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Costume in Medieval Texts: Sessions in Honor of Laura Hodges I

Costume Rhetoric: Orality and the Dimensions of Sound -- Alan T. Gaylord, Dartmouth College/Princeton Univ.

General topic is the poetics of how clothing is described in Chaucer, covering both the expression of the character's personality and actions and the sensuality of the garments themselves. (The presenter isn't too bad at turns of phrase himself.) Note the use of tactile descriptions in describing the clothing of Alysoun the carpenter's wife (as if the text is caressing it) and similes of food and drink (as if she is being tasted and consumed). But further there is a lingering of multi-syllabic words. In comparison, the description of Absolon the clerk focuses on fussy details, using short, sharp syllables to create an image of triviality. Overall, though, the paper is a bit long on recitation and short on critical analysis.

Costume “Medievalism”? Evidence about Robin Hood’s Clothing from Literary Texts and Medieval Material Culture -- Lorraine Kochanske Stock

Begins with a review of visual images of Robin Hood in modern media: clothing ofLincoln green or sometimes red, spandex tights, peaked feathered hat (or sometimes hood), doublet with metal studs or spangles. How does this compare with the medieval "pop culture" standard image of the character? (And a digression of how the modern image was incorporated in a advertising campaign for underwear.) No surviving visual depictions of RH from MA (although references to a painted wall hanging including him). Illustrated versions of RH rhymes e.g. Pynson's 1492 which uses same image for Robin Hood as for Chaucer's Yeoman, which latter is descrbed as having: "cote and hood of grene" and the accoutrements of a forester (bow, sword, horn, arm bracer). References to the use of green cloth, esp. Lincoln or Kendal green, largely belongs to Renaissance and later authors. One early reference to being closed in "scarlet and grene" might come from "scarlet in grain" and not refer to green-colored cloth at all. The peaked hat is also found in Pynson's woodcut. But 14th c. archers (in general) wear hoods, though 15th c. archers in art begin wearing brimmed sugarloaf hats. Late 15th c. wall painting in Yorkshire church wear, among other types of hats, a peaked, feathered hat that is at least a cousin to the modern "Robin Hood hat". A possible Robin Hood image on a 15th c. northern English misericorde, pairs a nobly dressed man (houpelande, chaperon, long boots) with a more plainly (but impractically) dressed archer with a tippeted tunic, short boots, and a hood. The author speculates that the pair of images represent the transformation of the noble Earl of Huntingdon (a new accretion to the Robin Hood legend) into the outlaw Robin Hood.

When a Mantle Isn’t Just a Mantle: Jonah’s Dirty Mantle in Patience -- Kimberly Jack, Auburn Univ.

"Mantle" = sleeveless overgarment worn by men or women over a kirtle or tunic; a robe. (Also more specialized definitions.) "Thenne he swepe to the sonde in sluchched clothes: Hit may wel be that mester were his mantyle to wasche." Patience 341-42

Consistent medieval iconography of Jonah depicts Jonah being thrown overboard to the whale naked, and being vomited out of the whale similarly nude. Another stereotypical image shows Jonah reclining in the booth, also typically nude. So where does this mantle come from? The Cotton Nero A.x. ms. of Patience shows Jonah being thrown overboard wearing some sort of amorphous loose black garment over some longer white undergarment. Another illustratuion shows him preaching wearing a black cape-like garment over some other red garment with long close-fitting sleeves. Illustrations in this ms. often diverge from descriptions in the poems they illustrate. The nude images of Jonah emerging fom the whale correlate with baptism/resurrection symbolism, though not explicit in the text. Another ms. uses Jonah to illustrate Psalm 68 showing him clothed when going into the whale but naked coming out. Returning to the Patience imagery, as Jonah needing to wash his mantle, it makes literal sense that his clothing would be dirty, given what he's gone through, but if the whale episode is a baptism then he should be "clean" afterwards. Patience seems to be indicating that Jonah needs to take further (or continued) action to "keep clean". But the reference to a mantle rather than some other garment may indicate the specialized ceremonial definition of the garment, indicating his status as prophet.

There is now a digression into the original striped mantle of the Carmelite order and how this fashion was mocked due to attitudes towards striped fabric, leading to the change of the habit from striped to plain white in 1287, but there was commentary at the time about how the change in garments reflected/indicated changes in the purpose and behavior of the Order. I think I missed the connection with the Jonah iconography but maybe it will be made clear in the conclusion. Ah, now she addresses it -- Patience is roughly contemporary with the Carmelite changes and may be a sideways reference to this sort of change to an iconic mantle representing a similar transformation.