Shakespeare on Bowling, a Beautiful Turkish Lady, and more.

It's Trivia Tuesday! Or in this case Thursday!
Life happens.  Sorry I'm late.

1) On August 25, 1592, Frederick Duke of Wirtemberg, spent the day at Uxbridge, “a beautiful large market town,” where, as one of the highlights, he was shown a sheep with five legs.

2) By the statutes 24 Hen. VIII. c. 10, and 8 Eliz. c. 15 bounties were established to protect the farmer from loss through the depredations of crows, rooks and various sorts of vermin; the damage done to grain is specially mentioned, and the church-wardens were required to assess the farmers and spend the money raised in giving rewards for the heads and eggs of the birds which did most damage to the crops.  Growth of English Industry.

3) “about the same time [10 Elizabeth, 1568], nay even before, they began to wear buckles in their shoes; the gentlemen wore them either of silver, or copper gilt, whilst the common people wore them of copper only: but shoe roses, either of silk or stuff, were not then used, or even known;…” Strutt.

4) The Tudor bowling ball was more like a modern bocce ball.  At some point, the rules evolved to allow a player to use more than one ball, some of different shapes.   We are informed by Strutt that 'when the ball ceased to be spherical and assumed a flattened shape, a kind of impetus termed "bias" [spin] was given to cause it to run obliquely.' This is the meaning of an image in Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew:

Well, forward, forward! thus the bowl should run,

And not unluckily against the bias.

5) As the Court of Queen Mary’s agent at Antwerp, arranging loans and transacting its bills of exchange, purchasing ammunition, artillery, etc., Thomas Gresham received a daily allowance of twenty shillings sterling.

6) In late 16^th century England porpoises were commonly called “sea-hogs”.

7) Among the artworks noted  by the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, at Somerset House (the Queen’s Palace),  during his 1613 visit to the English Royal Court was an oil painting of “A beautiful Turkish lady”.  Some 150 years later, it was to be found among the Royal collection at Kensington Palace under the title of “Queen Elizabeth in a Fancy Dress”.  It is the mystery behind this portrait that I solve in my book Is this a Pregnant Queen Elizabeth I?  This a poem by Edward de Vere?

8) In [the ambassador from Scotland] Sir James Melville’s Memoirs, under the year 1564, he says of Queen Elizabeth, “Sche spak to me in Dutche, bot it was not gud.”  By “Dutche” he meant Deutsche [i.e. German].

9)  Of the English language fluency of the Spanish Count Gondomar we  are told ‘ Gondomar could tell a merry tale, could read Will Shakespeare's plays, of which he possessed a “first folio,…”.’

10) Paolo Giovio (Jovius), in his “Descriptio Britanniae,” 1548, says: “The English are commonly destitute of good breeding, and are despisers of Foreigners, since they esteem him a wretched being and but half a man (semihominem) who may be born elsewhere than in Britain, and far more miserable him whose fate it should be to leave his breath and his bones in a foreign land.”  England as Seen by Foreigners.

Also at Virtual Grub Street:

• A Most Curious Account of the Funeral of Queen Elizabeth I: April 28, 1603.  April 28, 2019.  “Once it was clear that James I would face no serious challenges, Cecil and the others could begin to give attention to the matter of the Queen’s funeral.”
• 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,…”
• The Battle Over Shakespeare's Early and Late Plays.September 24, 2018. “The answers to the post-Oxford dilemma, of course, are three.”
• 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.