their attendant evils: "The women there vse
great ruffes and neckerchers of holland, laune,
cameruke, and such clothe as the greatest threed
shall not be so big as the least haire that is; and
lest they should fall downe, they are smeared
and starched in the devil's liquore—I mean
starche; after that dried with great diligence,
streaked, patted, and rubbed very nicely, and so
applied to their goodly neckes, and withal vnder-
propped with supportasses (as I told you before),
the stately arches of pride; beyond all this they
have a further fetche, nothing inferiour to the
rest, as namely, three or four degrees of minor
ruffes, placed gradation, one beneath another,
and all under the mayster devilruffe. The
skirtes, then, of these great ruffes are long
and wide, every way pleated and crested full
curiously. God wot! Then, last of all, they
are either clogged with gold, silver, or silk lace
of stately price, wrought all over with needleworke,
speckeled and sparkeled here and there
with the sunne, the mone, the starres, and many
other antiques strange to beholde. Some are
wrought with open worke downe to the midst
of the ruffe, and further; some with close works;
some with purled lace so cloied, and other gew-
gaws so pestered, as the ruffe is the least part
of itself. Sometimes they are pinned upp to
their eares, sometimes they are suffered to hange
over theyre shoulders, like windemill sailes
fluttering in the winde; and thus every one pleaseth
herselfe in her foolish devises." But bad as
Queen Elizabeth's ruffs were, they were by no
means equal in absurdity to those of the Venetian
ladies, who seem to have taken, the turkey-
cock for their model.

Besides these sinful ruffs and the infernal
liquor in which they were steeped, Queen Elizabeth
patronised other abominations. She painted
her face, and she used false hair; of which last
vanity, indeed, she had above eighty changes
of various kinds always on hand; whereby she
set the fashion of "curled, frisled, and crisped"
hair, "laid out in wreaths and borders from one
ear to another," which, lest it should fall down,
was "underpropped with forks, wires, and I
cannot tell what, rather like grim stern
monsters than chaste Christian matrons." A
godless fashion that excited the wrath of the worthy
Stubs anew. Then, as for gowns and petticoats,
had not the ladies these of all colours and all
fashions? "Some with sleeves hanging down to
their skirts, trailing on the ground, and cast
over their shoulders like cows' tails," and "some
with shorter sleeves, cut up the arm and pointed
with silk ribbon, very gallantly hid with true
lovers' knots." All of which fashions the more
sober minded of the time found to be intolerable
innovations on the good old ways, and,
without question, signs of the downfall and
decay of all things wholesome and holy.

The men were to the full as silly about their
dress in those days as the women; and wore
such preposterously stuffed doublets and hosen,
that a scaffolding was obliged to be erected
round the interior of the Parliament House, for
the accommodation of the members. It was
taken down in the eighth year of Queen
Elizabeth's reign, when the fashion was laid aside
for a time. But only for a time. For King
James of doubtful memory, revived the quilting
and the padding, and the stuffing, and ungainliness
of that special style of costume; and an
ugly business he made of it. Charles the First
had a good mode. Looser than his father's,
and chaster than his son's, picturesque, and
yet in a certain way convenient, simple and
graceful, his tailors and milliners were what
the French would call "inspired," to good
purpose. The picturesqueness remained, even
under the more sober handling of the Puritans.
The flowing curls, rich lace collar and cuffs,
profuse embroidery, and wealth of ribbons, of
Charles the Second came next; but both in
Cromwell's time, and Charles's, the wasp's waist
among women had its advocates and supporters,
and the young ladies strove all they could, by
tight-lacing, to "attain a wand-like smallness
of waste, never thinking themselves small
enough until they can span their waists."

Watteau, Dresden shepherdesses, and Sevres
china, show us what was considered beautiful
in female figures in the times of Louis the
Fourteenth and Louis the Fifteenth; in all
we find wasps' waists and puffed-out skirts.
In our own country, the farthingale of Queen
Anne's time, like the farthingale or verdingale
of Queen Elizabeth's, was relied on as aiding in
this desired though but little desirable effect of
a "middle small," and resisted all the satire and
remonstrances by which it was sought to be
abolished. Like our crinoline of yesterday, the
farthingale upset crockery, hurt men's shins,
and caused various and serious inconveniences.
But the ladies of that time, like the ladies of
this, thought more of the fashion than of
the beauty, and less of the inconvenience to
others than of their own childish pleasure in
a selfish fancy. The monstrous hoops
continued so long as the craze lasted, and when
they were abandoned, it was for no more reasonable
motive than a new craze. Short petticoats,
an enormous hoop, and a very low bodice,
long ruffles, a frilled cap, and a jimp waist laced
tight and small, were all set upon two high-
heeled slippers by way of pedestal for the
idol; with curiously frizzled hair and patched
face and neck, the fine lady of the period was
complete at all points, and afraid of no rival
that could be brought against her. Still her
most formidable arm of conquest lay in her
waist, and the smaller she could make this by
stays and torture, the greater her self-satisfaction
and the more complete her triumph.
One of the requisite accomplishments of a
Mantua-maker at this time was that "she
must know how to hide all the defects in the
proportions of the body, and must be able to
mould the shape of the stays so as to preserve
the intestines, that while she corrects the body
she may not interfere with the pleasures of the
palate."

              I own her taper form is made to please,
             Yet if you saw her unconfined by stays!

says Gay in TheToilette. And by another
quotation from Congreve, it seems that the