A Few Reflections, Pertinent and Impertinent, on the Subject of Clothes,
Their Cost, and the Consequences of Sartorial Splendor.
Dwellers in huts and marble halls--
From shepherdess up to queen--
Cared little for bonnets, and less for shawls,
And nothing for crinoline.
But now simplicity's not the rage,
And it's funny to think how cold
The dress they wore in the Golden Age
Would seem in the Age of Gold.
HENRY S. LEIGH--_The Two Ages_.
Nothing is thought rare
Which is not new, and follow'd; yet we know
That what was worn some twenty years ago
Comes into grace again.
BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER--_Prologue
to the Noble Gentleman_.
Dress drains our cellar dry,
And keeps our larder lean; puts out our fires,
And introduces hunger, frost, and wo.
Where peace and hospitality might reign.
COWPER--_The Task_. Bk. II.
He that is proud of the rustling of his silks, like a madman, laughs at
the rattling of his fetters. For indeed, Clothes ought to be our
remembrancers of our lost innocency.
Fuller--_The Holy and Profane States_.
I'll be at charges for a looking-glass,
And entertain some score or two of tailors,
To study fashions to adorn my body:
Since I am crept in favor with myself,
I will maintain it with some little cost.
_Richard III_. Act I. Sc. 2.
So tedious is this day,
As is the night before some festival
To an impatient child, that hath new robes,
And may not wear them.
_Romeo and Juliet_. Act III. Sc. 2.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man.
_Hamlet_. Act I. Sc. 3.
The glass of fashion and the mold of form,
The observ'd of all observers.
_Hamlet_. Act III. Sc. 1.
Their clothes are after such a pagan cut too,
That, sure, they've worn out Christendom.
_Henry VIII_. Act I. Sc. 3.
You, sir, I entertain for one of my hundred;
only I do not like the fashion of your garments.
_King Lear_. Act III. Sc. 6.
He is only fantastical that is not in fashion.
BURTON--_Anatomy of Melancholy_.
And as the French we conquer'd once,
Now gives us laws for pantaloons,
The length of breeches and the gathers,
Port-cannons, periwigs, and feathers.
BUTLER--_Hudibras_. Pt. I. Canto III.
Thy clothes are all the soul thou hast.
BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER--_Honest
Man's Fortune_. Act V. Sc. 3.
A winning wave, deserving note,
In the tempestuous petticoat;
A careless shoe-string, in whose tie
I see a wild civility--
Do more bewitch me than when art
Is too precise in every part.
ROBERT HERRICK--_Delight in Disorder_.
Fashion--a word which knaves and fools may use,
Their knavery and folly to excuse.
CHURCHILL--_Rosciad_.
As good be out of the world as out of the fashion.
COLLEY CIBBER--_Love's Last Shift_.
Who seems most hideous when adorned the most.
ARIOSTO--_Orlando Furioso_. XX. 116.