this one's for hanksan

[ursula]

From a fourteenth-century chronicle of England (quoted in Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince, emphasis added):

In this time Englishmen so much haunted and cleaved to the wodnes and folly of strangers that they change their clothing every year, especially since the coming of the Hainaulters years ago. Sometimes their clothes are long and wide, at others they are short, tight, dagged and cut about all round. The sleeves of their surcoats and their hoods have tapets, long and wide which hang down too far. They look, to tell the truth, more like tormentors and devils in their clothing than normal men. And the women surpass the men in their clothing which is so tight that they hang fox-tails under their dresses at the back to hide their arses, a kind of behaviour which may well have provoked many of the evils and misfortunes that have beset the kingdom of England.

Comments

[ex-greythist387.livejournal.com]

Tails! I don't suppose the book says which C14 chronicle is quoted...?

This goes back a bit, IIRC; anyone interested might see

Brewer, Derek. "Englishmen with Tails: La3amon, `Muggles' and a Transhistorical Ethnic Joke in English." In Medieval Heritage: Essays in Honour of Tadahiro Ikegami, edited by Masahiko Kanno, Hiroshi Yamashita, Masatoshi Kawasaki, Junko Asakawa and Naoko Shirai, 3-15. Tokyo: Yushodo Press, 1997.

[d-m.livejournal.com]

// wow. that last line is the most awesomely surreal thing
// i've heard in awhile.

// i guess when people complain about the teenagers today,
// you can say "at least they're not using fox-tails."

[god-of-belac.livejournal.com]

Off topic, but since I don't have your email:

A couple Pennsics ago, you helped me get my name registered. When I moved to Chicago, I misplaced the confirmation paperwork, and the Midrealm heralds can't seem to locate it within the SCA system. Do you know who would be best to ask about this?

Thanks,
JC

[tejolote.livejournal.com]

I still think this is too funny for words.

[gwacie.livejournal.com]

Personally, I still think the gentleman who wrote the chronicle was exagerating. Thinking that a dress that tight must show ass cleavage and therefore there must be something preventing it and inventing the fox tail phenomenon. However I think that a tight dress alone would smoosh the buttocks together and not show a stark line of division without the aid of fluffy appendages. One wonders if the gentleman who wrote this passage had much occaison to find out what ladies of the time wore under their dresses.

[foxen.livejournal.com]

Wow... All I can say is wow.