Shakspeare and His Times [Vol. 1 of 2] / Including the Biography of the Poet; criticisms on his genius and writings; a new chronology of his plays; a disquisition on the on the object of his sonnets; and a history of the manners, customs, and amusements, superstitions, poetry, and elegant literature of his age

by Nathan Drake

From a passage in Ben Jonson's Tale of a Tub, we learn that the dress of the downright rustic, on his wedding day, was as follows:

"He had on a lether doublet, with long points,

And a paire of pin'd-up breech's, like pudding bags:

With yellow stockings, and his hat turn'd up

With a silver claspe, on his leere side."[229:B]

Of the ceremonies attendant on Christenings, it will be necessary to mention two that prevailed at this period, and which have since fallen into disuse. Shakspeare, who generally transfers the customs of his own times to those periods of which he is treating, represents Henry VIII. saying to Cranmer, whom he had appointed Godfather to Elizabeth,

"Come, come, my lord, you'd spare your spoons;"[230:A]

and again in the dialogue between the porter and his man:

"Port. On my Christian conscience, this one christening will beget a thousand; here will be father, godfather, and all together.

"Man. The spoons will be the bigger, sir."[230:B]