The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-01-27
GOSSIP ABOUT GLOVES.
Interesting Facts Relating to Their
Early Use.
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Gloves were articles of Oriental dress,
for, according to Xenophon, they were
wornby Cyrus the Persian; and Atheneus
speaks of celebrated gourmand who
came to banquet with gloved hands
that he might eat more rapidly than his
fellow-guests, vino had to wait till the
viands were cool. Homer, at a much
earlier date, alludes to those worn by
Laertes when gardening, when describing
the old king as first seen by Ulysses on
his return to Ithaca. .....-.
His head that how'd with many peusive care,
| Fenced with double cap OF goat.skn hair,
His buckskin old, in former service torn
But well repair d-and gloves against the thorn.
In ancient times a glove was employed
as token of pledge Of faith in the max
ing of contracts-a sort of substitute for
the hand itself-being cast down by one
contracting party to be taken up as seal
ing the agreement by the other.
Before the Union of England and
Scotland, the borderers, having once
pledged their faith to an enemy, regard
ed its violation as grave crime, and
when such breach of honor occurred
the injured person rode through the field
at the next border meeting, holding up a
glove at the point of his spear-as the
pledge of faith-and proclaimed the per-
fidy of him who had broken it. To wipe
out such stain the criminal was often
slain by his own clan.
Apropos of the glove employed as the
token Of challenge to fight, there is a
story given in the life Of the Rev. Barn
ard Gilpin, clergyman in the diocese of
Durham, who died in 1853. 1t appears
that he observed glove hanging high up
in his church, and, ascertaining from the
sexton that it was designed as challenge
to any one who would dare to displace it.
he desired that official to do 80. "Not
I, sir; dare do no such thing" said the
brave man. Thereupon the worthy p"r-
son called for a long staff, and, takin,,
down himself, put it in his pocket.
sermon denounced the barbarOus prau-
tice, exemplifed even in that sacred
place. "Behold, l have taken it down
myself" said he, and, producing it he ex-
hibited it to the whole congregation as a
spectacle of horror.
The embroidered gloves of Ceur de
Lion lost him his liberty at one time, and
might have cost him his life. He was
lying in concealment in an enemy's coun-
try, and his page carried them very indis-
creetly in his pocket, though perhaps for
their better safety, when sent by his roy
al master to obtain food in the neighbor-
hood of Vienna. How it happened does
not appear; but they were seen, and rec
ognized as being only suitable for a
crowned head to possess. The same night
the king was captured by the Duke of
Austria and sold by him to the Emperor
Henry VI for sixty thousand pounds of
silver.
Anne Boleyn seems to have been very
particular about her gloves; and it is re-
corded that her royal predecessor used to
delight in making her play cards without
them, that some little blemish in the
shape of one of her nails might offend the
eye of the king.
Queen Mary and her sister Elizabeth
took pride in this article Of dress. 1t is
said that the latter was extravagant in
the extreme about them, and that mar
velous pair was at one time presented to
her that was enclosed in walnut shell.
She even retained her gloves when play
ing the virginia.. One "payr Of gloves
embrawret with gold" is recorded as hav-
ing been sent to her sister Mary as New
Years gift before her accession; and "ten
payr Of Spaynshe gloves, from duches
in Spayne, came to her year after
wards" while at about that time "a pair
Of swete gloves" were also presented to
her from Mrs. Whellers.
The seeming of gloves was a regular
practice. Shakespeare makes continual
allusion both to the article itself ana its
perfume "Come, you promised me q
tawdry lace. and pair of sweet gloves. y
("Winter's Tale"
Dekkar also (1631) writes of "a glove
with an excellent perfume" ('Match mt
in London" 1881.
| 1t is not necessary to enumerate al
the uses and ceremonies connected witt
SlOtCo WutCA OUtdtuCu III OAu GiilSlloL
times, nor those which still exist, recent
allusion having been made to several o.
them in these pages. Twill only observe
that in the middle ages gloves were worn
as mark of distinction by sovereigns
ecclesiastical dignitaries, and Others
their workmanship being exceedingly
costly, richly embroidered as they were
and decorated with jewels. The degrade
tion of any exalted personage was ex
pressed by the deprivation of his gloves
Just as glove was presented to him
in the ceremony Of bestowing upon hin
lands or honors. Following up the idea
Of the connection between fidelity anc
truth, and the glove as it's emblematit
expression, we can understand why the
knights of chivalrous times wore glove
of their lady loves in their helmets. IL
quote again from Dekkar, he says:
"Thou shalt wear her glove In thy
Worshipful hat like leather brooch"
"Right as my glove" we are told by
Sir Walter Scott Is phrase derived
from the custom of pledging a glove Al
the sign of irrefragable faith.