Reader's Notes

statute] Statute of the Irish Parliament (1537), 28 Henry VIII, chapter xv. 'There is [...] nothing which doth more conteyne and keep many of [the King's] subjects of this his said land, in a certaine savage and wilde kind and maner of living, then the diversitie that is betwixt them in tongue, language, order, and habite, which by the eye deceiveth the multitude, and perswadeth unto them, that they should be as it were of sundry sorts, or rather of sundry countries, where indeed they be wholly together one bodie, [...] His Majestie doth hereby intimate unto all his said subjects of this land, of all degrees, that whosoever shall, for any respect, at any time, decline from the order and purpose of this law, touching the English tongue, habite, and order, or shall suffer any within his family or rule to use the Irish habite, or not to use themselves to the English tongue, his Majestie will repute them in his most noble heart as persons that esteeme not his most dread lawes and commandements [...] wherefore be it enacted, ordeyned, and established by authority of this present Parliament, that no person ne persons, the King's subjects within this land being, or hereafter to be, from and after the first day of May, which shall be in the yeare of our Lord God a thousand five hundred thirtie nine, shall be shorn, or shaven above the eares, or use the wearing of haire upon their heads, like unto long lockes, called glibbes, or have or use any haire growing on their upper lippes, called or named a crommeal, or use or weare any shirt, smock, kerchor, bendel, neckerchour, mocket, or linnen cappe, coloured, or dyed with saffron, ne yet use, or wear in any their shirts or smocks above seven yards of cloth, to be measured according to the King's standard, and that also no woman use or weare any kyrtell, or cote tucked up, or imbroydred or garnished with silke, or couched ne layd with usker, after the Irish fashion; and that no person or persons, of what estate, condition, or degree they be, shall use or weare any mantles, cote or hood made after the Irish fashion; and if any person or persons use or weare any shirt, smock, cote, hood, mantle, kircher, bendell, neckercher, mocket, or linnen cap, contrary to the forme above recited, that then every person so offending, shall forfeit the thing so used or worke, and that it shall be lawfull to every the King's true subjects, to seize the same, and further, the offendor in any of the premisses, shall forfeit for every time so wearing the same against the forme aforesaid, such penalties and summes of mony, as hereafter by this present act is limited and appointed.' The Statutes at Lare, Passed in the Parliaments held in Ireland, vol I (Dublin, 1786). The act goes on to permit horse-riders to wear native clothing, if their safety on horseback would otherwise be risked.

Linsey Wollsey] A cloth made from a mixture of flax and wool. See Deuteronomy 22.11 'Thou shalte not weare a garmente made of wol and flaxe togeather.'

gesture] With the sense of deportment, bearing.

facit:] This quote is condensed from Cicero, De Officiis, I.iv: 'eademque natura vi rationis hominem conciliat homini at ad orationis et ad vitae societatem ingeneratque in primis praecipuum quendam amorem in eos, qui procreati sunt, impellitque, ut hominem coetus et celebrationes et esse et a se obiri velit ob easque causas studeat parare ea quae suppeditent ad cultum et ad victum, nec sibi soli, sed coniugi, liberis ceterisque, quos curos habeat tuerique debeat; quae cura exsuscitat etiam animos et maiores ad rem gerendam facit.' ('Nature likewise by the power of reason associates man with man in the common bonds of speech and life; she implants in him above all, I may say, a strangely tender love for his offspring. She also prompts men to meet in companies, to form public assemblies and to take part in them themselves; and she further dictates, as a consequence of this, the effort on man's part to provide a store of things that administer to his comforts and wants - and not for him alone, but for his wife and children - the others whom he holds dear and for whom he ought to provide; and this responsibility also stimulates his courage and makes it stronger for the active duties of life.')