CHAPTER X

.

LOUIS XIV.--_continued_.

"Tout change: la raison change aussi de méthode; Écrits, habillemens, systèmes: tout est mode." Racine fils, _Epître à Rousseau_.

Point de France continued to be worn in the greatest profusion during the reign of Louis XIV. The King affected his new-born fabric much as monarchs of the present day do their tapestries and their porcelains. It decorated the Church and her ministers. Ladies offered "tours de chaire à l'église de la paroisse."[467] Albs, "garnies d'un grand point de France brodé antique";[468] altar-cloths trimmed with Argentan[469] appear in the church registers.[470] In a painting at Versailles, by Rigaud, representing the presentation of the Grand Dauphin to his royal father, 1668, the infant is enveloped in a mantle of the richest point (Fig. 74); and point de France was selected by royal command to trim the sheets of holland used at the ceremony of his "nomination."[471] At the marriage of the Prince de Conti and of Mademoiselle de Blois the toilette[472] presented {162}by the King was "garnie de point de France si haut qu'on ne voyait point de toile."[473] The valance, too, and the coverlet of the bed were of the same material.[474]

In this luxury, however, England followed her sister kingdom, for we read in the _Royal Magazine_ of 1763 that on the baptism of the young prince, afterwards Duke of York, the company went to the council chamber at St. James's, where a splendid bed was set up for the Queen to sit on, the counterpane of which is described as of inimitable workmanship, the lace alone costing £3,783 sterling.[475] "What princes do themselves, they engage others to do," says Quintilian, and the words of the critic were, in this case, fully verified: jupes,[476] corsets, mantles, aprons with their bibs,[477] shoes,[478] gloves,[479] even the fans were now trimmed with point de France.[480]

At the audience given by the Dauphine to the Siamese ambassadors, "à ses relevailles," she received them in a bed "presque tout couvert d'un tres beau point de France, sur lesquels on avoit mis des riches carreaux."[481] On the occasion of their visit to Versailles, Louis, proud of his fabric, presented the ambassadors with cravats and ruffles of the finest point.[482] These cravats were either worn of point, in one piece, or

## partly of muslin tied, with falling lace ends.[483] (Fig. 75.)

[Illustration: Fig. 74.

LE GRAND BÉBÉ. (M. de Versailles.)

_To face page 162._]

{163}In 1679 the king gave a fête at Marly to the élite of his brilliant court. When, at sunset, the ladies retired to repair their toilettes, previous to the ball, each found in her dressing-room a robe fresh and elegant, trimmed with point of the most exquisite texture, a present from that gallant monarch not yet termed "l'inamusable."

Nor was the Veuve Scarron behind the rest. When, in 1674, she purchased the estate from which she afterwards derived her title of Maintenon, anxious to render it productive, she enticed Flemish workers from the frontier to establish a lace manufacture upon her newly-acquired marquisate. How the fabric succeeded history does not relate, but the costly laces depicted in her portraits (Fig. 76) have not the appearance of home manufacture.

[Illustration: Fig. 75.

LOUVOIS. 1691.--(From his statue by Girardon. M. de Versailles.)]

Point lace-making became a favourite employment among ladies. We have many engravings of this reign; one, 1691, of a "fille de qualité" thus occupied, with the motto, "Apres {164}dîner vous travaillez au point." Another,[484] an engraving of Le Paultre, dated 1676, is entitled "Dame en Déshabille de Chambre" (Fig. 77).

"La France est la tête du monde" (as regards fashion), says Victor Hugo, "cyclope dont Paris est l'oeil"; and writers of all ages seem to have been of the same opinion. It was about the year 1680 that the

"Mode féconde en mille inventions, Monstre, prodige étrange et difforme,"

was suddenly exemplified in France.

[Illustration: Fig. 76.

MADAME DE MAINTENON.--(From her portrait. M. de Versailles.)]

All readers of this great reign will recall to mind the story of the "Fontanges." How in the hurry of the chase the locks of the royal favourite burst from the ribbon that bound them--how the fair huntress, hurriedly tying the lace kerchief round her head, produced in one moment a coiffure so light, so artistic, that Louis XIV., enchanted, prayed her to retain it for that night at court. The lady obeyed the royal command. This mixture of lace and ribbon, now worn for the first time, caused a sensation, and the next day all {165}the ladies of the court appeared "coiffées à la Fontange." (See Madame du Lude, Fig. 79.)

[Illustration: Fig. 77.

A LADY IN MORNING DÉSHABILLE.--(From an engraving by Le Paultre. 1676.)]

But this head-dress, with its tiers of point mounted on wires,[485] soon ceased to be artistic; it grew higher and higher. Poets and satirists attacked the fashion much as they did the high head-dresses of the Roman matrons more than a thousand years ago.[486] Of the extinction of this mode {166}we have various accounts, some asserting it to have been preached down by the clergy, as were the _hennins_ in the time of Charles VI.; but the most probable story is that which relates how, in October, 1699, Louis XIV. simply observed, "Cette coiffure lui paroissoit désagréable." The ladies worked all night, and next evening, at the Duchess of Burgundy's reception,[487] appeared for the first time in a low head-dress. Fashion,[488] which the author of the before-quoted _Consolation_ would call _pompeux_, was "aujourd'hui en reforme." Louis XIV. never appreciated the sacrifice; to the day of his death he persisted in saying, "J'ai eu beau crier contre les coiffures trop hautes." No one showed the slightest desire to lower them till one day there arrived "une inconnue, une guenille d'Angleterre" (Lady Sandwich, the English Ambassadress!!), "avec une petite coiffure basse--tout d'un coup, toutes les princesses vont d'une extrémité a l'autre."[489] Be the accusation true or not, the _Mercure_ of November, 1699, announces that "La hauteur des anciennes coiffures commence á paroître ridicule"; and St. Simon, in his _Memoirs_, satirises the fontange as a "structure of brass wire, ribbons, hair, and baubles of all sorts, about two feet high, which made a woman's face look as if it were in the middle of her body."

In these days lace was not confined to Versailles and the Court.[490]

"Le gentilhomme," writes Capefigue, "allait au feu en manchettes poudré à la maréchale, les eaux se senteur sur son mouchoir en point d'Angleterre, l'élégance n'a jamais fait tort au courage, et la politesse s'allie noblement à la bravoure."

But war brings destruction to laces as well as finances, {167}and in 1690 the loyal and noble army was found in rags. Then writes Dangeau: "M. de Castanaga, à qui M. de Maine et M. de Luxembourg avoient demandé un passeport pour fair venir des dentelles à l'armée, a refusé le passeport, mais il a envoyé des marchands qui ont porté pour dix mille écus de dentelles, et après qu'on les eut achetées, les marchands s'en retournèrent sans vouloir prendre d'argent, disant qu'ils avoient cet ordre de M. de Castanaga."

"J'avois une Steinkerque de Malines," writes the Abbé de Choisy, who always dressed in female attire. We hear a great deal about these Steinkirks at the end of the seventeenth century. It was a twisted lace necktie, and owed its origin to the battle of that name in 1692,[491] when the young French Princes of the Blood were suddenly ordered into action. Hastily tying their lace cravats--in peaceful times a most elaborate proceeding--they rushed to the charge, and gained the day. In honour of this event, both ladies and cavaliers wore their handkerchiefs knotted or twisted in this careless fashion.

"Je trouve qu'en été le Steinkerque est commode, J'aime le falbala,[492] quoiqu'il soit critiqué,"

says somebody. Steinkirks became the rage, and held good for many years, worn alike in England[493] and France by the women and the men. Fig. 78 represents the Grand Dauphin in his "longue Steinkerque à replis tortueux";[494] Fig. 79 the Duchesse du Lude[495] in similar costume and high Fontange, both copied from prints of the time.

We find constant mention now of the fashion of wearing a lace ruffle to the ladies' sleeves, concerning the wearing of which "à deux rangs," or "à trois rangs," there was much etiquette.

The falbalas were not given up until after the Regency; the use of them was frequently carried to such an excess {168}that a caricaturist of that period drew a lady so enveloped in them that she "looked like a turkey shaking its feathers and spreading its comb." This caricature gave rise to a popular song called "La Dinde aux Falbalas"; but in despite of song and caricature, the flounce continued in popularity.

"Les manches plates se font de deux tiers de tour, avec une dentelle de fil de point fort fin et fort haut. On nomme ces manches Engageantes."[496]

This fashion, though introduced in 1688, continued in vogue till the French Revolution. We see them in the portrait of Madame Palatine, mother of the Regent (Fig. 80), and in that of Madame Sophie de France, daughter of Louis XV., taken in 1782 by Drouais.

[Illustration: Fig. 78.

LE GRAND DAUPHIN EN STEINKERQUE.]

[Illustration: Fig. 79.

MADAME DU LUDE EN STEINKERQUE.

_To face page 168._]

{169}[Illustration: Fig. 80.

MADAME PALATINE (ELIZ. CHARLOTTE DE BAVIÈRE), DUCHESSE D'ORLÉANS.

(By Rigaud. M. de Versailles.)]

Before finishing with point de France, we must allude to the équipage de bain, in which this fabric formed a great item. As early as 1688, Madame de Maintenon presents Madame de Chevreuse with an "équipage de bain de point de France" of great magnificence. It consisted not only of a peignoir, but a broad flounce, which formed a valance round the bath itself. You can see them in old engravings of the day. Then there were the towels and the _descente_, all equally costly,[497] for the French ladies of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries admitted their _habitués_ not only to the _ruelle_,[498] but also to the bath-room.[499] In the latter case the bath {170}was _au lait_, _i.e._, clouded by the mixture of some essence. "Aux autres temps, autres moeurs."

The "fameuse poupée" of the reign of Louis XIV. must not be forgotten. The custom of dressing up these great dolls originated in the salons of the Hôtel Rambouillet, where one, termed "la grande Pandore," at each change of fashion was exhibited "en grand tenue"; a second, the little Pandore, in morning _déshabille_. These dolls were sent to Vienna and Italy, charged with the finest laces France could produce. As late as 1764 we read in the _Espion Chinois_, "Il a débarqué à Douvres un grand nombre de poupées de hauteur naturelle habillées à la mode de Paris, afin que les dames de qualité puissent régler leurs goûts sur ces modèles."[500] Even when English ports were closed in war-time, a special permission was given for the entry of a large alabaster doll four feet high, the Grand Courrier de la Mode.[501] In the war of the First Empire this privilege was refused to our countrywomen; and from that time Englishwomen, deprived of all French aid for a whole generation, began to dress badly. Pitt has much to answer for. With this notice finishes our account of the reign of Louis XIV.

PLATE LII.

[Illustration: BRUSSELS. MODERN POINT DE GAZE.--Actual size.

Photo by A. Dryden.]

_To face page 170._

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