whole Estate, Real, Mixed, and Personal, shall from
the Hour of his Death be vested in the next Heir
of the Person whose Blood he spilt.
That it shall not hereafter be in our
Royal Power, or that of our
Successors, to pardon the said Offences,
or restore [the Offenders
[1]] in their Estates, Honour, or Blood
for ever.
Given at our Court at Blois, the
8th of February, 420. In the
Second Year of our Reign.
[Footnote 1: them]
* * * * *
No. 98. Friday, June 22, 1711.
Addison.
‘Tanta est
quarendi cura decoris.’
Juv.
There is not so variable a thing in Nature as a Lady’s
Head-dress: Within my own Memory I have known
it rise and fall above thirty Degrees. About
ten Years ago it shot up to a very great Height, [1]
insomuch that the Female Part of our Species were
much taller than the Men. The Women were of such
an enormous Stature, that we appeared as Grasshoppers
before them. [2] At present the whole Sex is in
a manner dwarfed and shrunk into a race of Beauties
that seems almost another Species. I remember
several Ladies, who were once very near seven Foot
high, that at present want some inches of five:
How they came to be thus curtailed I cannot learn;
whether the whole Sex be at present under any Penance
which we know nothing of, or whether they have cast
their Head-dresses in order to surprize us with something
in that kind which shall be entirely new; or whether
some of the tallest of the Sex, being too cunning
for the rest, have contrived this Method to make themselves
appear sizeable, is still a Secret; tho’ I find
most are of Opinion, they are at present like Trees
new lopped and pruned, that will certainly sprout
up and flourish with greater Heads than before.
For my own part, as I do not love to be insulted by
Women who are taller than my self, I admire the Sex
much more in their present Humiliation, which has
reduced them to their natural Dimensions, than when
they had extended their Persons and lengthened themselves
out into formidable and gigantick Figures. I
am not for adding to the beautiful Edifices of Nature,
nor for raising any whimsical Superstructure upon her
Plans: I must therefore repeat it, that I am
highly pleased with the Coiffure now in Fashion, and
think it shews the good Sense which at present very
much reigns among the valuable Part of the Sex.
One may observe that Women in all Ages have taken
more Pains than Men to adorn the Outside of their
Heads; and indeed I very much admire, that those Female
Architects, who raise such wonderful Structures out
of Ribbands, Lace, and Wire, have not been recorded
for their respective Inventions. It is certain
there has been as many Orders in these Kinds of Building,
as in those which have been made of Marble: Sometimes
they rise in the Shape of a Pyramid, sometimes like
a Tower, and sometimes like a Steeple. In Juvenal’s
time the Building grew by several Orders and Stories,
as he has very humorously described it.
