heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

*
TREHOUS. I 2 I
TREHOUS.
But now for the other shield in this window, mentioned on page 108,
sleeve) gules, upon
a field of vair.
viz., a maunch (i.e a.
The old song says
"When Arthur first in Court began
To wear long hanging sleeves,
He entertained three serving-men,
And all of them were thieves."
Drake, quoting from " the chroniclers of those times," tells us (vol. i.
p. 104) that King Arthur held his jovial court in York, Christmas, A.D. 521 ;
but reliable history, while it does not substantiate the romances of that
mythical monarch, shews us that this is a quaint illustration of the fashion,
and indeed throughout the
prevalent in the reigns of Rufus and Henry I.,
twelfth century, to elongate the sleeves to an extraordinary degree.
These sleeves went out of fashion in the thirteenth century, but were
revived in the days of Richard II. and succeeding kings.
Occleve the poet, temp. Henry IV., thus sings
" But this methinks an abusion
.
To see one walk in a robe of scarlet
Twelve yards wide, with pendant sleeves down
On the ground, and the furrur therein set,
Amounting unto twenty pounds or bett [better],
And if he for it paid, hath he no good
Left him wherewith to buy himself a hood.
* * * *
Now have these lords little need of brooms
To sweep away the filth
out of the street,
Since side sleeves of penniless grooms
Will up it lick, be it
dry or wet."
In the third niche of the Choir-screen there is a figure of King
Stephen, which gives as good an idea as we could desire of the sleeve
from which the maunch was taken. The date of the screen is about
Henry VI., and the figures are clad in the costumes of that epoch.
*The maunch, indeed, seems to 'e rather the combination of two sleeves,
which was
viz., the long, wide sleeve of the "houpeland" or outer garment,
calls it a loose
highly fashionable in the reign of Richard II. (Strutt
upper garment of the super tunic kind), and the sleeve of the under dress,
tunic or kirtle, often with buttons set close from the wrist to the shoulder,
which would be thrust
through it.
In the 1 6th century the sleeves were generally distinct from the dress,
the Harleian MSS.
to be added to or taken from at pleasure. Amongst
is an inventory of apparel left in the wardrobe of Henry VIII. at the time
of his decease, 1547. Therein are entries of "a pair of sleeves of green
" velvet, richly embroidered with flowers of damaske gold of Morisco work,
* Planche's F.ncydojxtJia of Costume.