at they walked about the town in gaudy and
expensive attire. The author of "The Return from Parnassus," first
published in 1606, but held to have been written at an earlier date,
specially refers to the prosperity, and the consequent arrogance of
the players. He is believed to have had in view Alleyn or even
Shakespeare:

Vile world that lifts them up to high degree,
And treads us down in grovelling misery!
England affords these glorious vagabonds,
That carried erst their fardels on their backs,
Coursers to ride on through the gazing streets,
Sweeping it in their glaring satin suits,
And pages to attend their masterships.

But it is clear that these "glorious vagabonds" were regardful that
their dress should be splendid merely. There was no thought then as to
the costumes of the stage being appropriate to the characters
represented, or in harmony with the periods dealt with by the
dramatists. Nor did the spectators find fault with this arrangement.
It did not disturb them in the least to find Brutus and Cassius, for
instance, wearing much the same kind of clothes as Bacon and Raleigh.
And in this way anachronisms of other kinds readily obtained pardon,
if indeed they ever moved attention at all. Certainly the hero of an
early Roman story should not have spoken of gunpowder, much less have
produced a pistol from his belt; but his conduct in this wise became
almost reasonable, seeing that he did not wear a toga, but doublet and
hose--the dress indeed of a gallant of Elizabeth's time.

It is only in quite recent times that the correctness of stage
costumes has undergone systematic consideration, and been treated as a
matter of real urgency, although occasional experiments in the
direction of reform are to be found recorded in early accounts of the
drama. Mr. Pepys describes his visit to the theatre in 1664, to see
"Heraclius, or the Emperor of the East," Carlell's translation of
Corneille, and notes, "the garments like Romans very well ... at the
beginning, at the drawing up of the curtain, there was the finest
scene of the emperor and his people about him, standing in their fixed
and different postures, in their Roman habits, above all that I ever
saw at any of the theatres." But attempts to be accurate in this way
were only of an intermittent kind; any enduring amendment can hardly
be found until we approach a period that is within the recollection of
living playgoers. Mr. Donne, lately t