160) says that the Irish merchants were
forbidden to export their wool, in order that the
peasants
might
'be nourished by working it into cloth, namely, Rugs .
Ben Jonson - The Devil's Association
= 'Now, without the postern of Cripplesgate,
first is the parish church of Saint Giles, a very fair and large
church, lately repaired, after that the same was burnt in the year
1545.'--Stow, _Survey_, ed. Thoms, p. 112.
=5. 1. 48 A kind of Irish penance!= 'There is the same allusion to
the _rug gowns_ of the wild Irish, in the _Night Walker_ of Fletcher:
We have divided the sexton's household stuff
Among us; one has the _rug_, and he's turn'd _Irish_.'--G.
Cf. also Holinshed, _Chron._ (quoted _CD._):'As they distill the best
aqua-vitae, so they spin the choicest _rug_ in Ireland.' Fynes Moryson
(_Itinerary_, fol. 1617, p.
160) says that the Irish merchants were
forbidden to export their wool, in order that the
peasants
might
'be nourished by working it into cloth, namely, Rugs .
.. & mantles
generally worn by men and women, and exported in great quantity.'
Jonson mentions rug as an article of apparel several times. In
_Alch._, _Wks._ 4. 14, it is spoken of as the dress of a poor man
and _ibid._ 4. 83 as that of an astrologer. In _Ev. Man out_ (_Wks._
2. 110) a similar reference is made, and here Gifford explains that
rug was 'the usual dress of mathematicians, astrologers, &c., when
engaged in their sublime speculations.
