Shakespeare’s England

They should kiss the Devil's buttocks

2012-02-01T16:51:00.000Z

Today's post comes from a contemporaneous account of the North Berwick Witch Trials, which took place in Scotland in 1591-2. The case was an overnight sensation since it featured the attempted murder of King James VI (later James I of England) by witchcraft. Agnis Sampson, which was the elder Witch, was taken and brought to Haliriud house before the Kings Maiestie and sundry other of the

Vill you not stay in my bosom tonight, love?

2012-01-13T16:56:00.003Z

This week I've been reading several of the rather numerous Shakespeare biographies cluttering up my bookshelves, and I was intrigued to stumble upon a reference to what was almost certainly the most famous brothel in seventeenth century England. Information about it is relatively sparse, but I've managed to glean a few details from here and there, enough, I hope, to at least get a sense of the

For keeping two white bears

2012-01-04T19:21:00.002Z

While reading Ian Donaldson's splendid new biography of Ben Jonson, Ben Jonson: A Life (OUP, 2011), I was fascinated to note his reference to two potential white polar bears on Bankside supposedly brought back from the Arctic by Jonas Poole in 1609. Donaldson cites an article by Tessa Grant (1) in which Grant poses the view that these bears could perhaps have been used on the London stage. While

What with the flying Birds and skipping Frogs

2011-12-21T13:44:00.000Z

Today's post explores a fancy 17th Century Christmas banquet as described by the author of a popular cook book. Before describing the requisite festive courses deemed appropriate for impressing guests, he provides detailed instructions on how to make a truly baffling centrepiece, complete with gunpowder, live frogs, and a marzipan-esque castle. Make the likeness of a Ship in Paste board [a

How Gray-Hairs are dyed Black

2011-12-14T15:16:00.000Z

These beauty tips come from a 17th Century book of magic. With advice on everything from removing pimples to making fake tan, what follows are some of the more intriguing suggestions, demonstrating that women in 17th Century London were just as preoccupied with grey hairs and wrinkles as their modern-day counterparts. How to correct the ill sent of the Arm-pits. The stink of the Arm-holes

The Gin Lane Gazette

2011-12-12T15:15:00.000Z

Today, Adrian Teal shares details of his forthcoming book. The GIN LANE GAZETTE By Adrian Teal In around 1800, a horrible old lecher called the Duke of Queensbury was obsessed with prolonging his youth and virility. Somehow or other, he got the idea into his head that sleeping with veal chops on his cheeks (which he fed to his dogs in the morning) and taking lengthy milk baths would do the

Delightfully worried to death by dogs

2011-12-09T16:22:00.000Z

Today's post comes from guest blogger Simon Leake, who explores the curious and often over-looked early modern bloodsport of Horse Baiting. There are many surviving eyewitness reports of bull and bear-baiting throughout England from the Middle Ages to the early 19th Century. The baiting of horses however seems to have been much less frequent, or less frequently described. Joseph Strutt, in

Blanket Fair

2011-12-09T14:25:00.003Z

This woodcut depicts a Blanket Fair on the frozen Thames in 1684. The detail is really lovely. Download the image to explore. The ballad which follows describes the Blanket Fair itself: BLANKET-FAIR, OR THE History of Temple Street. Being a Relation of the merry Pranks plaid on the River Thames during the great Frost. To the Tune of Packington's Pound. Come listen a while (though the Weather

Far out of frame this Midsummer moone

2011-12-07T19:41:00.001Z

Arabella Stuart These fragments form an overview of the life of Arabella Stuart, cousin to James I, and niece to Mary, queen of Scots. An illegal marriage, followed by an attempted escape to France in men's clothing, and finally committal to the Tower of London where she subsequently starved to death, Arabella Stuart's life makes for intriguing reading. Arabella Stuart was the daughter of

Witches are hanged, or sometimes burned

2011-11-20T14:05:00.001Z

These fragments come from William Harrison's A Description of Elizabethan England (1577), and form an intriguing survey of Elizabethan crime and punishment. The images are taken from a 17th Century collection of prints (right click and open in a new tab for larger image). In cases of felony, manslaughter, robbery, murder, rape, piracy, and such capital crimes as are not reputed for treason or

If I must die, I will encounter darkness as a bride

2011-11-09T13:53:00.000Z

Measure For Measure - Review The Rose theatre on Bankside is a simple construction which houses the archaeological remains of the first theatre built on Bankside (c.1586-7). Not the easiest of places then to stage a Shakespeare production. The Rose has no auditorium, just a smallish viewing platform constructed above the theatre's foundations. This serves as the stage, with the audience

It were good for her to walke up and down the chamber

2011-10-29T16:28:00.000+01:00

These fragments come from an early 17th Century manual on childbirth written by a surgeon to the French King. It contains all manner of advice on delivering babies, breastfeeding, wet nurses and infant diseases. The following is advice to midwives on caring for a woman expecting a normal uncomplicated delivery. What must bee observed, when the woman feeles her selfe, neare her time The time of

A Bridge Too Far

2011-10-27T18:48:00.004+01:00

With the imminent release of Roland Emmerich's film Anonymous, which seeks to demonstrate that the real author of Shakespeare's plays was none other than the Earl of Oxford, academics on both sides of the pond are getting increasingly hot and bothered. Debates about the authorship of Shakespeare's plays have raged online for weeks, and most of the major newspapers appear to have written at

11 Blows On His Buttocks

2011-10-20T14:03:00.001+01:00

17th Century Printing Press These fragments come from a contemporaneous description of the methods and customs of a 17th Century Printing House. One shilling was worth about £4, a crown was 5 shillings, and a penny about 35p. Persons Instrumental about Printing The Master Printer who is the Soul of Printing; all other workmen about it are as Members of the Body. The Letter Cutter, the

Disfigure that peacock

2011-10-10T16:41:00.002+01:00

The Cook - Bernardo Strozzi (c.1620) I stumbled upon these rather charming 17th Century cooking terms today. To Carve is to Cut up a Dish of Meat, but according to the Meats, use these Terms for their Carving: Break that Deer. Leach that Brawn. Unlace that Coney. Chine that Salmon. String that Lamprey. Splat that Pike. Sauce that Plaice and Tench. Splay that Bream. Side that Haddock.

Nickum-poop - A fool, a silly sort

2011-10-01T17:40:00.001+01:00

Reading the Dictionary of the Canting Crew is one of my secret pleasures, since it demonstrates beautifully just how many aspects of the English language are almost unchanged from the 16th and 17th centuries. Cant, for anyone unfamiliar with the term, is a form of slang which developed in the late 16th Century between rogues, beggars and thieves. These snippets (published in 1699) reveal that

A woman given to looseness and lewdness of life

2011-09-26T14:05:00.001+01:00

These snippets come from an early 17th Century account of a murder allegedly committed in London by a wife and brothel owner. Margaret Ferne-seede, a woman given to all the loosenesse & lewdnesse of life, which either unlawfull lust, or abhominable prostitution could violently cast uppon her, with the greatest infamie, yea, and with such a publique and unrespective unchastitie, that neither

Do not glare upon thy snot

2011-09-16T13:20:00.003+01:00

The following extracts come from a book of manners, written by the Italian Giovanni Della Casa. This edition was published in English in 1576. I've standardised the spelling since the text would otherwise prove rather difficult to read. When thou hast blown thy nose, use not to open thy handkerchief, to glare upon thy snot, as if you had pearls and Rubies fallen from thy brains. A man must

The yeare hath 33 evil dayes

2011-09-07T14:45:00.000+01:00

Today's post comprises some rather entertaining snippets on predicting the weather, and a list of the 33 evil days to avoid each and every year, taken from a book on Rules to Judge The Weather (1605), How to Judge of weather by the Sunne rising or going downe: The Sunne in the Horizon or rising, cleare and bright, sheweth a pleasant day: but thinly overcast with a clowd, betokeneth foule

‘I’ll go to the Bull or Fortune, and there see a play for two pence’

2011-08-29T15:11:00.000+01:00