Edexcel GCSE English Literature · 1ET0
Paper 1
A law restricting expenditure or luxury goods, including clothing, according to social rank or income.
Revise: MalvolioIn Shakespeare's England, sumptuary laws regulated clothing according to rank or income, partly to stop people dressing above their station. This context makes the gown more than an attractive garment: Malvolio imagines wearing the signs of elevated status. His later yellow stockings are not necessarily illegal.
- Revise: Social class and ambition
A law restricting expenditure or display, including which clothes and fabrics people of particular ranks or incomes could wear.