turies ago by one Andrew Borde, who, under the picture of a 'Naked
man, with a pair of shears in one hand and a roll of cloth in the other,'
{328} inserted the following lines along with others:

'I am an Englishman, and naked I stand here,
Musing in my mind what garment I shall weare;
For now I will weare this, and now I will weare that,
Now I will weare, I cannot tell what.
All new fashions be pleasant to mee,
I will have them, whether I thrive or thee;
What do I care if all the world me fail?
I will have a garment reach to my taille;
Then am I a minion, for I wear the new guise.
The next yeare after I hope to be wise,
Not only in wearing my gorgeous array,
For I will go to learning a whole summer's day;
I will learn Latine, Hebrew, Greek, and French,
And I will learn Dutch, sitting on my bench.
I had no peere if to myself I were true,
Because I am not so, divers times do I rue.
Yet I lacke nothing, I have all things at will
If I were wise and would hold myself still,
And meddle with no matters but to me pertaining,
But ever to be true to God and my king.
But I have such matters rowling in my pate,
That I will and do . . . I cannot tell what,' etc.

CHAPTER IV

ON GENTILITY, NONSENSE--ILLUSTRATIONS OF GENTILITY

What is gentility? People in different stations in England entertain
different ideas of what is genteel, {329} but it must be something
gorgeous, glittering, or tawdry to be considered genteel by any of them.
The beau-ideal of the English aristocracy, of course with some
exceptions, is some young fellow with an imperial title, a military
personage, of course, for what is military is so particularly genteel,
with flaming epaulets, a cocked hat and a plume, a prancing charger, and
a band of fellows called generals and colonels, with flaming epaulets,
cocked hats, and plumes, and prancing chargers vapouring behind him. It
was but lately that the daughter of an English marquis was heard to say
that the sole remaining wish of her heart--she had known misfortunes, and
was not far from fifty--was to be introduced to--whom? The Emperor of
Austria! The sole remaining wish of the heart of one who ought to have
been thinking of the grave and judgment was to be introduced to the
miscreant who had caused the blood of noble Hungarian females to be
whipped out of their shoulders, for no other crime than devotion to th