rst one
and then another is discarded; and finally the choice falls between
one of great size, shaped like a catherine-wheel and starched blue,
and the other of three depths but not of such great circumference,
starched yellow, after the receipt of Mrs. Turner, afterwards hung at
Tyburn in a ruff of the same colour.

The Queen wavers, and the tire-woman recommends the smaller bands:
'This, madame, is one of those ruffs made by Mr. Higgins, the tailor
near to St. James's, where he has set up an establishment for the
making of such affairs--it is a picadillie, and would----'

The Queen stops her and chooses the ruff; it is very much purled into
folds, and it bristles with points.

The women approach with a crimson over-gown and slips it over the
Queen's head--it is open in front to show the rich petticoat, and it
has great stuffed wings, epaulettes, or mahoitres on the shoulders.
The tight-fitting bodice of the gown is buttoned up to the throat, and
is stuffed out in front to meet the fall of the hoops; it has falling
sleeves, but the real sleeves are now brought and tied to the points
attached to the shoulders of the gown. They are puffed sleeves of the
same material as the under-gown, and the falling sleeves of the upper
gown are now tied with one or two bows across them so that the effect
of the sleeves is much the same as the effect of the skirts; an
embroidered stuff showing in the opening of a plain material. These
are called virago sleeves.

This done, the strings of pearls are placed around the Queen's neck,
and then the underpropper or supportasse of wire and holland is
fastened on her neck, and the picadillie ruff laid over it. The Queen
exchanges her slippers for cork-soled shoes, stands while her girdle
is knotted, sees that the looking-glass, fan, and pomander are hung
upon it, and then, after a final survey of herself in the glass, she
calls for her muckinder or handkerchief, and--Queen Elizabeth is
dressed.

So in this manner the Queen struts down to posterity, a wonderful
woman in ridiculous clothes, and in her train we may dimly see Mr.
Higgins, the tailor, who named a street without knowing it, a street
known in every part of the civilized world; but, nowadays, one hardly
thinks of connecting Piccadilly with a lace ruff....

SHAKESPEARE AND CLOTHES

There are not so many allusions to Elizabethan dress in the plays of
Shakespeare as one might suppose upon first thought. One has grown so
accust