Thus says a song of the fifteenth century. Deschamps says of the lovers of a lady:
“Li uns se vest pour li de vert,
L’autre de bleu, l’autre de blanc,
L’autre s’en vest vermeil com sanc,
Et cilz qui plus la veult avoir
Pour son grant dueil s’en vest de noir.”[1]
Although other colours also had their meaning in amorous symbolism, a man exposed himself specially to raillery by dressing in blue or in green, above all in blue, for a suggestion of hypocrisy was mixed up with it. Christine de Pisan makes a lady say to her lover who draws attention to his blue dress:
“Au bleu vestir ne tient mie le fait
N’a devises porter, d’amer sa dame,
Mais au servir de loyal cuer parfait
Elle sans plus, et la garder de blasme.
… Là gist l’amour, non pas au bleu porter,
Mais puet estre que plusieurs le meffait
De faulseté cuident couvrir soubz lame
Par bleu porter….”[2]
That is probably why, by a very curious transition, blue, instead of being the colour of faithful love, came to mean infidelity too, and next, besides the faithless wife, marked the dupe. In Holland the blue cloak designated an adulterous woman, in France the “cote bleue” denotes a cuckold. At last blue was the colour of fools in general.
Whether the dislike of brown and yellow sprang from an æsthetic aversion or from their symbolic signification remains undecided. Perhaps an unfavourable meaning was attributed to them, because they were thought ugly.
“Gris et tannée puis bien porter
Car ennuyé suis d’espérance.”[3]
- ↑ Some dress themselves for her in green, Another in blue, another in white, Another dresses himself in vermilion like blood, And he who desires her most Because of his great sorrow, dresses in black.
- ↑ To wear blue is no proof Nor to wear mottoes, of love for one’s lady, But to serve her with a perfectly loyal heart And no others, and to keep her from blame…. Love lies in that, not in wearing blue. But it may be that many think To cover the offence of falsehood under a tombstone, By wearing blue….
- ↑ I may well wear grey and tan For hope has only brought me pain.
