Dress According to Statute. 173 



That a law of the kind should have been inoperative cannot 

 be a matter of surprise to us moderns, who not only have the 

 light of experience to teach us the futility of such laws, but 

 who approach the subjects of them in a spirit altogether diffe- 

 rent from that which possessed our ancestors. They, how- 

 ever, were perfectly honest in their wish to stop the waste of 

 unproductive spending, and they believed the measure they 

 agreed to would attain for them their wish. Yery short 

 experience served to convince them, that whatever law might 

 put an end to waste and prodigality in dress, the law they had 

 made would not do so. The statute was evaded, was set at 

 naught openly, those who should have been most jealous to 

 guard it in its integrity setting the example of driving right 

 through it. The undefined sanction of the law, and the want 

 of proper machinery with which to work it, might have done 

 something towards making the statute a dead letter, but the 

 primary cause of the disregard with which it was treated was 

 to be found in that peacock vanity of human nature which 

 loves to see itself in gay clothing, and in motley wear to " play 

 fantastic tricks before high heaven." 



Within twenty years after the passing of the statute, at a 

 time, certainly, when the sun of Edward III. was about to set, 

 and that of a gay, glitter-loving prince was about to rise, we 

 find that excessive richness in clothing and appointments, and 

 the vagaries of the fashions, again attracted the attention of 

 writers and public men, who, both cleric and lay, including 

 Chaucer, inveigh most strongly against them. A curious 

 poem, written in alternate lines of English and Latin, upon 

 the corruptions of the times, by an unknown author, mentions 

 many of the extravagancies of the period. Dandies wore stuff- 

 ing on their shoulders to make them look broader than they 

 were made by God. They wore high and wide collars, which 

 made their necks look as if ready for the axe ; and the long 

 spurs on their heels, and the long pointed shoes stuffed beyond 

 the toes, and fastened by little silver chains to the knees, pre- 

 vented them from kneeling at prayer time. They could not 

 bend their knees but with difficulty ; when other men knelt, 

 offering prayers to Christ, these stood at their heels, not able 

 to bend their legs. They avoided bending, lest they should 

 damage their hose. Here is a specimen of the ballad, and the 

 passage of it from which the above information is gathered : — 



" Bredder than ever God made, 

 humeri sunt arte tumentes; 

 Nai'owe they be, they seme brode, 



vana sunt hocfacite, gentes. 

 They bere a newe fascion 

 Tiumeris in pectore tergo ; 



