The Skeleton Petticoat

1867

Engraving

Fun Almamnack 3 (1 November 1862): 57

See below for the poem accompanying the illustration that emphasizes the terrible dangers of a horrible death by fire posed by the crinoline, particularly in an age in which so many homes has open fires.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the Hathi Digital Library Trust and the University of Minnesota library and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. — George P. Landow]

Sing for the Throng; or Versification of the Nation. No. XLII. — The Skeleton Petticoat

Or all fashion’s follies the very worst whim,
For endangering life and injuring limb
         By flame, dislocation, and fracture,
And for lending a screen to infanticide crimes,
Is the famous steel skirt of these modern times—
         An empress's manufacture.

Yet, ah ! how little does Rosa or Bell,
As she puts the crinoline on to swell
         Her dress to its full inflation,
How little she thinks what a funeral pyre
She thus prepares for the fatal fire
         Of a suttee immolation>/p>

For the girls will flutter—poor silly things—
Like foolish moths with ignitible wings,
         Round fashion's glittering candle ;
Nearer and nearer, and nearer yet,
Till into the clutches of death they get,
Who carries a crinoline butterfly net
         At the end of his scythe's old handle

Nor yet are the risks (as would be but fair)
Confined to those who are pleased to wear
         These machines, well-styled the Infernals:
But for woman to cause the fall of man,
As she did when sin in the world began,
Is a common event, as you’ll see if you scan
         The accident-columns of journals

'Tis sad to think that the pretty dears,
Shut up in ring fences, tiers upon tiers,
         Inspire, not admiration, but fears
In the breast of him who passes :
Nor must they complain, when the force of their charms
Takes to breaking—not hearts—but legs and arms,
         If they’re ranked with the “dangerous classes.”

Well ! she who cares not what damage and hurt
Are done by the hoops wherewith she is
         Must steel her breast as well as her skirt,
To her sex’s softness a stranger;
While all true women will be content
To see our very best efforts bent
To put down a Petticoat Government,
         So fatal, and full of danger!

Related material

• Dangerous to their health — a review of Alison Matthews David’s Fashion Victims: The Dangers of Dress Past and Present
• Crinoline going out — of England [the problem of traveling with crinolines]
• Summer

Bibliography

“Sing for the Throng; or Versification of the Nation. No. XLII. — The Skeleton Pertticoat.” Fun Almamnack 3 (1 November 1862): 57. Hathi Digital Library Trust version of a copy in the University of Minnesota library. Web. 9 February 2016.

---

Victorian
Web

Periodicals

Fun

Next

Last modified 8 February 2016