REMARKS ON THE COSTUME, ETC.,

OF SOME OF THE

SKETCHES BY INIGO JONES.

In a brief history of Stage Costume which I wrote some years ago for Mr. Charles Knight's first volume of "Table Talk," I observed that the valuable labours of Mr. Wharton, in his "History of English Poetry," and of Mr. Payne Collier, in his "Annals of the Stage," had brought to light many curious details of the expenses attending the getting up of pageants and dramatic shows, during the reigns of Henry VI., Edward IV., Richard III., and Henry VII.; while the Chronicles of Hall and Hollinshed were replete with descriptions of the gorgeous masqueradings of our eighth Harry and his splendid court. In addition to this information, the "Extracts from Accounts of the Revels at Court," in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., edited by Mr. Peter Cunningham, and "Henslowe's Diary," edited by Mr. Collier, both which volumes are in the hands of our members, have supplied us with a mass of incidental notices, illustrative of the costume and properties displayed in the dramas and masques of the Shakesperian era.

The great liberality of his Grace the Duke of Devonshire now enables the Council to bring the aid of the pencil to the labours of the pen, and enrich the libraries of our subscribers with facsimiles of drawings made by the celebrated Inigo

Jones, if not during the lifetime, very shortly after the decease of Shakespeare, and which place before us not only the habits in which the Masques of his contemporary, Ben Jonson, were enacted, but in two instances, undoubtedly, the dress of characters in Shakespeare's own immortal productions. To commence, therefore, with these two most interesting illustrations:

PLATE I.

Presents us with the Palmer's, or Pilgrim's dress, worn by Romeo in the Masquerade scene, the figure being simply subscribed "Romeo," in pencil, in the original. It is the usual costume of such personages, consisting of a long loose gown, or robe, with large sleeves, and a round cape covering the breast and shoulders; a broad-leafed hat, turned up in front, and fastened to the crown by a button, apparently, if it be not intended for a small cockle-shell, the absence of which customary badge would otherwise be the only remarkable circumstance in the drawing. In the left hand of the figure is the bourdon, or staff, peculiar to Pilgrims. The modern representatives of Romeo have inaccurately carried a cross. In the text of the play, Romeo insists on bearing a torch.

"Give me a torch: I am not for this ambling;
Being but heavy, I will bear the light."

"A torch for me: let wantons, light of heart,
Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels;
For I am proverbed with a grandsire phrase:
I'll be a candle-holder, and look on."

And the only indication of his being in a Pilgrim's habit is derived from Juliet's addressing him, "Good Pilgrim," &c. The drawing is therefore most interesting authority for the actor; and it is probable that Mercutio, Benvolio, and the "five or six maskers," were also attired in similar dresses;

as, at this period, the parties attending such entertainments appeared generally in sets of six or eight shepherds, wild men, pilgrims, or other characters, preceded by their torch-bearers, music, and sometimes, as Benvolio intimates, "a cupid hoodwinked with a scarf, bearing a Tartar's painted bow of lath," or some other allegorical personage, to speak a prologue, or introductory oration, setting forth the assumed characters and purpose of the maskers.

PLATE II.

JACK CADE.

Jack Cade, the notorious rebel, introduced by Shakespeare in the Second Part of Henry VI. The figure is very rudely sketched, but is full of character-the ragged trousers of the artisan contrasting well with the plumed helmet of the military chief.

"This monument of victory will I bear," exclaims Cade, after the death of the Staffords (act iv., sc. iii.); and this exclamation is supposed to be explained by the following passage in Hollinshed—" Jack Cade, upon his victory against the Staffords, apparelled himself in Sir Humphrey's brigadine, set full of gilt nails." The brigandine was a jacket formed of overlapping pieces of iron, riveted together by nails, the heads of which, being gilt, ornamented the velvet covering of the jacket in perpendicular rows: but the plumed helmet would be a more distinguishing feature in the military costume of a leader, and more easily put on by the actors, and the appropriation by Cade of any portion of Lord Stafford's armour sufficiently in keeping with the fact recorded by the chronicler. There is another observation I would make, in illustration of the attention paid by the artist to the text of his author. In scene 10, of act iv., "Iden's Garden," Cade says "I think this word sallet was born to do me good; for many a time, but for a sallet, my brain

pan had been cleft by a brown bill; and many a time, when I have been dry, and bravely marching, it hath served me instead of a quart pot, to drink in."

In the above speech, Cade is playing on the word sallet, or sallad, which signifies either the well-known dish of herbs, or a peculiar helmet of the fifteenth century, (so called from the Italian, celata, or German, schale, a shell, bowl, or cover) and differing essentially from the ordinary helmet of Shakespeare's time. In the design before us we perceive the distinction has been carefully made. The figure wears an open head-piece ; not the vizored and beavered helmet of the time of James I.; and sufficiently like the salade of the reign of Henry VI., to satisfy even the critical antiquary. The baton is in the left hand, having been transferred from the right, which is employed in drawing the sword, as at the moment of saying— "Come, then, let's go fight with them!" (act iv., scene 6.)

PLATE III.

AIRY SPIRIT, SCOGAN, SKELTON, BROTHER OF THE ROSY CROSS.

These are all characters in the Masque of "The Fortunate Isles and their union," designed for the Court on the Twelfth Night, 1626.

1. An Airy Spirit. The Masque commences thus: "His Majesty being set, Enter, running, Johphiel, an Airy Spirit, and (according to the Magi) the intelligence of Jupiter's sphere, attired in light silks of several colours, with wings of the same, a bright yellow hair, a chaplet of flowers, blue silk stockings, and pumps and gloves, with a silver fan in his hand." The figure designed by Inigo Jones, if intended for this principal spirit, presents us with some variations from this description. He is attired in a tunic, most probably of light silk,” as the form of the body is pretty clearly defined through it; and over the right shoulder he wears a scarf of