CHAPTER V. ON FEMALE DRESS. WOMEN have, in all ages and countries, been so addicted to the adorning of their persons, and the pursuit has been viewed with so much indulgence and complacency by men, that it may perhaps provoke a smile to mention the subject at all; certainly it would be an act of barbarity to treat it in any other than a playful manner. We may remember the refined raillery with which some modish extravagancies of his day in this respect were treated by the Spectator, who knew, better than most, how to dress truth in laughing guise "For ridicule shall frequently prevail And cut the knot, when graver reasons fail." One paper of the "Spectator," No. 15, I cannot forbear recommending to my fair friends, if any such should condescend to glance at this little essay. They may be assured it will repay their perusal. It is in this paper that Addison, in his own inimitable style, and with an admirable happiness of allusion, has brought to the service of his argument a passage from an ancient poet, which has won the applause of every critic. But it will be a relief from my own dullness, to let the Spectator speak for himself. "I cannot conclude without observing, that Virgil has very finely touched upon this female passion for dress and shew, in the character of Camilla; who, though she seems to have shaken off all the other weaknesses of her sex, is still described as a very woman in this particular. The poet tells us, that, after having made a great slaughter of the enemy, she unfortunately cast her eye upon a Trojan, who wore an embroidered tunic, a beautiful coat of mail, with a mantle of the finest purple. 'A golden bow (says he) hung upon his shoulder: his garment was buckled with a golden clasp, and his head covered with a helmet of the same shining metal.' The amazon immediately singled out this well-dressed warrior, being seized with a woman's longing for the pretty trappings that he was adorned with 'Totumque incauta per agmen Fœminec prædo et spoliorum ardebat amore.' This heedless pursuit after these glittering trifles, the poet, by a nice concealed moral, represents to have been the destruction of his female hero." This reminds me of the story of Tarpeia, which some of my young friends may forget. Dazzled and charmed with the splendour of the golden bracelets of the Sabines, she betrayed the fort her father commanded, and asked as the reward of her treason what they wore on their left arms. Unhappy, ill-fated virgin! "No amorous Celt, no fierce Bavarian bore Press'd by those shields whose splendour she admir'd, It is observable, that even the gravity of the "Rambler" relaxes into a smile, while he devotes many of his rounded periods to the same subject—that of female dress. The love of finery, which appeared so early, and was so nearly fatal, as the above story proves, to infant Rome, seems to have gained vigour with the age of the republic; and we find it, long after, breaking out to such an inordinate degree, in the Roman ladies, that it was deemed necessary, by the wisdom of their legislative assembly, to repress it by certain laws. This was a political error, and a dire affront to the liberty of the subject; and I suppose would not have been tolerated anywhere but in a republic such as that of ancient Rome, or modern France. Republics are apt to take strange liberties, which would not be so readily borne in monarchical forms of government. However, we find the Roman matrons, with a becoming spirit, very soon agitating and petitioning against it. The history of this Oppian law, as it was called, is amusing. It had been passed to meet a public emergency with very inadequate means, as is too often the case with certain modern laws that we all know of. The treasury at this time happened to be exhausted, and, in their profound wisdom, what measure do the Roman cabinet and senate adopt to replenish it? Why, they light at once, and with admirable judgment, upon the offending party; the party who had, no doubt, caused the deplorable deficiency in the public exchequer-and who had been the cause of bringing Hannibal to their very gates-this party was the Roman ladies! A sensible and calculating tribune of the people, deservedly popular a very Hume, or Cobden of the day-got it passed. This law forbade even the most opulent Roman lady to use above half-an-ounce of gold on her person, to wear dresses of various colours (what would our ladies think of this?) or to ride in a chariot at Rome, or in the neighbourhood, unless to assist at a public sacrifice, a mile off. At this distance of time we can have but a faint idea of the consternation with which this barbarous law was received by the culprits. A general female mourning was observed all over the city, and the leading legislators, who were the means of passing the obnoxious statute, were put into coventry by the fair sex, and subjected to various other symptoms of displeasure, which I think it better to pass over in silence. Meanwhile time rolled on, and brought with it its usual changes. A period of eighteen years restored the vigour and wealth of the republic, and the matrons of Rome, finding it intolerable to submit any longer to this execrable law, particularly as the State was now abounding in wealth, and had no fair pretence to seize upon their ear-rings and superfluous gold, began to bestir themselves, to appoint committees, to make speeches, in short, to take all the approved steps for a repeal. There happened, as good-fortune would have it, to be at this time in Rome, in an important official capacity, too, a great favourite of the ladies, who advocated their cause, and denounced their wrongs on all suitable and other occasions-one Valerius. They consulted him, and his advice was conveyed in the words, which found a simultaneous throb in every female breast, "Agitate, agitate." This palatable recommendation was not neglected. A petition was drawn up immediately, and a deputation of ladies appointed to present it to the Assembly. The capitol, the place of meeting, was crowded to suffocation; multitudes of people choking up every avenue, some shouting out for, others against the law. It appears, from the public records, that their husbands, before they went out, on that important morning, for the Assembly, had left the strictest orders with their wives to observe the rules of decency, by staying at home, and not flying in the face of the public authority, but quietly submitting to the law, until it pleased the government to repeal it. But no sooner had they gone off to attend their duties in the senate-house, than the ladies assembled in a wellarranged and condensed mass, and moving with a determined front, beset the passages which led from the capitol to the voting-place, soliciting every man, as they passed, to vote on their side; and urged the justice of their pretensions-to wear as much gold, and as many colours in their dress, as they pleased. The matter was at last taken into deliberation, and, from its importance, the debate was adjourned to the next day; during which time the women flocked to Rome from all the neighbouring colonies and towns, and offered petitions to the consuls and prætors. But they had an inexorable enemy, who made one of his long-winded and bitter speeches in favour of the law, not sparing his satirical remarks on the ladies for the stormy part they had taken in the matter, particularly, as he said, for their unfeminine conduct in appearing in public to solicit votes. Here, however, their friend Valerius came opportunely to the rescue, and in a very eloquent and plausible speech, worthy of Sir Robert himself, he maintained their right to appear in public in their own cause, a cause of such moment; wondered how any one could question it, and urged the propriety, the justice, nay the expediency of repealing that vile enactment which disgraced the statute-book, and disturbed their domestic tranquillity-the Oppian law. I need not add that his speech was so convincing, and such an impression made, that, amid the most deafening shouts, the sumptuary law was abrogated, and Cato left in a minority of one, himself being the only dissentient! It is by no means my intention to commend these ladies for their conduct on this occasion, in showing such anxiety about trifles, and insisting upon the use of a superfluity of ornaments. But to coerce them to a scanty wardrobe by a legislative enactment, was surely not the most judicious mode of reform. How could high-spirited persons, like Roman matrons, be expected to yield a willing compliance to such a measure? As for my own part, had I been a Roman citizen, I certainly would have voted for its abrogation. If Cato had employed another mode, that of reasoning and persuasion, it is to be hoped that his favourite retrenchment-scheme would have met with a very different reception. As it was, Cato, whom this weighty matter had detained from his post, set off, covered with chagrin and disappointment, to carry on the Spanish campaign, which he had then on his hands; and the ladies of Rome drew forth their concealed treasures, and wore them with a zest enhanced by their long abstinence and their present triumph. Another polite nation of antiquity turned its attention |