A young man, now living in the town where the play was first performed, has deigned to ignore this advice, and further, has decided to go about in the altogether, proclaiming that the man is the man, clothes or not.

He travels about on foot and by public conveyance, wearing nothing but his beard, to the shock and amusement of his fellow Londoners. This amounts to a violation of the law, as there is a code against "indecent exposure."

As a consequence, he was been given a summons to appear before a magistrate. He appeared, attired in his customary garb, to the dissatisfaction of his honor, fully gowned and wigged, who sent him away, to return in a more proper dress.

He gave assurances that he would return as required, but that he would not alter his habit, as there was nothing indecent about the human body. His considered opinion is that there is much hypocrisy in the matter of clothing. There are a number of quaint subjects in her majesty's realm, and he is certainly not the most harmful, though some allege an offence to their person by the sight of his naked flesh ... and other things.

We are all born naked, so far as the record may be trusted, and the wearing of clothing is introduced at a time when we have few, if any defences. Our defence policy is not only unbalanced, it is non-existent. Innocent though we are as babes, yet we have shrewd if unchaste means of warding off unwanted attention. Like submarines, we have firepower, so to speak.

It is in the effort to balance the scales of warfare that we are clothed. Our first introduction to clothing is a means that adults have of neutralising us, that our torpedoes cannot be used effectively.

By the time we learn of the world of fashion, the mental mode has been set, and we are no longer free to cavort about in the totally unrestricted movements of infancy. Only in the bath are we again intimate with the flesh in its original unclad state.

There are, among the citizens of the world, people who prefer to spend their time together in the nude. Because the appearance of a large number of people without clothes is upsetting and distracting, these people prefer to seclude themselves in fenced enclosures known as nudist camps. Some countries have more of them than others.

It is unknown what the attraction is, but certainly it is there, as the popularity of these clubs for all ages has endured for generations, to the dismay of the more sensitive, who grow alarmed that naked people should be able to socialise in peace and harmony under conditions which they feel should incite and arouse to mayhem and orgy.

Children of homo sapiens, as mammals, are fed directly from the mammary glands of their mothers. This bond is reinforced numerous times a day, and both male and female offspring become attached to the body of the mother, to the delight and nourishment of all concerned.

In some societies the female breast has become an object of arousal, and the merest sight of a breast is sufficient to generate agitation and stress in the blood of testosterone laden males.

The mothers, then, are required to wear special clothing, which allows the children to attach themselves to the breast through special slits in the garments, while at the same time protecting the males, and any others who are sensitised, from a direct view of the skin of the breast.

Many mothers find this bothersome, and rather than risk exposure or censure in public, will substitute a synthetic diet, which while apparently satisfactory, suffers from the warmth and intimacy both mother and child enjoy in the natural bonding that occurs during the feeding process.

On regular occasions an adult will be found walking about naked, or nearly so. Depending on the geography and the local custom, this may or may not make headlines. In the hot climates of sub-Sahara Africa the customary dress is scanty, and makes Tarzan appear over-dressed. Nudity is not noticed. On the streets of London, nudity is considered quite quaint, and in the normal course of events the paddy wagon is called to transport the person for psychiatric examination.

Women, in general, seem to take an interest in their wardrobe, certainly more so than men, and the attempt to maintain an attractive appearance has created a demand for fashionable clothes. Many women, when interviewed candidly, confess to a concerted effort to appear "sexy" by consciously wearing clothes that accentuate or conceal the curvature of their body, as the case may be. Many men make a profession of designing clothing for women. Their views are not taken as an interference into the special province of women's affairs.

Other men, not active in the fashion trade, must tread lightly, however, especially if the special interests of women are made reference to. Even the slightest mention of any of the one thousand and one ways that women learn from the earliest age to be attractive, both to men and to other women, may trigger resentment.

Yet honest women confess that their interest in men and marriage leads them to early knowledge of what attracts and arouses men. Success in this is of paramount important for young women seeking to attract a partner with whom to form a family.

There are societies in which the women are covered in black or neutral clothing in an effort to prevent unwanted attention and arousal in males. The irony is that in these societies the males become hyper-sensitised, so that even the slightest deviation form the norm causes intense arousal. Where all women are totally covered in black, the slightest color is enough to trigger heightened interest in males.

There is a poem, perhaps from the Victorian age:

Fish And Fishing