THE STORY OF COSTUMES 



and close-fitting above the elbow, but swelling into 

 gorgeous puffs of immense size about the wrist. The 

 puffings about the hips might be omitted; while in 

 place of the plain striped hose of the left leg, the 

 right one would be puffed and slashed, and made 

 into folds of half a dozen colors down to the knee, 

 and perhaps a plain simple color from that point to 

 the ankle. 



This is but one of the hundreds of remarkable cos- 

 tumes worn at that time, and is drawn from absolutely 

 authentic sources. But every gallant apparently 

 strove to produce some unique form of garment, more 

 outlandish, if possible, than that of his neighbor, and 

 the result was a motley array that beggars description. 

 At the same time the women of the period were fre- 

 quently costumed in dresses differing very little from 

 some of the patterns of the nineteenth century. 



In this same period the "sober Englishman" was 

 far from sober in his attire. He did not perhaps equal 

 the German in the matter of fantastic design, but he 

 was not far behind. He, too, loved flowing sleeves 

 and puffs, and sometimes he wore a hood or cap with 

 a peak behind that trailed to the ground, unless he 

 tucked it into his girdle, or wrapped it about his neck, 

 as he did upon occasion. 



His consort, meanwhile, wore garments puffed and 

 sometimes hung about her by means of stays and whale- 

 bones that suspended the garments at a considerable 

 distance from the body, and must have given her the 

 appearance of a movable tent. Her headdress was 

 sometimes a yard or more high, with veil and streamers 



