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HISTORY OP LACE.

CHAPTER XXIY.

JAMES I. TO THE RESTORATION.

JAMES I.

“ Now up aloft I mount unto the Ruffe,

Which into foolish mortals pride doth puffe ;

Yet Ruffe’s antiquity is here but small:

Within these eighty years not one at all.

For the 8th Henry, as I understand,

Was the first king that ever wore a Band,

And but a falling band plaine with a hem,

All other people knew no use of them.”

Taylor, Water Poet, 1640.

The ruff single, double, three piled, and Daedalian , 1 to the delightof the satirists, retained its sway during the early days of KingJanies I. It was the “ commode ” of the eighteenth—the crinolineof the nineteenth century. Every play teems with allusions tothis monstrosity. One compares it to

“ A pinched lanthomWhich schoolboys made in winter;” 2

while a second 3 talks of a

“ Starched ruff, like a new pigeon-house.”

The lover, in the play of the “ Antiquary ,” 4 complains to hismistress in pathetic terms—

“ Do you not remember how you fooled me, and set me to pin pleats in your rufftwo hours together ? ”

Mr. Stubbs stood not alone in his anathemas. The dignitaries

1 “Your trebble-quadruple Djcdalianruffes, nor your stifle necked Rebatoesthat have more arches for pride to rowunder, than can stand under five LondonBridges .”—The GuVs Horne-booke, by T.

Deckar. London, 1609.

2 Beaumont and Fletcher, “NiceValour.”

3 Ibid. “ The Blind Lady,” 1661.

» 1641.