Cloister and the Hearth, The

The, a historical novel by Charles Reade published in 1861. It is commonly regarded as Reade's masterpiece. The plot is laid in the fifteenth century. It presents distinct and faithful pictures of daily life in Holland, Germany, France, and Italy in medieval times. The story is intensely dramatic. The character drawing is strong. Above all, Reade has here succeeded in portraying something of the strange combination of rugged brutality with a lofty spirituality which seems to have characterized the transition period. If the power displayed in the first part of this story were maintained throughout, it would stand beyond question where Swinburne places it "among the very greatest masterpieces of narration." See Reade; Charles

Cloth of Gold, a fabric of splendid appearance and great cost, much worn by the nobility during the Middle Ages. The manufacture and use are ancient. In the book of Exodus, where the vestments of the Jewish priests are described, it is said, "they did beat gold into thin plates and cut it into wires, to work it in the blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen with cunning work." Both "wires" and flat strips of gold were used in weaving cloth of gold. It was usually combined with silk, but fabrics wholly of gold are not uncommon. Cloth of gold was used lavishly during the reign of Henry VIII of England. When Henry VIII and Francis I of France met in a plain near Ardres, France, in order to come to some understanding as to an alliance against Charles V of Spain, this cloth, then worth forty shillings, or nearly ten dollars a yard, was used so profusely by both nations that the place won the name of the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Heavy brocaded silk fabrics, interwoven with gold and silver, are used for ceremonial garments by the Chinese and Japanese, and also for hangings and decorations in their theaters and temples. The Japanese weave strips of gilded paper, twisted into thread, with or without silk, into their silken fabrics. These silks have the appearance of cloth of gold, but they are cheaper and more flexible. See Field Of The Cloth Of Gold