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beseeming gentlemen and eminent persons of their places, as of the best taffatas and satins that Christendom doth yield, which are fairly garnished also with lace of the best sort. The Knights of St. Mark, or of the Order of the Glorious Virgin, &c., were distinguished by wearing red apparel under their black gowns." "Young lovers," says Vecellio, "wear generally a doublet and breeches of satin, tabby, or other silk, cut or slashed in the form of crosses or stars, through which slashes is seen the lining of coloured taffata: gold buttons, a lace ruff, a bonnet of rich velvet or silk with an ornamental band, a silk cloak, and silk stockings, Spanish morocco shoes, a flower in one hand, and their gloves and handkerchief in the other." This habit, he tells us, was worn by many of the nobility, as well of Venice as of other Italian cities, especially by the young men before they put on the gown with the sleeves, "a comito," which was generally in their eighteenth or twentieth year.

Vecellio also furnishes us with the dress of a doctor of laws, the habit in which Portia defends Antonio. The upper robe was of black damask cloth, velvet, or silk, according to the weather. The under one of black silk with a silk sash, the ends of which hang down to the middle of the leg; the stockings of black cloth or velvet; the cap of rich velvet or silk.

[Costume of a Doctor of Laws.]

And now to speak of the dress of the principal character of this play. Great difference

of opinion has existed, and much ink been shed, upon this subject, as it seems to us very needlessly. If a work, written and published by Venetians in their own city, at the particular period when this play was composed, is not sufficient authority, we know not what can be considered such. Vecellio expressly informs us that the Jews differed in nothing, as far as regarded dress, from Venetians of the same professions, whether merchants, artisans, &c.", with the exception of a yellow bonnet, which they were compelled to wear by order of the government. Can anything be more distinct and satisfactory? In opposition to this positive assertion of a Venetian writing upon the actual subject of dress, we have the statement of Saint Didier, who, in his 'Histoire de Venise,' says that the Jews of Venice wore scarlet hats lined with black taffata, and a notification in Hakluyt's 'Voyages' (p. 179, edit. 1598), that in the year 1581 the Jews wore red caps for distinction's sake. We remember also to have met somewhere with a story, apparently in confirmation of this latter statement, that the colour was changed from red to yellow, in consequence of a Jew having been accidentally taken for a cardinal! But besides that neither of the two lastmentioned works are to be compared with Vecellio's in respect of authority for what may be termed Venetian costume, it is not likely that scarlet, a sacred colour among Catholics generally, and appropriated particularly by the Venetian knights and principal magistrates, would be selected for a badge of degradation, or rather infamous distinction. Now yellow, on the contrary, has always been in Europe a mark of disgrace. Tenne (i. e. orange) was considered by many heralds as stainant. The Jews, in England, wore yellow caps of a peculiar shape as early as the reign of Richard I.; and Lord Verulam, in his 'Essay on Usury,' speaking of the witty invectives that men have made against usury, states one of them to be that " usurers should have orange-tawny bonnets, because they do Judaize."

As late, also, as the year 1825, an order was issued by the Pope that "the Jews should wear a yellow covering on their hats, and the women a yellow riband on their breast, under the pain of severe penalties."-Vide 'Examiner,' Sunday

a "Imitano gli altri mercanti e artigiani di questa litta." Edit. 1590.

b"Portano per comandamento publico la berretta gialla." Ibid.

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Newspaper, Nov. 20th, 1825. The which order there can be little doubt, from the evidence before us, was the re-enforcement of the old edict, latterly disregarded by the Jews of Italy. It is not impossible that "the orange-tawny bonnet " might have been worn of so deep a colour by some of the Hebrew population as to have been described as red by a careless observer, or that some Venetian Jews, in fact, did venture to wear red caps or bonnets in defiance of the statute, and thereby misled the traveller or the historian. We cannot, however, imagine that a doubt can exist of the propriety of Shylock wearing a yellow, or, at all events, an orange-coloured, cap of the same form as the black one of the Christian Venetian merchants. Shakspere makes Shylock speak of "his Jewish gaberdine;" but independently of Vecellio's assurance, that no difference existed between the dress of the Jewish and Christian merchants save the yellow bonnet aforesaid, the word gaberdine conveys to us no precise form of garment, its description being different in nearly every dictionary, foreign or English. In German it is called a rock or frock, a mantle, coat, petticoat, gown, or cloak. In Italian, "palandrano," or "great-coat," and "gavardina, a peasant's jacket." The French have only "gaban" and "gabardine,"-cloaks for rainy weather. Spanish, "gabardina" is rendered a sort of cassock with close-buttoned sleeves. In English, a shepherd's coarse frock or coat.

In

Speaking of the ladies of Venice, Coryat says, "Most of these women, when they walk abroad, especially to church, are veiled with long veils, whereof some do reach almost to the ground behind. These veils are either black, or white, or yellowish. The black, either wives or widows do wear; the white, maids, and so the yellowish also, but they wear more white than yellowish. It is the custom of these maids, when they walk the streets, to cover their faces with their veils, the stuff being so thin, and slight, that they may easily look through it, for it is made of a pretty slender silk, and very

finely curled. Now, whereas I said that only maids do wear white veils, I mean these white silk curled veils, which (as they told me) none do wear but maids. But other white veils wives do much wear, such as are made in Holland, whereof the greatest part is handsomely edged with great and very fair bonelace."

The account in Howell's 'Survey' differs slightly from Coryat's, but Vecellio confirms the latter, and states that courtesans wore black veils, in imitation of women of character.

Jewish females, Vecellio says, were distinguished from Christian women by their being "highly painted," and wearing yellow veils, but that in other respects their dresses were perfectly similar. We must not forget to mention that singular portion of a Venetian lady's costume at this period, "the chioppine." A description and an engraving of several varie ties of this monstrosity will be found in our Illustrations of the second Act of 'Hamlet.'

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G. Woodfall and Son, Printers, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London.

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