Certainly the bases might be made to appear Roman, if one accepts the
long slips of cloth or leather in Roman military dress as being
bases; but Shakespeare is really--as in the case of the
ruffs--alluding to the petticoats of the doublet of his time worn by
grave persons. Bases also apply to silk hose.
In 'Titus Andronicus' we have:
'An idiot holds his bauble for his God.'
Julius Caesar is mentioned as an Elizabethan:
'He plucked ope his doublet.'
The Carpenter in 'Julius Caesar' is asked:
'Where is thy leather apron and thy rule?'
The mob have 'sweaty night-caps.'
Cleopatra, in 'Antony and Cleopatra,' says:
'I'll give thee an armour all of gold.'
The 'Winter's Tale,' the action of which occurs in Pagan times, is
full of anachronisms. As, for instance, Whitsun pastorals, Christian
burial, an Emperor of Russia, and an Italian fifteenth-century
painter. Also:
'Lawn as white as driven snow;
Cyprus[B] black as ere was crow;
Gloves as sweet as damask roses;
Masks for faces and for noses;
Bugle-bracelet, necklace amber,
Perfume for a lady's chamber;
Golden quoifs and stomachers,
Pins and polking-sticks of steel.'
[B] Thin stuff for women's veils.
So, you see, Autolycus, the pedlar of these early times, is spoken of
as carrying polking-sticks with which to stiffen ruffs.
Shylock, in 'The Merchant of Venice,' should wear an orange-tawny
bonnet lined with black taffeta, for in this way were the Jews of
Venice distinguished in 1581.
In 'The Tempest' one may hear of rye-straw hats, of gaberdines,
rapiers, and a pied fool's costume.
In 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona' we hear:
'Why, then, your ladyship must cut your hair.'
'No, girl; I'll tie it up in silken strings
With twenty odd conceited true-love knot;
To be fantastic may become a youth
Of greater time than I shall show to be.'
Also:
'Since she did neglect her looking-glass,
And threw her sun-expelling mask away.'
Many ladies at this time wore velvet masks. 'The Merry Wives of
Windsor' gives us a thrummed hat, a muffler or linen to hide part of
the face, gloves, fans. Falstaff says:
'When Mistress Bridget lost the handle of her fan,
I took it up my honour thou had'st it not.'
Also:
'The firm fashion of thy foot would give an excellent
motion to thy fait in a semicircled farthingale.'
'Twelfth Night' is celebrated for us by Malvolio's cross garters. Sir
Toby, who considers his clothes good enough to drink in, says:
'So be these boots too: an they be not, let them hang
themselves in their own straps.'
Sir Toby also remarks to Sir Andrew upon the excellent constitution of
his leg, and Sir Andrew replied that:
'It does indifferent well in a flame-coloured stock.'
The Clown says:
'A sentence is but a cheveril[C] glove to a good wit.'
[C] 'Cheveril' is kid leather.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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