Trains in the Fourteenth Century
In Mr. Wright’s collection of Latin stories, there is one of the fourteenth century—a monkish satire upon dresses with long trains—
Of a Proud Woman.—I have heard of a proud woman who wore a white dress with a long train, which, trailing behind her, raised a dust as far as the altar and the crucifix. But, as she left the church, and lifted up her train on account of the dirt, a certain holy man saw a devil laughing; and having adjured him to tell why he laughed, the devil said: “A companion of mine was just now sitting on the train of that woman, using it as if it were his chariot, but when she lifted her train up, my companion was shaken off into the dirt, and that is why I was laughing.”