From this fact, as well as from the custom of public
bathing, we reach the remarkable result, that for the German
people, the sight of complete nakedness was the daily rule up to
the sixteenth century. Everyone undressed completely before going
to bed, and, in the vapor-baths, no covering was used. Again, the
dances, both of the peasants and the townspeople, were
characterized by very high leaps into the air. It was the chief
delight of the dancers for the male to raise his partner as high
as possible in the air, so that her dress flew up. That feminine
modesty was in this respect very indifferent, we know from
countless references made in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries. It must not be forgotten that throughout the middle
ages women wore no underclothes, and even in the seventeenth
century, the wearing of drawers by Italian women was regarded as
singular. That with the disappearance of the baths, and the use
of body-linen, a powerful influence was exerted on the creation
of modesty, there can be little doubt." (Rudeck, op. cit., pp.
57, 399, etc.)
In 1461, when Louis XI entered Paris, three very beautiful
maidens, quite naked, represented the Syrens, and declaimed poems
before him; they were greatly admired by the public. In 1468,
when Charles the Bold entered Lille, he was specially pleased,
among the various festivities, with a representation of the
Judgment of Paris, in which the three goddesses were nude.
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