" For the true elite, England in the first decade of the seventeenth century was life on satin pillows. It was a culture of repetition, of piling richness on richness, in love with the exotic and with the exotic enriched. It wasn’t enough to have a china bowl; it should be set in a gilded mount. It wasn’t enough to have a wonderful dress; it should be slashed to show the more wonderful material beneath. Every surface was to be alive with decoration and illustration. Embroidery was to overlace richness. Plainness was poverty and unless courtiers looked glorious, they, or what they were seeking, could scarcely be considered. "

― Adam Nicolson , God's Secretaries : The Making of the King James Bible