Dressing for Shakespeare:
the Elizabethan Female

by C. David Claudon

In Belmont is a lady richly left;
And she is fair, and, fairer than that word,
Of wondrous virtues--sometimes from her eyes
I did receive fair speechless messages--
Her name is Portia, nothing undervalued
To Cato's daughter, Brutus' Portia.
Nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth,
For the four winds blow in from every coast
Renowned suitors, and her sunny locks
Hand on her temples like a golden fleece,
Which makes her seat of Belmont Colchos' strond,
And many Jasons come in quest of her.
(Merchant of Venice, I.i.165-176)

Our Elizabethan female wears a typical 1575 ensemble. Shown in Davenport (1965), the costume and model are based on a French tapestry which includes a portrait of Marguerite of Valois, circa 1575. (p. 483). She wears her hair tightly curled or frizzed over pads, arcelets, a popular style in England at the time. The square neckline is typical. The shoulder roll is added to the upper sleeve. The girdle pendant includes a pomander. Her skirt rests on a bum-roll fathingale. The sleeves and bodice are of brocades, while the underskirt matches the band around the skirt.

During Elizabeth's reign there were three types of farthingales. Two of them are seen here. (The one not shown yet is the wheel or drum farthingale.) These undergarment accessories helped control the shape of the skirt. The first, introduced in England by Henry VIII's first wife, Catherine of Aragon, was called the bell or Spanish farthingale. Shown at right is a middle-class English Londoner, raising her skirt and farthingale. The farthingale would be the length of the petticoat (often worn with as many as three petticoats). Since the woman in the picture holds the fartingale up, it looks like it is shorter than it was. The bell shape was achieved by stays sewn onto a skirt that varied circumfrances.

According to Norris (1938), wearing the farthingale required a correct way to hold ones arms:

The correct way to hold the arms when wearing a farthingale was to rest the wrists upon the edge. . ., one hand usually carrying a handkerchief, the other perhaps a fan. Two lines from a poem dated 1599 refer to this pose:
Placing both hands upon her whalebone hips,
Puffed out with a round circling farthingale. (p.619)

Norris also points out that wearing the farthingale necessitated women sitting on cushions rather on chairs.

The second type of farthingale came from France. Norris credits the Court of Henry III with its introduction, although he feels it would have been introduced closer to 1580. Called the "bum roll" farthingale, it consisted of a padded sausage-like hoop that tied in front and rest on the hipbone. The bum-roll was placed over petticoats and a petticoat and the skirt would rest over it. Marguerite, most probably, wears one of these, as is evidenced by the rounded hip shape.

Under the dress also probably would be an elaborate steel corset. According to Norris (1938):

The front bands of steel extend downwards in a long tapering point as far as the pit of the stomach, and the sides converge as low down as the hip bone would permit. It is the line from this to the lowest point of the corset that deceives the eye and makes the figure look longer and the waist smaller than they really are. . . . They were fastened by tight-lacing the back. . . . The steel work was lined and covered with thin silk or other material, and often decorated with flat embroidery which could not add to the bulk. (p. 623)

Works Cited

Davenport, M. (1948, 1965 ed.). The book of costume. New York: Crown Publishers.
Norris, H. (1938). Costume & fashion: vol. 3: The Tudors (book II: 1547-1603). New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc.

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Dressing for Shakespeare: the Elizabethan Female

by C. David Claudon

Dressing for Shakespeare:
the Elizabethan Female