ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

6

6

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

by this Wicked Custom, maugre all the Precepts of our holy Religion, and the Rules of right Reafon, the greateft Act of the human Mind, Forgiveness of Injuries, is become vile and fhameful; that the Rules of good Society and virtuous Converfation are hereby inverted; that the Loose, the Vain, and the Impudent, infult the Careful, the Difcreet, and the Modeft; that all Virtue is fuppreffed, and all Vice fupported, in the one A&t of being capable to dare to the Death. We have alfo further, with great Sorrow of Mind, obferved that this dreadful Action, by long Impunity, (Our Royal Attention being employed upon Matters of more gene'ral Concern) is become honourable, and the Refufal to engage in it ignominious. In thefe Our Royal Cares and Enquiries We are yet farther made to un'derstand, that the Perfons of most eminent Worth, and moft hopeful Abilities, accompanied with the Strongest Paffion for true Glory, are fuch as are most liable to be involved in the Dangers arifing from this Licence. Now taking the faid Premifes into our ferious Confideration, and well weighing that all fuch Emergencies (wherein the Mind is incapable of commanding it felf, and where the Injury is too fudden or too exquifite to be born) are particularly provided for by Laws heretofore enacted; and that the Qualities of lefs Injuries, like thofe of Ingratitude, are too nice and delicate to come under general Rules; we do refolve to blot this Fashion, or Wantonnefs of Anger, out of the Minds of Our Subjects, by Our Royal Refolutions declared in this Edict as follow.

'

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]
[ocr errors]

NO Perfon who either fends or accepts a Challenge, or the Pofterity of either, tho' no Death enfues thereupon, fhall be, after the Publication of this our Edict, capable of bearing Office in thefe our Dominions.

THE Perfon who fhall prove the fending or receiving a Challenge, fhall receive to his own Ufe and Property, the whole perfonal Eftate of both Parties; and their real Estate fhall be immediately vefted in the next Heir of the Offenders, in as ample Manner as if the said Offenders were actually deceased.

IN Cafes where the Laws (which we have already granted to our Subjects) admit of an Appeal for Blood;

when

'when the Criminal is condemned by the faid Appeal, he 'fhall not only fuffer Death, but his whole Eftate,real, mixed,and perfonal, fhall from the Hour of his Death be vefted in the next Heir of the Perfon whofe Blood he fpilt.

[ocr errors]

THAT it shall not hereafter be in Our Royal Power, or that of Our Succeffors, to pardon the faid Offences, or restore the Offenders in their Eftates, Honour, or Blood for ever.

Given at our Court at Blois the 8th of February, 420.' In the Second of Year of our Reign.

T

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

HERE is not fo variable a thing in Nature as a

Lady's Head-drefs: Within my own Memory 1

have known it rife and fall above thirty De

gees. About ten Years ago it fhot up to a very great Height, infomuch that the female Part of our Species were much taller than the Men. The Women were of fuch an enormous Stature, that we appeared as Grasshoppers before them: At prefent the whole Sex is in a manner dwarfed and fhrunk into a Race of Beauties that feems almoft another Species. I remember feveral Ladies, who were once very near feven Foot high, that at prefent want fome Inches of five: How they came to be thus curtailed I cannot learn; whether the whole Sex be at prefent under any Penance which we know nothing of, or whether they have caft their Head-dresses in order to furprize us with fomething in that kind which hall be entirely new; or whether fome of the tallest of the Sex, being too cunning for the reft, have contrived this Method to make themfelves appear fizeable, is ftill a' Secret; tho' I find moft are of Opinion, they are at prefent like Trees new lopped and pruned, that will certainly fprout up and flourish with greater Heads than before. For my own Part, as I do not love to be infulted by Women who are taller than my felf, I admire the

Sex

Sex much more in their prefent Humiliation, which has reduced them to their natural Dimenfions, than when they had extended their Perfons, and lengthened themfelves out into formidable and gigantick Figures. I am not for adding to the beautiful Edifices of Nature, nor for raising any whimsical Superftructure upon her Plans: I must therefore repeat it, that I am highly pleased with the Coiffure now in Fashion, and think it fhews the good Sense which at prefent very much reigns among the valuable Part of the Sex. One may obferve, that Women in all Ages have taken more Pains than Men to adorn the outfide of their Heads; and indeed I very much admire, that those female Architects, who raise such wonderful Structures out of Ribbands, Lace, and Wire, have not been recorded for their respective Inventions. It is certain there has been as many Orders in these kinds of Buliding, as in thofe which have been made of Marble : Sometimes they rife in the Shape of a Pyramid, sometimes like a Tower, and fometimes like a Steeple. In Juvenal's Time the Building grew by feveral Orders and Stories, as he has very humourously defcribed it.

Tot premit ordinibus, tot adhuc compagibus altum
Edificat caput: Andromachen à frente videbis ;
Poft minor eft: Aliam credas.
Juv.

But I do not remember, in any Part of my Reading, that the Head-drefs afpired to fo great an Extravagance as in the fourteenth Century; when it was built up in a Couple of Cones or Spires, wich ftood fo exceffively high on each Side of the Head, that a Woman who was but a Pigmy without her Head-dress, appeared like a Coloffus upon putting it Monfieur Paradin fays, That these old fashioned Fontanges rose an Ell above the Head; that they were pointed like Steeples, and had long loofe Pieces of Crape faftened to the Tops of them, which were curiously fringed, and hung down their Backs like Streamers.

on.

[ocr errors]

THE Women might poffibly have carried this Gothick Building much higher, had not a famous Monk, Thomas Conecte by Name, attacked it with great Zeal and Refolution. This holy Man travelled from Place to Place to preach down this monstrous Commode; and fucceeded

fo well in it, that as the Magicians facrificed their Books to the Flames upon the Preaching of an Apoftle, many of the Women threw down their Head-dreffes in the Middle of his Sermon, and made a Bonfire of them within Sight of the Pulpit. He was fo renowned, as well for the Sanctity of his Life as his Manner of Preaching, that he had often a Congregation of Twenty thoufand People;the Men placing themselves on the one Side of his Pulpit, and the Women on the other, that appeared (to use the Similitude of an ingenious Writer) like a Foreft of Cedars with their Heads reaching to the Clouds. He fo warmed and animated the People against this monstrous Ornament, that it lay under a kind of Perfecution; and whenever it appeared in publick was pelted down by the Rabble, who flung Stones at the Perfons that wore it. But notwithstanding this Prodigy vanished while the Preacher was among them, it began to appear again fome Months after his Departure, or to tell it in Monfieur Paradin's own Words, The "Women that, like Snails in a Fright, had drawn in their 'Horns, fhot them out again as foon as the Danger was < over. This Extravagance of the Womens Head-dreffes in that Age is taken Notice of by Monfieur d'Argentré in his Hiftory of Bretagne, and by other Hiftorians as well as the Perfon I have here quoted.

IT is ufually observed, That a good Reign is the only proper Time for the making of Laws against the Exorbi tance of Power; in the fame manner an exceffive Head-, drefs may be attacked the most effectually when the Fafhion is against it. I do therefore recommend this Paper to my female Readers by way of Prevention.

I would defire the fair Sex to confider how impoffible it is for them to add any thing that can be ornamental to what is already the Mafter-piece of Nature. The Head has the most beautiful Appearance, as well as the highest Station, in a human Figure. Nature has laid out all her Art in beautifying the Face: She has touched it with Vermillion, planted in it a double Row of Ivory, made it the Seat of Smiles and Blushes, lighted it up and enlivened it with the Brightnefs of the Eyes, hung it on each Side with curious Organs of Senfe, given it Airs and Graces that cannot be defcribed, and furrounded it with fuch a flowing Shade of Hair as fets all its

Beauties

N° 99. Beauties in the moft agreeable Light: In fhort, fhe feems to have defigned the Head as the Cupola to the most glorious of her Works; and when we load it with such a Pile of fupernumerary Ornaments, we deftroy the Symmetry of the human Figure, and foolishly contrive to call off the Eye from great and real Beauties, to childish Gewgaws, Ribbands, and Bone-lace.

L

Saturday, June 23.

N° 99.

Turpi fecernis Honeftum.

T

Hor.

HE Club, of which I have often declared my felf a Member, were laft Night engaged in a Difcourfe upon that which paffes for the chief Point of Honour among Men and Women; and started a great many Hints upon the Subject, which I thought were entirely new: I fhall therefore methodize the feveral Reflections that arofe upon this Occafion, and prefent my Reader with them for the Speculation of this Day; after having premifed, that if there is any thing in this Paper which feems to differ with any Paffage of laft Thursday's, the Reader will confider this as the Sentiments of the Club, and the other as my own private Thoughts, or rather thofe of Pharamond.

THE great Point of Honour in Men is Courage, and in Women Chastity. If a Man lofes his Honour in one Rencounter, it is not impoffible for him to regain it in another; a Slip in a Woman's Honour is irrecoverable. I can give no Reafon for fixing the Point of Honour to these two Qualities, unless it be that each Sex fets the greatest Value on the Qualification which renders them the moft amiable in the Eyes of the contrary Sex. Had Men chofen for themselves, without Regard to the Opinions of the fair Sex, I fhould believe the Choice would have fallen on Wisdom or Virtue; or had Women determined their own Point of Honou, it is probable that Wit or Good-nature would have carried it against Chastity.

NO

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »