Indian Maidens, Lopped-Off Hands, Crewel Work and more.

It's that time again!  It's Tudor Trivia Tuesday!

1. In order to prevent other countries from breeding English sheep, famous  for the quality of their wool, the statute 8 Eliz. c. 3. was passed, in 1566, punishing those who exported sheep or lambs alive by the “forfeiture of goods, and imprisonment for a year, and that at the end of the year the left hand shall be cut off in some public market, and shall be there nailed up in the openest place”.  A second offense was adjudged a felony.

2. According to Strutt, the oldest known mention of the game Cricket ‘goes back to the time of Edward VI. In the "Constitution Book" of Guildford, there is record of a dispute of the year 1598 as to the enclosure of an acre of common land near the town. John Derrick, a county coroner, deposed that he knew it fifty years ago or more when it lay waste. " When he was a scholler in the free school of Guildeford he and severell of his fellowes did run and play there at crickett and other plaies."’

3. "If the Chameleon at any time see a serpent taking the air, and sunning himself under some green tree, he climbeth up into that tree, and settleth himself directly over the serpent, then out of his mouth he casteth a thread like a spider, at the end whereof hangeth a drop of poison as bright as any pearl, which lighting upon the serpent killeth it immediately."  Topsell, History of Serpents (1608).

4.  According to Strutt, the fox's skin was, in hunting language, his “case”.

“Though my case be a pitiful one, I hope I shall not be flayed out of it.”

(Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 844).

5. Portugal found itself with a vast empire, from the beginning of the 16^th century, and a small, relatively fixed population. This required various shifts to man the Army, Navy and colonial governments.  “General Albuquerque,” in the colonies of India, “in order to breed up soldiers,… got the Indian maids made Christians, and married them to Portuguese, that they might not always stand in need of fresh supplies of men from Portugal.” Origin of Commerce (1787).

6.  In the year 1560, one pound of English silver money was equal to five Scottish pounds.  By 1601, it was worth twelve Scottish pounds.

7. According to “The Inventorie of the Implements and Houshold Stuffe, Goodes & Cattelles, of Sir Henrye Parkers, Knight,” circa 1560, “A Lytle stoole covered withe Nedle worcke checkerid [with] white, blewe & tawnye cruell” was valued at 16 pence.

Was Shakespeare Gay?  What Do the Sonnets Really Say?

8. The great didact Roger Ascham was particularly fond of roasted chestnuts.

9.  The medieval Latin name of the city of Strasbourg was “Argentina”.  Tudor texts and correspondence in Latin still refer to it by that name.

10. From the travel diary of Fynes Moryson we learn that “In this Countrey of Styria, many men and weomen have great wens hanging downe their throats, by drinking the waters that run through the mines of mettals.”  In fact, this almost certainly refers to goiter.  Goiter is usually caused by a lack of iodine in the diet and has become relatively rare since modern salt has been “iodized” in order to supply a sufficient quantity of the mineral in the human diet.

Also at Virtual Grub Street:

• Lady Southwell on the Final Days of Queen Elizabeth I.  March 24, 2019.  “her majesty told [Lady Scrope] (commanding her to conceal the same ) that she saw, one night, in her bed, her body exceeding lean, and fearful in a light of fire.”
• Shakespeare’s Barnacles.  March 3, 2019.  “Prospero will wake, he fears, before they can murder him, and will cast a spell on them.”
• Hedingham Castle 1485-1562 with Virtual Tour Link.  January 29, 2019. “Mr. Sheffeld told me that afore the old Erle of Oxford tyme, that cam yn with King Henry the vii., the Castelle of Hengham was yn much ruine,…”
• Shakespeare on Gravity. August 26, 2018. “So carelessly does Shakespeare throw out such an extraordinary divination. His achievement in thus, as it were, rivalling Newton may seem in a certain sense even more extraordinary than Goethe's botanical and osteological discoveries;…”
• Stratford Shakespeare’s Undersized Grave.  July 22, 2018.  “Mr. Coll’s considers this evidence to support an old rumor that Shakspere’s head had been stolen in 1794.  But I submit that he is merely making his observation based upon a coincidence.”
• Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.