"Where will we meet with such merry groups now-a-days?" the Squire
will exclaim, shaking his head mournfully;--"and then as to the gayety
that prevailed in dress throughout all ranks of society, and made the
very streets so fine and picturesque: 'I have myself,' says Gervaise
Markham, 'met an ordinary tapster in his silk stockings, garters deep
fringed with gold lace, the rest of his apparel suitable, with cloak
lined with velvet!' Nashe, too, who wrote in 1593, exclaims at the
finery of the nation: 'England, the player's stage of gorgeous attire,
the ape of all nations' superfluities, the continual masquer in
outlandish habiliments.'"
Such are a few of the authorities quoted by the Squire, by way of
contrasting what he supposes to have been the former vivacity of the
nation with its present monotonous character. "John Bull," he will
say, "was then a gay cavalier, with his sword by his side and a
feather in his cap; but he is now a plodding citizen, in
snuff-coloured coat and gaiters."
By the by, there really appears to have been some change in the
national character, since the days of which the Squire is so fond of
talking; those days when this little island acquired its favourite old
title of "merry England.
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