codpieces-msg – 11/25/16

Codpieces. Period and recreations. Experiences wearing them.

NOTE: See also the files: pouches-msg, hose-msg, hose-manu-MA-art, p-sumpt-laws-msg, underwear-msg, corsets-msg, cross-dressng-msg, ruffs-msg.

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NOTICE -

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I  have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

I  have done  a limited amount  of  editing. Messages having to do  with separate topics  were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the  message IDs  were removed to save space and remove clutter.

The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make  no claims  as  to the accuracy  of  the information  given  by the individual authors.

Please  respect the time  and  efforts of  those who have written  these messages. The  copyright status  of these messages  is  unclear  at this time. If  information  is  published  from  these  messages, please give credit to the originator(s).

Thank you,
    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: dillon at world.std.com (John T Dillon)
Subject: Re: Codpieces... no seriously
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Sat, 1 May 1993 19:36:38 GMT

Codpieces were normally a fairly straight forward (and upward pointing...)
affair.  Not much larger than was needed to cover the slit in the trunkhose
or pluderhosen, plus a little for ego.

Fitting one to yourself is fairly simple, most start about at the bottom of
a modern fly and end just below the edge of the accompanying doublet.
Usually 8-9 inches along the side next to the body with a projection sticking
out and up for two to four inches on the average in the front.  Width ranged
from 3 to 5 inches on the side nearest the body.

Extravagant codpieces, the Landsknecht may have the prize for those...  
I have seen prints of codpieces that were roughly half catalopes with
slashes and puffs of material sticking out, as well as what look like a
bow extending almost nine inches to either side of the codpiece.
  (Half to 3/4 the width of the leg)

  Such a bow would have to be made of a rather stiff fabric or a starched
one.  It almost blends with the outfits it is worn with...  :)
  (The late period floor length pluderhosen)

  Of course for really silly, you can do what a few gentles in this area
have been reported to do...  Put a squeek toy in the codpiece...
Or even better all but one of them...  :)

John McGuire
  Of course I wear a codpiece, no self respecting gentleman would go out in 
pluderhosen without one!  Otherwise your underwear shows...

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: dillon at world.std.com (John T Dillon)
Subject: Re: Codpieces--Sources?
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Thu, 23 Nov 1995 14:25:50 GMT

For a fairly nice set of patterns for a variety of late period codpieces
look for  Janet Arnold's Pattterns of Fashion.  It is a large brown covered
paperback book that shows pictures of the codpieces and patterns for them
drawn from a collection of outfits.

John McGuire

From: ghelena661 at aol.com (Ghelena661)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: codpiece construction
Date: 19 Sep 2000 09:43:30 GMT

	I have never actually made a pair of pants with a codpiece, but I know a
number of men who wear them. I am taking the liberty of speaking on this matter
even though I have not done it because I do Elizabethan and I believe I could
make breeches with a codpiece.   

     The bottom of the codpiece should be sewn into the crotch of your pants. 
Pants fitted with a codpiece are esentially crotch-less in the very front. 
(where a fly goes on pants now)  The codpiece should be long (vertical) enough
to be sewn into the center seam in the actual crotch of the pants, where the
front, back, and side seams come together.  

     Care should be taken with the fasteners.  If you use ties make sure they
are lucet or some cord that 'grabs'.  Otherwise you, experience 'fall out' and
flash somebody by accident!  You can use buttons on either side at the top of
the codpiece.  You could probably use some big hook and eyes at the top of the
codpiece.

     Your codpiece will be a very tailored garment.  Your pants and the
codpiece will have to fit well or your codpiece may not stay in place when you
sit down!  I think the shape of the codpiece at the bottom should taper to a
sort of rounded off point.

     I saw a bannana shaped codpiece at Pennsic once.  It was red on one side
and yellow on the other.  The pants it belonged to were tights, and they were
parti colored red and yellow also.  I do not believe anyone was paying
attention to how the gentleman who wore it kept it fastened!

May your threads never tangle,
Roxanne Greenstreet

From: "Mandy" <martin.mandy at ns.sympatico.ca>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
References: <DGFx5.700$ez6.50823 at bgtnsc07-news.ops.worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: codpiece construction
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2000 11:43:34 GMT

> My next project in the works will be pants with a codpiece
>Is it to be sewn directly to the pant?

This is really tricky to explain without pictures. First make your pants
with an open seam down the front where the fly would normally be, along the
top of the pants should be eyelets to fasten them to the (doublet?). Now for
the codpiece, these vary somewhat so I will try to explain a sort of generic
codpiece as a triangular shape of cloth, lined and usually with a stuffed
and shaped fallice in front. The lower part of the triangle (that comes to a
long point) is sewn into the pants over and from the seam opening, The rest
is free from the pants.

> The
> pants themselves should be left open, or tied up the front underneath the
> codpiece?

The pants are actually tied and held up by means of the body with eyelets
and cords (see as said above). the codpiece does not actually come up as far
as the waist but high enough to keep the 'fly' closed. Place a set of two
eyelets in the 'fly' or opening of the pants as well as two corseponding
ones on the top edge, centre, of the codpiece. This will hold the fly shut
with a cord.

 Now we have two flappy upper ends of the triangle, simple, just add two
more coresponding sets of eyelets at each upper corner of the codpiece.

 Don't forget to decorate your peice with matching trims and so on, after
all it is the mans showpiece. : )

Hope these instructions were easy enough to understand.

Mandy

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: dillon at world.std.com (John T Dillon)
Subject: Re: codpiece construction
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2000 15:37:06 GMT

For a good example of how to make late period codpieces, try Janet Arnold's 
Patterns of Fashion and in particular the Sture family's codpieces.  The 
assembly instructions and pictures are not entirely clear, however with a bit
of playing it becomes fairly clear how they go together.

John McGuire

From: "Mandy" <martin.mandy at ns.sympatico.ca>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: codpiece construction
Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 00:18:18 GMT

> Just one more question though.  I'm thinking of adding a drawstring at the
> waist of this design?  I'm having a bit of trouble visualizing the finishing
> of the very top of the pant.  Otherwise, wouldn't I have loose flaps just
> hanging out over the codpiece?
>
> Amina

 Though I wouldn't suggest a drawstring, I can't see how it would hurt, but
if you are interested in other types of fastenings I just stuck two new
pictures up to hopefully deal with this task.
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/martin.mandy/webpage/flem.htm
the codpiece pictures with fastenings are way at the bottom.

Mandy

From: Martin Hungerford <Martin.Hungerford at dsto.defence.gov.au>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: codpiece construction
Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 16:28:52 +1100
Organization: DSTO

Amy Bernard wrote: 
> My next project in the works will be pants with a codpiece.  I fear I'm
> having trouble finding instructions.  It is tied at the top on both sides to
> the pants, but the bottom?  Is it to be sewn directly to the pant?  The
> pants themselves should be left open, or tied up the front underneath the
> codpiece?  Any help will be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Amina de Mt St. Bernard

   I have made and worn a couple of pairs of plunderhosen with
codpieces.  They are a strange item indeed ( well, as we made them.)  We
based our work on Janet Arnold's book on German costumn.  

The legs joined to the waist band, but not to each other very much. 
They were sewn together down the centre back seem only for about 4-5
inches. (IIRC) The cod-piece, attached to the centre of the back at the
waist, passed between the legs and tired up to the front. 
While this felt quite wierd, it was comfortable, and had I chosen not to
wear underpants, would have worked well.

Martin the Juggler

Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 08:40:30 -0800 (PST)
From: Philippa Alderton <phlip_u at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] peapod, peasecods, codpiece
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

--- Olwen the Odd <olwentheodd at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >Better peapods than a squeaky toy, or have I ever
> <told you THAT story?
> >
> >Phlip
>
> I haven't heard that story.  Care to share?
> Olwen the curious

Ah, well, I looked where Stefan suggested, in the
Florilegium, and didn't see it, so I might as well,
since you asked. Names are being avoided to protect
guilty as well as innocent.....

In the MK, at a certain event, there was a dance and
costume focus, and a friend of mine showed up wearing
his very period Tudor, with functional codpiece.
Unbeknownst to him, another gentleman had showed up,
wearing a non-functional codpiece into which he had
inserted a squeaky toy.

My friend, henceforth known as the victim, and who is
exclusively gay, therefore was rather nonplussed, to
say the least, when a lady to whom he had not been
introduced, properly or otherwise, walked up and gave
his codpiece a hearty squeeze. She certainly got a
squeak, but perhaps not the one she had expected.....

It seems that the lady's friend had run into the
gentleman with the squeaky codpiece, and told the lady
about it, but since the gentleman with the squeaky toy
was not in sight, had told her to go and squeeze his
codpiece when she saw him, so she did- unfortunately,
the wrong codpiece. She was, of course, horribly
embarrassed, and the victim told me that to this day,
she won't look him in the eye.

The incident nearly caused a split-up between the
victim and his lover- not because of a mundane matter
such as jealousy, but because the lover was laughing
so hard, that the victim was not getting the sympathy
which he felt he deserved.

The moral of the story is of course, that gentlemen
should make sure the squeaky toy is in their own
codpieces, rather than that of another, if they wish
to avoid close encounters of the hysterical kind.....

Phlip

Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 11:01:11 -0700
From: Susan Fox-Davis <selene at earthlink.net>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Codpiece Re: Feast stewart at the crossroads was Re: 
[SCA-cooks] Pulled sugar

Heleen Greenwald wrote:
> All of a sudden, I have this incredible urge to make a cod piece out of
> multiple colors of marzipan.
> Phillipa

Nothing you do will equal the codpiece of Sir Gaston, which featured nice dark glass beads... or so you'd thought until he activitated the switch that turned on the sequence of LED's.  Landing lights?

Selene

Date: Sun, 25 May 2003 19:41:17 -0700
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
From: "Laura C. Minnick" <lcm at efn.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re: Codpiece Re: Feast stewart at the
   crossroads was Re: [SCA-cooks] Pulled  sugar

> Now I am torn between a party favor Cod Piece (push a button and out it
> comes Fluurrrp) Or a Cream Flamingo Codpiece that squeaks.
> Hrmmm decisions decisions
>
> Nichola

Many years ago, there was an All Fool's event at which there was a contest
for Best Edible Subtletie. There was also a Codpiece contest. A friend of
mine won both contests with one entry. He tied (or rather his wife did) a
huge cinnamon roll (the big iced kind that you get in the bakery) where the
codpiece would be, and then wandered about saying "Care to taste my wares?"
and cutting off bits of the cinnamon roll with a dagger. It was hysterical.

Oh Man... he had great legs too- Italian Ren with the wee tiny doublet  
And long hose...

:-D)
'Lainie

Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 18:01:28 -0800
From: "Laura C. Minnick" <lcm at efn.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Flavored odpieces, a question
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

At 04:57 PM 3/11/2004, you wrote:
> Well, if they can have edile chocolate panties.... why not flavored
> codpieces?
> asks Phillipa who is running for the rock...

12, 14 years back, I dragged my then-husband to an All Fools' Feast. (In
retrospect this was dumb, but it was my first Fools feast- I really didn't
know!). There were a number of contests, including best codpiece, and best
edible soteltie. Can you imagine what is going to happen? Lou went off to
the mens room and came back and whispered at me "There's a woman in  there!
She's doing something to this guys pants!" Well, after a bit, here comes
Ray and Cheryl (who became very good friends of mine in time), and Ray had
tied on to his pants- sideways to it really looks like a codpiece- an
enormous cinnamon roll! He spent the evening walking around with his
dagger, saying "Care you taste my wares?" If I remember, he won both
contests handily. And he had a good time doing it too! I thought it was
hysterical- the now-ex was not amused.

I think I'll saunter off to the Rock. Hey Maire, is the tea ready?

'Lainie

Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 18:58:21 +0000
From: "Groff, Garth (ggg9y)" <ggg9y@virginia.edu>
To: "Merry Rose (atlantia@seahorse.atlantia.sca.org)"
	<atlantia@seahorse.atlantia.sca.org>
Subject: [MR] BBC: Article on the Codpiece

Noble Friends, Especially Male 16th Century Fashionistas,

Today the BBC offered by feature on the history of the noble, or ignoble, codpiece. It features amusing, if somewhat bawdy, anecdotes on this  . . . uh . . . accessory: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26480358 . The text is actually quite funny, but not recommended for children.

I'm certainly glad that the codpiece didn't exist in Scotland during my time (1496 or so). I prefer more modest wear.

Lord Mungo Napier, The Archer of Mallard Lodge

From: Zebee Johnstone <zebeej@gmail.com>
Date: May 1, 2015 at 6:01:43 PM CDT
To: "The Shambles: the SCA Lochac mailing list" <lochac@lochac.sca.org>
Subject: [Lochac] hat racks

http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/what-goes-up-must-come-down-a-brief-history-of-the-codpiece

"Only briefly in vogue, the codpiece has left a rich legacy in art, literature and - most recently - in televised costume drama. In focusing her attention on this ostentatious male accessory, PhD candidate Victoria Miller has developed some new ideas about its evolution (and demise) as a symbol of virility."

(The subject is a line heard some years ago at a Midwinter Coronation.
Ringing across the room we heard "That's not a codpiece that's a waist level hat rack!")

Silfren

<the end>