ABSTRACT
The Strand area was fast becoming the most fashionable address in London. It was also convenient for the socially ambitious and the politically powerful - the only thoroughfare for pedestrians or coaches going from the City or the Inns of Court to Westminster and Whitehall. Sir Amorous La Foole has prestigious lodgings directly on the Strand near the New Exchange and the china-houses, where the urban elite purchased luxuries. Truewit describes at length the quest for rich gowns and rejuvenating cosmetics, as well as the shop-at-home services supplied by 'embroiderers, jewellers, tirewomen, sempsters, feathermen, perfumers' (2.2.91-2). Morose woos Epicoene with talk of lineners, lace-women, wires, knots, ruffs, roses, girdles, fans, scarves, and gloves (2.5.62-9), and Mrs Otter, herself a seller of 'China stuffs' and a purchaser of damask, satin, and velvet (3.2.53-66), berates her husband for ingratitude, though she maintains him in silk stockings and fine linen (3.1.35-6). Quantity has supplanted quality. To borrow Otter's pun at the end of 3.3, 'decora' -beautiful things-have replaced 'decorum', fitting behaviour.
