"I love a good dressing before any beauty o' the world. Oh, a woman is then like a delicate garden; nor is there one kind of it; she may vary every hour; take often counsel of her glass, and choose the best. If she have good ears, show them; good hair, lay it out; good legs, wear short clothes; a good hand, discover it often; practise any art to mend breath, cleanse teeth, repair eyebrows, paint, and profess it."
Maria
D. G. Angliæ, Scotiæ, Franciæ et Hiberniæ Regina.
QUEEN MARY.
The author of the "Roxburghe Ballads" ("A Woman's Birth and Education") informs us that when Cupid first beheld a woman—
"He prankt it up in Fardingals and Muffs,
In Masks, Rebatos, Shapperowns, and Wyers,
In Paintings, Powd'rings, Perriwigs, and Cuffes,
In Dutch, Italian, Spanish, French attires;
Thus was it born, brought forth, and made Love's baby,
And this is that which now we call a Lady."
Nor was it the fair sex only who were thus lampooned. The men also came in for their share, and were as much the objects of the satirist's wrath as were the women:—
"Your ruffs and your bands,
And your cuffs at your hands,
Your pipes and your smokes,
And your short curtall clokes,
Scarfes, feathers and swerdes,
And their bodkin beards;
Your wastes a span long,
Your knees with points hung
Like morrice-dance bels
And many toyes els."
Skelton, Elinor Rummin, 1625.