Chapter C: H a P. LXII

AFTER my father had debated the affair of the breeches with my mother,—he consulted _Albertus Rubenius_ upon it; and _Albertus Rubenius_ used my father ten times worse in the consultation (if possible) than even my father had used my mother: For as _Rubenius_ had wrote a quarto _express, De re Vestiaria Veterum_,—it was _Rubenius_’s business to have given my father some lights.—On the contrary, my father might as well have thought of extracting the seven cardinal virtues out of a long beard,—as of extracting a single word out of _Rubenius_ upon the subject.

Upon every other article of ancient dress, _Rubenius_ was very communicative to my father;—gave him a full satisfactory account of

The Toga, or loose gown.

The Chlamys.

The Ephod.

The Tunica, or Jacket.

The Synthesis.

The Pænula.

The Lacema, with its Cucullus.

The Paludamentum.

The Prætexta.

The Sagum, or soldier’s jerkin.

The Trabea: of which, according to _Suetonius_, there was three kinds.—

——But what are all these to the breeches? said my father.

_Rubenius_ threw him down upon the counter all kinds of shoes which had been in fashion with the _Romans._——

There was,

The open shoe.

The close shoe.

The slip shoe.

The wooden shoe.

The soc.

The buskin.

And The military shoe with hobnails in it, which _Juvenal_ takes notice of.

There were, The clogs.

The pattins.

The pantoufles.

The brogues.

The sandals, with latchets to them.

There was, The felt shoe.

The linen shoe.

The laced shoe.

The braided shoe.

The calceus incisus.

And The calceus rostratus.

_Rubenius_ shewed my father how well they all fitted,—in what manner they laced on,—with what points, straps, thongs, latchets, ribbands, jaggs, and ends.——

——But I want to be informed about the breeches, said my father.

_Albertus Rubenius_ informed my father that the _Romans_ manufactured stuffs of various fabrics,——some plain,—some striped,—others diapered throughout the whole contexture of the wool, with silk and gold——That linen did not begin to be in common use till towards the declension of the empire, when the _Egyptians_ coming to settle amongst them, brought it into vogue.

——That persons of quality and fortune distinguished themselves by the fineness and whiteness of their clothes; which colour (next to purple, which was appropriated to the great offices) they most affected, and wore on their birth-days and public rejoicings.——That it appeared from the best historians of those times, that they frequently sent their clothes to the fuller, to be clean’d and whitened:——but that the inferior people, to avoid that expence, generally wore brown clothes, and of a something coarser texture,—till towards the beginning of _Augustus_’s reign, when the slave dressed like his master, and almost every distinction of habiliment was lost, but the _Latus Clavus._

And what was the _Latus Clavus?_ said my father.

_Rubenius_ told him, that the point was still litigating amongst the learned:——That _Egnatius, Sigonius, Bossius Ticinensis, Bayfius Budæus, Salmasius, Lipsius, Lazius, Isaac Casaubon_, and _Joseph Scaliger_, all differed from each other,—and he from them: That some took it to be the button,—some the coat itself,—others only the colour of it;—That the great _Bayfuis_ in his Wardrobe of the Ancients, chap. 12—honestly said, he knew not what it was,—whether a tibula,—a stud,—a button,—a loop,—a buckle,—or clasps and keepers.——

——My father lost the horse, but not the saddle——They are _hooks and eyes_, said my father——and with hooks and eyes he ordered my breeches to be made.

C H A P. LXIII

WE are now going to enter upon a new scene of events.——

——Leave we then the breeches in the taylor’s hands, with my father standing over him with his cane, reading him as he sat at work a lecture upon the _latus clavus_, and pointing to the precise part of the waistband, where he was determined to have it sewed on.——

Leave we my mother—(truest of all the _Poco-curante_’s of her sex!)—careless about it, as about every thing else in the world which concerned her;—that is,—indifferent whether it was done this way or that,——provided it was but done at all.——

Leave we _Slop_ likewise to the full profits of all my dishonours.——

Leave we poor _Le Fever_ to recover, and get home from _Marseilles_ as he can.——And last of all,—because the hardest of all——

Let us leave, if possible, _myself:_——But ’tis impossible,—I must go along with you to the end of the work.