Tarlton's News out of purgatory (1590) : a modern-spelling edition ...

47
The verses describing him which accompany his portrait picture
him thus,
When he© in pleasaunt wise
The counterfet expreste
Of clowne, with cote of russet hew
And sturtups with the reste. ,.
Tarlton's preference for russet may have been a relic
of his wearing it when it was in general use for clowns. He
was an early exponent of the art of clowning, and may well
have become accustomed to its use and so retained it. As late
as 1587 William Rankins writes of 'theyr clownes cladde as well
with country condition, as in ruffe russet . ..'.
It is not difficult to reconstruct Tarlton's costume
from the descriptions of him. The author of Tarltons Newes
Out of Purgatorie gives one of the fullest verbal portraits
of him,
I saw one attired in russet with a buttond
cap on his head, a great bagge by his side,
and a strong bat in his hand.
In the Prologue to William Percy's The Cuck-queanes and Cuckolds
Errants Tarlton's ghost speaks of having 'My Drum, my cap, my
Slop, my shoos'. Tarlton is firmly associated with the
slop, or baggy trousers, still worn by some contemporary
clowns. In The Partiall Law a song is described as being 'as
old as the beginning of the world, or Tarlton's Trunk-hose'.
Samuel Rowlands criticizes the fashion of the slop, thinking
it only appropriate for a clown:
When Tarlton clown' d it in a pleasant vaine
With conceites did good opinions gaine
Upon the stage, his merry humours shop.
Clownes knew the Clowne, by his great clownish slop