ABSTRACT
From time immemorial many professions and social distinctions have been signified by the possession of special garments or accoutrements; and correspondingly the loss of such status has been signaled by their formal, often forcible, removal. Commonly, a disgraced cleric is still said to be ‘unfocked’; and the Elizabethans looked back (especially in Shakespeare’s play) to such unique events as Richard II’s formal abdication, for which he arrived ‘apareled in vesture and robe royall the diademe on his head, and the scepter in his hand,’ and which ended when he ‘delyvered his scepter and croune to the duke of Lancastre’ (Hall 1550: fol viiiv-ixr). The creation of a knight originally involved the giving of ritual clothing; similarly, his degradation was signaled by the removal of his characterizing costume and accountrements, even-though rarelyin Spenser’s lifetime. The term baffling was sometimes applied generally to such chivalric degradation but usually referred more specifically to a particular action indicating dishonor.
