In tonight’s program between 9 and 11pm, a gift of gloves is mentioned in a famous writing. Having to travel to as many hockey arenas with my son’s teams as I have over the years, my gloves have certainly earned their keep. It’s cold enough tonight to wear your warmest pair if you need to venture out.
The oldest book I have in my collection is called The Wonderful, The Curious, and the The Beautiful In The World’s History by John Clark Ridpath and published in January of 1891. In it is The History of Gloves.
“It has been supposed that gloves are noticed in the 108th Psalm, where the royal prophet declares that he will cast his shoeover Edom; and still further back, in the time of the Judges, where, in Ruth iv.7, the custom is noted of a man taking off his shoe and giving it to his neighbor as a pledge for redeeming or exchanging anything. The reason for this supposition is based upon the fact that the word usually translated shoe is by the Chaldeans rendered glove. Casaubon is of opinion that gloves were worn by the Chaldeans, from the word being explained in the Talmud lexicon as ‘clothing of the hand.’
“Xenophon, as a proof of the efficiency of the Persians, observes that, not satisfied with covering their heads and their feet, they also guarded their hands against the cold with thick gloves. Athenaeus speaks of a celebrated glutton who always came to table with gloves on his hands, that he might be able to handle and eat the meat while hot, and thus devour more than the rest of the company.
“These authorities show that the ancients were not strangers to the use of gloves, though their use was not common. We can more clearly trace the early use of gloves in northern than in southern nations. When the ancient severity of manners declined, the use of gloves prevailed among the Romans; but not without some opposition from the philosophers. Musonius, a philosopher, who lived at the close of the first century of Christianity, among other invectives against the corruption of the age, says, ‘It is shameful that persons in perfect health should clothe their hands and feet with soft and hairy coverings.’ Their convenience, however, soon made the use general. Pliny the younger informs us, in his account of his uncle’s journey to Vesuvius, that his secretary sat by him ready to write down whatever occurred remarkable; and that he had gloves on his hands, that the coldness of the weather might not impede his business.
“Favin observes, that the custom of blessing gloves at the coronation of the kings of France, is a remnant of the eastern practice of investiture by a glove. A remarkable instance of this ceremony is recorded. The unfortunate Conradin was deprived of his crown and his life by the usurper Mainfroy. When having ascended the scaffold, the injured prince, lamenting his hard fate, asserted his right to the crown, and as a token of investiture, threw his glove among the crowd, entreating that it might be conveyed to some of his relations, who could revenge his death. It was taken up by a knight, who conveyed it to Peter, king of Arragon, who in virtue of this glove, was afterward crowned at Palermo.
“As the delivery of gloves was once a part of the ceremony used in giving possession of property of any kind, so the depriving of a person of these was a mark of divesting him of his office. The Earl of Carlisle, in the reign of Edward the Second, was condemned to die as a traitor for holding correspondence with the Scots. Among other marks of degradation, it is related that ‘his spurs were cut off with a hatchet, and his gloves and shoes were taken off,’ etc.
“The use of single combat, at first designed only for a trial of innocence, like the ordeals of fire and water, was in succeeding ages practised for deciding rights of property.
“Challenging by the glove was continued down to the reign of Elizabeth, as appears by an account given by Spelman of a duel appointed to be fought in Tothill Fields in 1571. The dispute was concerning some lands in the county of Kent. The parties appeared in Court and demanded single combat. One of them threw down his glove, which the other immediately taking up, carried it off on the point of his sword, and the day of fighting was then appointed, but the Queen adjusted the affair by personal interference.”
There were superstitions associated with gloves. This is an excerpt from Superstition And The Superstitious by Eric Maple and published in 1971 by A. S. Barnes and Co., Inc., New Jersey. “Clothing in particular derived much of its occult properties as the direct result of its tactile relationship with the body and in the past was supposed to be endowed with a distinct magical connection with the parts that it covered. Looked at in this light we can perhaps see why the glove has played so great a role in popular superstition, for it covers the hand which is not only the symbol of labour but of authority. Traditionally a glove served as the gage of battle and represented love, greeting and power and thus its role in social history must have been immense. While glove superstitions as a whole have in some respects diminished to the degree that the glove has become less common as an article of dress, one in particular is so well entrenched in popular custom to be worthy of special mention. It is a common belief that to pick up one’s dropped glove brings bad luck, but on the other hand should any other person do so and give it to its owner he may anticipate a pleasant surprise. This is without doubt a relic of the old gage of love motif in which the gallant who picked up his mistress’ glove could expect to receive from her as his reward some very positive token of her affections.”
That is why a glove would still make a very personal gift at Christmas.
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Don Jackson
