ere not different from the conduct of
the buffoons who masqueraded in titles and elegant attire at the
court of the king of revels. Foppery in speech and in dress and the
interlarding of conversation with French phrases found favor among
the court followers. It was regarded "as ill breeding to speak good
English, as to write good English, good sense, or a good hand."

Women as artists appeared earlier than women as players. For several
centuries they had been accustomed, as a polite accomplishment, to
illuminate manuscripts, and indeed this for a long time was the
only form of art worthy of the name in England. There had developed,
however, considerable taste and skill in wood carving, as well as
further advancement of the ancient art of the goldsmith, which, as we
have seen, was developed enough in Anglo-Saxon times to constitute an
English school. But art in its more particular meaning was not found
domestic to England until the reign of Charles I. It was the influence
of the great school of Dutch artists that awakened in England art
instinct and created artistic talent. England's art history may be
dated from the time of Van Dyke's residence in the country, at least
in so far as it embraces women. When Van Dyke was at the English
court, Anne Carlisle shared with him the royal patronage. The king's
fine taste in art matters had unerringly led him to fix his favor upon
this woman, and her works show the undoubted genius she possessed.

The Puritan embroilment, which was destructive to all forms of
intellectual advancement as long as it kept the nation in an unsettled
state, had a repressive effect upon art; but from the time of the
Restoration the stream flowed on with increasing depth and volume, and
the list of England's woman painters not only became creditable to the
country, but afforded another criterion by which to prove the
lofty possibilities of the sex. Mary Beale, a painter in oil and in
water-colors, who received high commendation from the famous portrait
painter Sir Peter Lely, was a painstaking and industrious artist. Anne
Killigrew, who was maid of honor to the Duchess of York, in the brief
span of her life acquired a permanent reputation, not only by her
portraits, which included those of the Duke and Duchess of York,
but by her verses as well. These and other women of talent were the
precursors of the women who did so much for the art history of the
eighteenth century.

In considering the place of w