"Yester-year"; ten centuries of toilette from the French of A. Robida

" II faut serrer ces belles jupes Qui brillent de clinquants divers. On a pris les dames pour dupes, Leurs habits n' en seront point couverts," says a lady, drawn by Abraham Bosse in 1634, after the issuing of the edicts and the reformation of costume.

The change was radical; no more overload-in with ornaments, no more flowered stuffs, no more fine lace from Brussels or Venice. The " lady according to tlie edict," draAvn by Abraham Bosse, wears, over a flat skirt with straiglit-falling folds and not the slightest sign of farthingnle, a bodice with basques, very high at the neck, and fastened by a plain ribbon, the wide sleeves open uj)on an under-sleeve, without either trimming or embroidery. The large ruff, the big frill, either high or flat, is succeeded by a band (' rabat ') of lawn which comes up to the chin. In this costume there remains nothing of the fashion of the sixteenth century ; that mode is dead for good and all, it is of ' yester-year.'

But the new costume, very simple and sober, almost to the point of austerity, is destined to become the fixed costume of women of lesser rank, those bourgeois house-wives, to whom sumptuary edicts cause neither care nor pain ; in fact, in its outlines, it is the costume actually worn by the sisters of Saint Vincent of Paul.

Then did the fair dames take this luudest costume, '-according to the edict," and quickly transform it into one of tiie most eleuant

Eiul of tbo reigu of Louis XIII.

and charming ever invented by fashion, a truly remarkable type of high distinction, at the very moment when the masculine costume of the earlier days of Callot, so free, and manly, and kniglitly, was about to change for the worse, to become heavy and constrained, with the jerkin waists up under the arms, and the upper-hose, or breeches, falling over the calf of the leg.

The gown was now worn open from the top to the bottom, showing a bodice-front of light satin, ornamented with tags, and ending in a rounded point on a shirt of silk or reddish-brown satin. The upper dress was widely divided, and rather long, all its folds were on the sides or at the back. The puffed sleeves were cut in narrow bands, fastened on the inner side of the elbow by a ribbon, or opening on a rich under-sleeve of lace, and trimmed at the aperture with tags or bows of ribbon.

No more high frills, only flat ones. The large collars and bands of lawn again displayed some rich embroidery on the points, which fell very low over the shoulders and on the arms, and pointed cuffs of the same embroidery, reacliing from the wrist to the elbow, were adopted.

Bunches and tufts of ribbon everywhere, rosettes on the bodices, garlands of rosettes at the girdles, necklaces of pearls falling on the bosom, strings of jewels fitting to the

An élégante of the time of Louis XIII.

neck, diamonds and stones on tags and shoulder-knots ; such was the array of the fashionable lady in 16.35, who displayed her rich apparel on the Pkxce Royale to the moustached gallants lounging beneath tlie arcades.

Presently this costume will be worn by the heroines of the Fronde, the duchesses leagued against Mazarin, and afterwards, with certain alterations, it will become full dress costume at the splendid fêtes of the Court of Louis XIV.

Marion.

VII.

UNDER THE SUN-KING,

Under the Sun-King—From La Valliîre to Maintenon — Gowns called 'transparent' — The triumph of Lace—The Romance of Fashion—Steinkirks—The Fontanges head-dress — The reign of Madame de Maintenon, or thirty-live years of moroseness.

It is the reigu of the Great King ; the sovereignty of sumptuous ornament and majestic solemnity in arclntocture ; it is also the reign of equally solemn and majestic wigs, and of fashions, amazingly luxurious indeed, but more superb than elegant.

" The great century ! " Grandeur is pushed to pomposity, and splendour to ostentation ; the same heavy magnificence prevails in the style of the hotels or palaces wherein dwell bewigged nobles, and in their prim and pompous furniture, as in the dress of men and women, and the refined devices of fashion.

The great reign had a troubled prologue in the Fronde, which enabled the fine ladies to play at flirtatious politics, and to treat themselves to an idea of the emotions of their grandmothers in the days of the League. The strong hand which had held the reins of Government had dropped them, it was cold in death. Richelieu was gone; pranks were possible.

And wliat pranks did not the dukes, and the heroines of the Fronde proceed forthwith to play ? This beginning of things, while as yet

A LA COl'll DU ROI-SOI.HIL.

the Great King was on]}' the little king, lias a prettily romantic air about it.