Umbrellas and their History | Page 9

Fynes Moryson's "Itinerary" (1617) we find a similar allusion to the habit of carrying Umbrellas in hot countries "to auoide the beames of the sunne." Their employment, says the author, is dangerous, "because they gather the heate into a pyramidall point, and thence cast it down perpendicularly upon the head, except they know how to carry them for auoyding that danger." This is certainly a fact not generally known to those who use Parasols too recklessly.
"Poesis Rediviva," by John Collop, M.D. (1656), mentions Umbrellas. Michael Drayton, writing about 1620, speaks of a pair of doves, which are to watch over the person addressed in his verses:--
"Of doves I have a dainty pair, Which, when you please to take the air, About your head shall gently hover, Your clear brow from the sun to cover; And with their nimble wings shall fan you, That neither cold nor heat shall tan you; And, like umbrellas, with their feathers Shall shield you in all sorts of weathers."
Beaumont and Fletcher have an allusion to the umbrella (1640);--
"Now are you glad, now is your mind at ease, Now you have got a shadow, an umbrella, To keep the 'scorching world's opinion From your fair credit." --Rule a Wife and Have a Wife, Act iii, sc. I.
Ben Jonson, too, once mentions it (date 1616), speaking of a mishap which befel a lady at the Spanish Court:--
"And there she lay, flat spread as an umbrella." --The Devil is an Ass, Act iv., SC. I.
Of the fact that Umbrellas' were known and used in Italy long prior to their introduction into France, we find a confirmation in old Montaigne, who observes, lib. iii. cap. ix. :--"Les Ombrelles, de quoy depuis les anciens Remains l'Italie se sert, chargent plus le bras, qu'ils ne deschargent la teste."
Kersey's Dictionary (1708) describes an Umbrella as a "screen commonly used by women to keep off rain."
The absence of almost all allusion to the Umbrella by the wits of the seventeenth century, while the muff, fan, &c., receive so large a share of attention, is a further proof that it was far from being recognised as an article of convenient luxury at that day. The clumsy shape, probably, prevented its being generally used. In one of Dryden's plays we find the line:--
"I can carry your umbrella and fan, your Ladyship."
Gay, addressing a gentleman, in his "Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of London" (1712), says:--
"Be thou for every season justly dress'd, Nor brave the piercing frost with open breast: And when the bursting clouds a deluge pour. Let thy surtout defend the gaping shower."
And again:--
"That garment best the winter's rage defends Whose shapeless form in ample plaits depends; By various names in various countries known, Yet held in all the true surtout alone. Be thine of kersey tine, though small the cost, Then brave, unwet, the rain, unchilled, the frost."
These passages lead us to the belief that the Umbrella was not used by gentlemen for a long time after its merits had been recognised by the fair sex.
The following lines from the same author have often been quoted:--
"Good housewives all the winter's rage despise Defended by the riding-hood's disguise: Or underneath the umbrella's oily shed Safe through the wet on clinking pattens tread. Let Persian dames th' umbrellas rich display, To guard their beauties from the sunny ray, Or sweating slaves support the shady load, When Eastern monarchs show their state abroad, Britain in winter only knows its aid To guard from chilly showers the walking maid." --Trivia, B. 1.
Dean Swift, also, in the Tatler, No. 228, in describing a City shower, thus alludes to the common use of the Umbrella by women:--
"Now in contiguous drops the floods come down, Threatening with deluge the devoted town: To shops in crowds the draggled females fly, Pretend to cheapen goods, but nothing buy: The Templar spruce, while every spout's abroach, Stays till 'tis fair, yet seems to call a coach: The tucked-up sempstress walks with hasty strides, While streams run down her oiled umbrella's sides."
About this time the custom obtained of keeping an Umbrella in the halls of great houses, to be used in passing from the door to the carriage. At coffee-houses, too, the same was done.
That the use of the Umbrella was considered far too effeminate for man, is seen from the following advertisement from the _Female Tatler_ for December 12th, 1709:--"The young gentleman borrowing the Umbrella belonging to Wills' Coffee-house, in Cornhill, of the mistress, is hereby advertised, that to be dry from head to foot on the like occasion, he shall be welcome to the maid's pattens."
Defoe's description of Robinson Crusoe's Umbrella is, of course, familiar to all our readers. He makes his hero say that he had seen Umbrellas used in Brazil, where they were found very useful in