Sunday, April 3, 2011

Parallel - Garments as Behavior


First Shakespeare:

"...so shall inferior eyes
That borrow their behaviours from the great
Grow great by your example and put on
the dauntless spirit of resolution,"
  King John 5.1.50-53

"So when this loose behaviour I throw off,"
  1 Henry IV, 1.2.203

"How oddly he's suited. I think he bought his doublet in Italy, his
round hose in France, his bonnet in Germany, and his behaviour everywhere."
  The Merchant of Venice 1.2.70-73

Now Bacon:
 "Behaviour is but a garment,"
   Letter to the Earl of Rutland
"Behaviour seemeth to me as a garment of the mind, and to have the conditions of a garment."
   The Advancement of Learning
"Men's behaviours should be like their apparel, not too straight or point device [dandified], but free for exercise or motion."
  Essay on Ceremonies and Respects

Cockburn's comment:
 "There are about a score of other passages in Shake-Speare which associate behaviours with clothing. Probably other Elizabethan writers did likewise, but the metaphor seems to have been a particular favourite with Bacon and Shake-speare."

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