Russet (cloth)

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Russet
TypeCoarse cloth

Russet is a coarse cloth made of wool and dyed with woad and madder to give it a subdued grey or brown shade. By the statute of 1363, poor English people were required to wear russet or cheap blanket. [1] Humble squires and priests, such as Franciscans wore russet as a sign of humility but preferred a good quality russet such as that made in Colchester, which was better than the cheapest cloth. The medieval poem Piers Plowman describes the virtuous Christian: [2] [1]

And is gladde of a goune of a graye russet
As of a tunicle of Tarse or of trye scarlet.

The ballad Of Patient Grissel and a Noble Marquess which was retold as Pamela , has the heroine's aristocratic clothes of silk and velvet contrasted with her "country russet" which again signifies rustic virtue. Oliver Cromwell wrote "I had rather have a plain russet-coated Captain ...than that which you call a Gentleman and is nothing else." [3] [1]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 St. Clair, Kassia (2016). The Secret Lives of Colour. London: John Murray. p. 246-247. ISBN   9781473630819. OCLC   936144129.
  2. R. H. Britnell (1986), Growth and decline in Colchester, 1300–1525 , Cambridge University Press, pp.  55–77, ISBN   978-0-521-30572-3
  3. Ann Rosalind Jones, Peter Stallybrass (2000), "(In)alienable possessions: Griselda, clothing and the exchange of women", Renaissance clothing and the materials of memory, Cambridge University Press, p. 230