Literary notes about cincture (AI summary)
The term “cincture” in literature functions both as a tangible article of dress and a potent metaphor for binding or enclosure. In many passages it denotes a belt or sash that shapes or secures garments—whether adorning a maiden’s gown without “violence to natural proportion” [1] or serving as an essential component in clerical vestments [2]—emphasizing structure and propriety. At times the word is stretched beyond mere physical restraint to evoke a cosmic or allegorical enclosure, as when a “cincture of the system-laden skies” suggests the harmonious boundaries of the cosmos [3] or symbolizes alliance and friendship [4]. This dual usage, whether grounding a character in historical attire or imbuing a scene with symbolic gravitas, reveals the layered richness of the term in literary contexts.
- Her gown, trimmed with a collar of lace, left the neck free; the maiden cincture at her waist did no violence to natural proportion.
— from In the Year of Jubilee by George Gissing - All the Catholic vestments—the amice, alb, cincture, maniple, stole, and chasuble—have been restored.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 05, April 1867 to September 1867 by Various - The vision of the greatest star That measures instantaneously— Enisled therein as in a sea— Its cincture of the system-laden skies.
— from The Star-Treader, and other poems by Clark Ashton Smith - Cincture is friendship, Cincture is Alliance.
— from The Legend of the Glorious Adventures of Tyl Ulenspiegel in the land of Flanders and elsewhere by Charles de Coster
