Note 228 — Chapter XIV · WOMEN'S DRESS.

One would hardly imagine that this fashion could have been pressed into the service of party passion, but so it was, if Addison was not jesting—and, after all, perhaps it is not so astonishing, when we recollect that the Tory ladies stayed away from the Queen's Drawing Room—on her Majesty's birthday too—because she gave a flattering reception, and a costly sword, to Prince Eugene: 'About the Middle of last Winter I went to see an Opera at the Theatre in the Haymarket, where I could not but take notice of two Parties of very fine Women, that had placed themselves in the opposite Side Boxes, and seemed drawn up in a kind of Battle Array one against another. After a short Survey of them, I found they were Patch'd differently; the Faces on one Hand being spotted on the right Side of the Forehead, and those upon the other, on the Left. I quickly perceived that they cast Hostile Glances upon one another; and that their Patches were placed in those different Situations, as Party Signals to distinguish Friends from Foes. In the Middle Boxes, between these two opposite Bodies, were several Ladies who Patched indifferently on both Sides of their Faces, and seem'd to sit there with no other Intention but to see the Opera. Upon Inquiry I found that the Body of Amazons on my right Hand were Whigs, and those on my Left, Tories: And that those who had placed themselves in the Middle Boxes were a Neutral Party, whose Faces had not yet declared themselves. These last however, as I afterwards found, diminished daily, and took their Party with one Side or the Other; insomuch that I observed in several of them, the Patches, which were before dispersed equally, are now all gone over to the Whig or Tory side of the Face.'[228]