"Truly, Sir. Now, no such a thing could not be done in the Court. A chair that is ten years old is there fit for nought; a glass of five years may not be set on board; and a gown you have worn one year must be cast aside, whether it be done or no. The fashion choppeth and changeth all one with the moon; nor can a gentleman wear aught that is not the newest of his sort. Sir, the Queen's Highness carrieth ne'er a gown two seasons, nor never rippeth--all hang by the walls." It was the custom at that time to pull handsome dresses in pieces, and use the materials for something else; but if a dress were not worth the unpicking, it was hung up and left to its fate. Queen Elizabeth kept all hers "by the walls;" she never gave a dress, and never took one in pieces. "Gentility, son--at least thy gentility--is costly matter," remarked Sir Thomas. "Good lack, Sir! You speak as though I had been an ill husband!" [an extravagant man] cried Jack in an injured tone. "Look you, a gentleman must have his raiment decent--" "Three cloth suits, six shirts, and six pair of stockings should serve for that, Jack, nor cost above twenty pound the year, and that free reckoned," [a very handsome allowance] put in Aunt Rachel. "Six shirts, my dear Aunt!--and six pair of stockings!" laughed Jack. "Why, 'twere not one the day." "Two a-week is enow for any man--without he be a chimney-sweep," said Aunt Rachel oracularly. This idea evidently amused Jack greatly. "'Tis in very deed as I said but now: you have no fantasy hereaway of the necessities of a man that is in the Court. He must needs have his broidered shirts, his Italian ruff, well-set, broidered, and starched; his long-breasted French doublet, well bombasted [padded]; his hose,-- either French, Gally, or Venetian; his corked Flemish shoes of white leather; his paned [slashed and puffed with another colour or material] velvet breeches, guarded with golden lace; his satin cloak, well broidered and laced; his coats of fine cloth, some forty shillings the yard; his long, furred gown of Lukes' [Lucca] velvet; his muff, Spanish hat, Toledo rapier; his golden and jewelled ear-rings; his stays--" A few ejaculations, such as "Good lack!" and "Well-a-day!" had been audible from Aunt Rachel as the list proceeded; but Sir Thomas kept silence until the mention of this last article, which was in his eyes a purely feminine item of apparel. "Nay, Jack, nay, now! Be the men turning women in the Court?" "And the women turning men, belike," added Rachel. "The twain do oft-times go together." "My good Sir!" returned Jack, with amused condescension. "How shall a gentleman go about a sorry figure, more than a gentlewoman?" "Marry come up!" interposed Rachel. "If the gentleman thou hast scarce finished busking be not a sorry figure, I ne'er did see the like." "Stays, ear-rings, muffs!" repeated Sir Thomas under his breath. "Belike a fan, too, Jack?--and a pomander?--and masks?--and gloves?"