'Why,
then, if it become not me, as being too shorte, I am minded it shall
never become thee, as being too fine; so it fitteth neither well.' This
sharp rebuke abashed the ladie, and she never adorned her herewith any
more."[52]
It was the fashion to walk in the aisles of St. Paul's Church, which
became a general rendezvous for business or pleasure. A facetious
writer of the time, instructing a young gallant how to procure his
clothes, and to show them off to the best advantage, gives an amusing
picture of the prevailing vanity and foppery. "Bend your course
directly in the middle line, that the whole body of the church may
appear to be yours; where, in view of all you may publish your suit in
what manner you affect most * * * and then you must, as 'twere in anger,
suddenly snatch at the middle of the inside, if it be taffeta at the
least; and so, by that means, your costly lining is betrayed. * * * But
one note, by the way, do I especially woo you to, the neglect of
which makes many of our gallants cheap and ordinary, that by no means
you be seen above four times; but in the fifth make yourself away,
either in some of the semsters' shops, the new tobacco office, or among
the booksellers, where, if you cannot read, exercise your smoke, and
enquire who has writ against this divine weed.
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