Obs. [See T (the letter) 7.] In the earliest quotation St. Audrey’s lace, i.e., lace of St. Audrey, Etheldrida, or Æþelðryþ (daughter of Anna king of East Anglia, and patron saint of Ely): A silk ‘lace’ or necktie, much worn by women in the 16th and early 17th c.; sometimes taken as a type of female adornments.
[As to the origin of the name, it is told, originally by Bæda (Eccl. Hist., IV. ix.), and after him by Ælfric in the Life of St. Æþelðryþ, Virgin (Ælfric’s Lives of Saints, ed. Skeat, 1885, xx. ll. 49–60), that St. Audrey died of a tumor in her throat, which she considered to be a just retribution, because in her youth she had for vain show adorned her neck with manifold splendid necklaces, ‘forðan þe ic on iuȝoðe frætwede mine swuran mid mæniȝfealdum swurbeaȝum.’ In the 16th century, N. Harpsfield, Archdeacon of Canterbury under Philip and Mary (died 1588), after relating the story in his (Latin) Historia Anglicana Ecclesiastica (Douay, 1622), adds ‘Our women of England are wont to wear about the neck a certain necklace [torquem quendam], formed of thin and fine silk, perchance in memory of what we have told.’ See also, more particularly, quot. 1674 below. Skinner in his Etymologicon (licensed 1668), explains Tawdry lace as ‘Ties, fringes, or bands, bought at the fair held at the fane of St. Etheldreda, as rightly points out Doctor Th. Henshaw.’ There is no discrepancy between the two statements. ‘St. Audrey’s laces’ would naturally be largely offered for sale at her fair, and though this did not give the article its name, it doubtless made it more widely known, and led to the production of cheap and showy forms for the ‘country wenches’ (see Nares s.v.), which at length gave to tawdry its later connotation.]
[1530. Palsgr. (ed. 1), 63/2. Seynt Audries lace, cordon.)
1548. Patten, Exped. Scotl., Pref. c iv b. Pardon Beades, Tanthonie belles, Tauthrie laces, Rosaries, Collets.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., April, 135. Binde your fillets faste, And gird in your waste, For more finesse, with a tawdrie lace.
1593. Jack Straw, III. D iv. Queen. … I will speake for thee. T. M. Will you in faith, and I will giue you a tawdrie lace.
1610. Fletcher, Faithf. Sheph., IV. i. The Prim-Rose Chaplet, taudry-lace and Ring, Thou gavest her for her singing.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., IV. iv. 253. Come you promis’d me a tawdry-lace, and a paire of sweet Gloues.
1674. Blount, Glossogr., Taudrey Lace, so called from St. Audrey (Ethelreda) who thought her self punished for wearing rich Necklaces of Jewels; and therefore women after that wore Necklaces of fine silk, called Taudrey Laces.
c. 1750. Shenstone, Elegies, xi. 18. To deck my native fleece with tawdry lace!
