Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Apparel
Che quant’ era più ornata, era più brutta.
Who seems most hideous when adorned the most.
Ariosto—Orlando Furioso. XX. 116.
Thy clothes are all the soul thou hast.
Beaumont and Fletcher—Honest Man’s Fortune. Act V. Sc. 3. L. 170.
To a woman, the consciousness of being well dressed gives a sense of tranquillity which religion fails to bestow.
Mrs. Helen Bell.
To treat a poor wretch with a bottle of Burgundy, and fill his snuff-box, is like giving a pair of laced ruffles to a man that has never a shirt on his back.
Tom Brown—Laconics.
Gars auld claes look amaist as weel’s the new.
Burns—The Cotter’s Saturday Night.
His locked, lettered, braw brass collar,
Shewed him the gentleman and scholar.
Burns—The Twa Dogs.
And said to myself, as I lit my cigar,
“Supposing a man had the wealth of the Czar
Of the Russias to boot, for the rest of his days,
On the whole do you think he would have much to spare
If he married a woman with nothing to wear?”
Wm. Allen Butler—Nothing to Wear.
But I do mean to say, I have heard her declare,
When at the same moment she had on a dress
Which cost five hundred dollars, and not a cent less,
And jewelry worth ten times more, I should guess,
That she had not a thing in the wide world to wear!
Wm. Allen Butler—Nothing to Wear.
Dresses for breakfasts, and dinners, and balls.
Dresses to sit in, and stand in, and walk in;
Dresses to dance in, and flirt in, and talk in,
Dresses in which to do nothing at all;
Dresses for Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall;
All of them different in color and shape.
Silk, muslin, and lace, velvet, satin, and crape,
Brocade and broadcloth, and other material,
Quite as expensive and much more ethereal.
Wm. Allen Butler—Nothing to Wear.
Miss Flora McFlimsey of Madison Square,
Has made three separate journeys to Paris,
And her father assures me each time she was there
That she and her friend Mrs. Harris
******
Spent six consecutive weeks, without stopping
In one continuous round of shopping,—
******
And yet, though scarce three months have passed since the day
This merchandise went on twelve carts, up Broadway,
This same Miss McFlimsey of Madison Square
The last time we met was in utter despair
Because she had nothing whatever to wear.
Wm. Allen Butler—Nothing to Wear.
Around his form his loose long robe was thrown,
And wrapt a breast bestowed on heaven alone.
Byron—Corsair. Canto II. St. 3.
Dress drains our cellar dry,
And keeps our larder lean; puts out our fires
And introduces hunger, frost, and woe,
Where peace and hospitality might reign.
Cowper—The Task. Bk. II. L. 614.
Beauty when most unclothed is clothed best.
Phineas Fletcher—Sicelides. Act II. Sc. 4.
He that is proud of the rustling of his silks, like a madman, laughs at the ratling of his fetters. For indeed, Clothes ought to be our remembrancers of our lost innocency.
Fuller—The Holy and Profane States. Apparel.
They stript Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colours.
Genesis. XXXVII. 23.
A night-cap deck’d his brows instead of bay,
A cap by night,—a stocking all the day.
Goldsmith—Description of an Author’s Bedchamber. In Citizen of the World, Letter 30. The Author’s Club. (1760).
It’s like sending them ruffles, when wanting a shirt.
Goldsmith—The Haunch of Venison.
The nakedness of the indigent world may be clothed from the trimmings of the vain.
Goldsmith—Vicar of Wakefield. Ch. IV.
Old Grimes is dead, that good old man,
We ne’er shall see him more;
He used to wear a long black coat
All button’d down before.
Albert G. Greene—Old Grimes.
Old Rose is dead, that good old man,
We ne’er shall see him more;
He used to wear an old blue coat
All buttoned down before.
Old Rose. Song referred to in Walton’s Compleat Angler. Pt. I. Ch. II.
Old Abram Brown is dead and gone,—
You’ll never see him more;
He used to wear a long brown coat
That buttoned down before.
Halliwell—Nursery Rhymes of England. Tales.
John Lee is dead, that good old man,—
We ne’er shall see him more:
He used to wear an old drab coat
All buttoned down before.
To the memory of John Lee, who died May 21, 1823. An inscription in Matherne Churchyard.
A sweet disorder in the dresse
Kindles in cloathes a wantonnesse.
Herrick—Delight in Disorder.
A winning wave, (deserving note.)
In the tempestuous petticote,
A careless shoe-string, in whose tye
I see a wilde civility,—
Doe more bewitch me than when art
Is too precise in every part.
Herrick—Delight in Disorder.
It is not linen you’re wearing out,
But human creatures’ lives.
Hood—Song of the Shirt.
A vest as admired Voltiger had on,
Which from this Island’s foes his grandsire won,
Whose artful colour pass’d the Tyrian dye,
Obliged to triumph in this legacy.
Edward Howard—The British Princes. (1669). P. 96. See also Boswell—Life of Johnson. (1769). European Mag., April, 1792. Steele, in the Spectator. The lines are thought to be a forgery of Wm. Henry Ireland’s.
A painted vest Prince Voltiger had on,
Which from a naked Pict his grandsire won.
Attributed to Sir Richard Blackmore. (Not in Works.) Probably a parody of above.
They were attempting to put on
Raiment from naked bodies won.
Matthew Green—The Spleen. Lines called out by Blackmore’s parody.
After all there is something about a wedding-gown prettier than in any other gown in the world.
Douglas Jerrold—A Wedding-Gown. Jerrold’s Wit.
Fine clothes are good only as they supply the want of other means of procuring respect.
Samuel Johnson—Boswell’s Life. (1776).
Apes are apes though clothed in scarlet.
Ben Jonson—Poetaster. Act V. Sc. 3.
Still to be neat, still to be drest,
As you were going to a feast,
Still to be powder’d, still perfum’d.
Lady, it is to be presumed,
Though art’s hid causes are not found,
All is not sweet, all is not sound.
Ben Jonson—Epicæne; or, The Silent Woman. Act I. Sc. 1. (Song). Trans. from Bonnefonius. First part an imitation of Petronius—Satyricon.
Each Bond-street buck conceits, unhappy elf;
He shows his clothes! alas! he shows himself.
O that they knew, these overdrest self-lovers,
What hides the body oft the mind discovers.
Keats—Epigrams. Clothes.
Neat, not gaudy.
Charles Lamb—Letter to Wordsworth. June 11, 1806.
Dwellers in huts and in marble halls—
From Shepherdess up to Queen—
Cared little for bonnets, and less for shawls,
And nothing for crinoline.
But now simplicity’s not the rage,
And it’s funny to think how cold
The dress they wore in the Golden Age
Would seem in the Age of Gold.
Henry S. Leigh—The Two Ages. St. 4.
Not caring, so that sumpter-horse, the back
Be hung with gaudy trappings, in what course
Yea, rags most beggarly, they clothe the soul.
Lowell—Fireside Travels.
Let thy attyre bee comely, but not costly.
Lyly—Euphues. P. 39. (Ed. 1579).
In naked beauty more adorned
More lovely than Pandora.
Milton—Paradise Lost. Bk. IV. L. 713.
Be plain in dress, and sober in your diet;
In short, my deary, kiss me! and be quiet.
Lady M. W. Montague—Summary of Lord Littelton’s Advice.
When this old cap was new
’Tis since two hundred years.
Signed with initials M. P. Probably Martin Parker.
He was a wight of high renowne,
And thosne but of a low degree:
Itt’s pride that putts the countrye downe,
Man, take thine old cloake about thee.
Thomas Percy—Religues. Take thy Old Cloake about Thee.
My galligaskins, that have long withstood
The winter’s fury, and encroaching frosts,
By time subdued (what will not time subdue!)
An horrid chasm disclosed.
John Philips—The Splendid Shilling. L. 121.
The soul of this man is his clothes.
All’s Well That Ends Well. Act II. Sc. 5. L. 45.
Thou villain base,
Know’st me not by my clothes?
Cymbeline. Act IV. Sc. 2. L. 80.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man.
Hamlet. Act I. Sc. 3. Line 70.
See where she comes, apparell’d like the spring.
Pericles. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 12.
So tedious is this day,
As is the night before some festival
To an impatient child, that hath new robes,
And may not wear them.
Romeo and Juliet. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 28.
With silken coats, and caps, and golden rings,
With ruffs, and cuffs, and farthingales, and things;
With scarfs, and fans, and double change of bravery,
With amber bracelets, beads, and all this knavery.
Taming of the Shrew. Act IV. Sc. 3. L. 55.
He will come to her in yellow stockings, and ’tis a color she abhors; and cross-gartered, a fashion she detests.
Twelfth Night. Act II. Sc. 5. L. 216.
Her cap, far whiter than the driven snow,
Emblem right meet of decency does yield.
Shenstone—The Schoolmistress. St. 6.
Now old Tredgortha’s dead and gone,
We ne’er shall see him more;
He used to wear an old grey coat,
All buttoned down before.
Rupert Simms, at beginning of list of John Tredgortha’s works in Bibliotheca Staffordiensis. (1894).
She wears her clothes as if they were thrown on her with a pitchfork.
Swift—Polite Conversation. Dialogue I.
Attired to please herself: no gems of any kind
She wore, nor aught of borrowed gloss in Nature’s stead;
And, then her long, loose hair flung deftly round her head
Fell carelessly behind.
Terence—Self-Tormentor. Act II. Sc. 2. F. W. Ricord’s trans.
So for thy spirit did devise
Its Maker seemly garniture,
Of its own essence parcel pure,—
From grave simplicities a dress,
And reticent demureness,
And love encinctured with reserve;
Which the woven vesture would subserve.
For outward robes in their ostents
Should show the soul’s habiliments.
Therefore I say,—Thou’rt fair even so,
But better Fair I use to know.
Francis Thompson—Gilded Gold. St. 2.
O fair undress, best dress! it checks no vein,
But every flowing limb in pleasure drowns,
And heightens ease with grace.
Thomson—Castle of Indolence. Canto I. St. 26.
Her polish’d limbs,
Veil’d in a simple robe, their best attire;
Beyond the pomp of dress; for Loveliness
Needs not the foreign aid of ornament,
But is, when unadorn’d, adorn’d the most.
Thomson—Seasons. Autumn. L. 202.
She’s adorned
Amply, that in her husband’s eye looks lovely,—
The truest mirror that an honest wife
Can see her beauty in!
John Tobin—The Honeymoon. Act III. Sc. 4.
How his eyes languish! how his thoughts adore
That painted coat, which Joseph never wore!
He shows, on holidays, a sacred pin.
That touch’d the ruff, that touched Queen Bess’ chin.
Young—Love of Fame. Satire IV. L. 119.
Their feet through faithless leather met the dirt,
And oftener chang’d their principles than shirt.
Young—To Mr. Pope. Epistle I. L. 283.
La ropa no da ciencia.
Dress does not give knowledge.
Yriarte—Fables. XXVII.