alone. The turban in
its evolution is an interesting study, and makes one wonder if that,
too, did not wander north from the Moorish occupancy of Spain and the
wave of inspiration which flowed unceasingly from the Orient in the
years when Europe created little without inspiration from outside.

A patriarchal bearded man in sacerdotal robes of costly elegance
seriously impresses his fellows all through the Gothic tapestries, and
his rival is a swaggering, important person, clean-shaven, in full
brocaded skirt, fur-bound, whose attitude declares him royal or near
it. The first of these is the model nowadays for stage kings, and even
a woman's toilet must vaunt itself to get notice beside his gorgeous
array. He wears about his waist a jewelled girdle of great splendour,
and on his head some impressive matter of either jewels or draping.
His face is usually full-bearded, but even when smooth, youth is not
expressed upon him. Youths of the same time are more _debonnaire_, are
springing about, clean-faced, clad in short, belted pelisse, showing
sprightly legs equally ready to step quickly towards a lovely lady or
to a field of battle.

Soldiers--let a woman hesitate to speak of their dress and arms in any
tone but that of self-depreciating humility. Suffice it to say that in
the early work they wore the armour of the time, whether the scene
depicted were an event of history cotemporaneous, or of the time of
Moses. Fashions in dress changed with deliberation then, and it is to
the arms carried by the men that we must sometimes look for exactness
of date.

LETTERING

The presence of letters is often noticed in hangings of the
Fourteenth, Fifteenth and early Sixteenth Centuries. It was a fashion
eminently satisfactory, a great assistance to the observer. It helped
tell the story, and, as these old pictures had always a story to tell,
it was entirely excusable--at least, so it seems to one who has stood
confounded before a modern painting without a catalogue or other
indication as to the why of certain agitated figures.

The lettering was, in the older Gothic, explicit and unstinted, in
double or quadruple lines, in which case it counts as decoration
banded across top or bottom. Again, it is as trifling as a word or two
affixed to the persons of the play to designate them. This lettering
may be French or Latin.

EARLY BACKGROUNDS

Backgrounds of the early Fifteenth Century deal much in
conventionalised, flat patter