 1164), Erec, 2612 :

… s'est atornée
De la mellor robe qu'elle ot.   (20)

2580:

Levez de ci, si vos vestez
De vostre robe la plus bele…   (21)

(1172-76), Chr. N., II, 17192:

D'un drap od seignes d'orfrois
Out robe chere e ben seante…   (22)

(1190-1200), Trist. (B), 3898 :

Sa robe tient en .i. main…   (23)

(c 1180), Perc. (B), 3682 :

… la robe qu'ele vest[oit]
N'avoit plainne paume de sain…   (24)

(ed. Potvin), 4894 :

… le bliaut qu'ele vestoit…

(1169-73), Iv., 2360 :

D'un drap anperial vestue,
Robe d'ermine tote fresche…   (25)

(c 1200), Gal., 7699 :

… Fresne est vestue
De sa robe qui riche est tant.   (26)

There is no distinction between a robe as destined for a man or for a woman :

(c 1164), Erec, 5225 :

Ot Guivrez fet deus robes feire…

5232:

Enide ot la robe d'ermine…
Erec le ver et le bofu.   (27)

5) robe prendre = to become a monk :

(c 1160) Mon. G., I, 184 :

Li quens fu moins, si ot la robe prise.   (28)

I have noted no cases of robelinge in our period. Robes viez, linges ou langes appears in 1268, cf. Boileau, Livre des Métiers, LXXVI, 1. Viollet-le-Duc's statement, III, 297, that the chemise during the tenth and eleventh centuries was called robe-linge is incorrect.

The statement made by Viollet-le-Duc, IV, p. 214, and by Racinet, Glossary, s. v. robe, that robe as une des parties de l'habillement… ne s'applique qu'aux vêtements longs is true in so far as robe designates a lady's dress, which always is long in the twelfth century ; but as far as a man's dress is concerned there is as yet no justification in the texts for considering it always long. Indeed an immediate contradiction of the statement is made by Viollet-le-Duc himself when he gives, IV, 237, an illustration of a man's robe which reaches only to the knees.

Since no specific value can be assigned to robe, no illustrations of it, as differing from any outer garment, should be looked for at this time. Viollet-le-Duc's charming reconstructions, IV, 231-247 must be accepted with many reserves. In particular the illustration, IV, 246, fig. 9, may be identified with the bliaut, though there is no justification for representing this as laced up the back rather than at the sides.

SOLLER, s. m.

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Soller is the generic word for shoes as worn by both men and women. Cf. Viollet-le-Duc, s. v. chaussure ; Quicherat, 155 ; Schultz, I, 220 ; Winter, p. 13 ; Godefroy, Comp. s. v. souler. As has been pointed out by these authorities, the soller were sometimes of leather, Char. N., 1040 : sollers de buef ; 1314 : de vache. Especially prepared leather from Cordova was called cordoan : sollers de cordewan, Ipom., 1625 ; Thèbes, 3816 ; cordoan soller, Aspr, 7727 ; Char. N., 56 ; cf. also s. v. cordouan ; Mon. G., II, 3619. They were also of cloth or of silk, cf. Enlart, 261, but this was evidently taken for granted, for, curiously enough, the only other material specifically mentioned is fish skin :

(c 1160), Enéas, 4026 :

Si soller furent d'un peisson
De cent colors menu vairié ;
A or furent lié li pié…   (1)

(a 1200), Athis, 6924 :

Li soller erent pointuré ;
Mout furent cointe li soller
D'un poissonet de Roge Mer.   (2)

For the use of fish skin for clothes, cf. Weinhold, II, 258. Pointuré is translated by Schultz, I, 188 as gestickt, by Winter, p. 12, as bemalt. Pointuré, occuring also Elie 1696, might be considered another form of painturé. Cf. Fier., 2027 ; Ogier, 1027, (cited by Winter), (2), (3), (5), but as Söhring has shown^[120] peint does not necessarily mean painted, but may mean decorated with figures by embroidery or by carving. Embroidery, as an art well known to the ladies, seems probable here. A design in gold appliqued on or done in cut work is mentioned :

(c 1170), Ales., 7597 :

Et à or furent entaillié li soller.   (3)

For a discussion of entaillié cf. s. v. mantel (10). Soulers a liste, (i.e. with bands of embroidery) Aiol, 2017, are shown Viollet-le-Duc, III, 157, 158. Shoes are also mentioned as à laz, Cast., XXVII, 198 ; cf. also à or lié (1) above ; this style is illustrated Enlart, 260 ; Lacroix 31 ; cf. also s. v. eschapins (3). Sollers bottonés, Fils Aym., 3621, may mean either that a strap over the instep is fastened with a button, cf. Enlart, fig. 282, or that there is a decoration of buttons as on the illustrations of Superbia, Herrad v. Landsberg, pl. XLIII, reproduced in Quicherat, p. 165. Pointed shoes are mentioned Alex., (Ms. Ars.), 243 as solerez aguz, and, as is to be expected, a lady's shoes are described as slender and well fitting, Gal., 2022 ; Enseign., 221.

The illuminated manuscripts which I have been able to observe in the original or facsimile show the shoes usually to have been black, and the same observation is made by Ashdown^[121] for the manuscripts of our period in England. As the lady's shoes are almost entirely concealed by her long dress, some of the illustrations cited above are drawn from the illustrations for men, for the occasional glimpses we get show a general resemblance. For other illustrations, cf. Lacroix, op. cit., pp. 30-34.

SOSCANIE, s. f.

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The soscanie was a loose dress ; a simple, everyday dress as compared with the elaborate bliaut.

There are few references to it in the texts of the twelfth century. Godefroy, s. v. souscanie cites the passage in Partonopeus, 8015, where ladies of a religious turn of mind abandon their tightly laced dresses and wide pleated sleeves and wear

… unes soschanies
Amples desos, par pans formes,
Et vestent ces les soupelis.   (1)

The only other twelfth century appearance which I have noted in Old French is R. le D., 1798, where a knight wears une blanche suscanie.

Du Cange, s. v. soscania, cites a M. L. passage dated 1199 in which the word appears. It becomes frequent in the thirteenth century both in Old French and Middle High German, cf. Godefroy, s. v. and Weinhold, II, 288. Weinhold's statement, that the Suckenie is mentioned in Graf Rudolf^[122] in the twelfth century, rests on a very shaky foundation, as only the first four letters in almost illegible form are found in the manuscript and the rest of the word was completed by Grimm. If this restitution is correct, the earliest fixed date for Suckenie in MHG. is c 1169^[123]. It is evidently then a word appearing towards the end of the twelfth century, and its occurrence in Partonopeus makes it seem probable that this text is to be dated nearer 1188, the terminus ad quem given by Voretzsch ^[124], than 1153, that given by Kawczynski.

In view of the meagerness of our information in regard to soscanie no attempt can be made to identify it in the iconography.