A full comprehension of these differences in the colonies will make us understand certain conditions, certain surprises, as to dress; for instance, why so little of the extreme Puritan is found in the dress of the first Boston colonists.
There lived in England, near the close of Elizabeth’s reign, a Puritan named Philip Stubbes, to whom we are infinitely indebted for our knowledge of English dress of his times. It was also the dress of the colonists; for details of attire, especially of men’s wear, had not changed to any extent since the years in which and of which Philip Stubbes wrote.
He published in 1586 a book called An Anatomie of Abuses, in which he described in full the excesses of England in his day. He wrote with spirited, vivid pen, and in plain speech, leaving nothing unspoken lest it offend, and he used strong, racy English words and sentences. In his later editions he even took pains to change certain “strange, inkhorn terms” or complicate words of his first writing into simpler ones. Thus he changed preter time to former ages; auditory to hearers; prostrated to humbled; consummate to ended; and of course this was to the book’s advantage. Unusual words still linger, however, but we must believe they are not intentionally “outlandish” as was the term of the day for such words.
The attitude of Stubbes toward dress and dress wearers is of great interest, for he was certainly one of the most severe, most determined, most conscientious of Puritans; yet his hatred of “corruptions desiring reformation” did not lead him to a hatred of dress in itself. He is careful to state in detail in the body of his book and in his preface that his attack is not upon the dress of people of wealth and station; that he approves of rich dress for the rich. His hatred is for the pretentious dress of the many men of low birth or of mean estate who lavish their all in dress ill suited to their station; and also his reproof is for swindling in dress materials and dress-making; against false weights and measures, adulterations and profits; in short, against abuses, not uses.
Governor Simon Bradstreet.
His words run thus explicitly:—
“Whereas I have spoken of the excesse in apparell, and of the Abuse of the same as wel in Men as in Women, generally I would not be so understood as though my speaches extended to any either noble honorable or worshipful; for I am farre from once thinking that any kind of sumptuous or gorgeous Attire is not to be worn of them; as I suppose them rather Ornaments in them than otherwise. And therefore when I speak of excesse of Apparel my meaning is of the inferiour sorte only who for the most parte do farre surpasse either noble honorable or worshipful, ruffling in Silks Velvets, Satens, Damaske, Taffeties, Gold Silver and what not; these bee the Abuses I speak of, these bee the Evills that I lament, and these bee the Persons my wordes doe concern.”
There was ample room for reformation from Stubbes’s point of view.