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| It's that time again!!! Welcome to Tudor Trivia Tuesday!!! |
1) The first English printer, William Caxton, began his
working life as an apprentice in the Mercer’s Guild.
2) In the Diary of John Dee we learn that: “1583.
Jan. 13th, on Sonday the stage at Paris Garden fell down all at ones, being
full of people beholding the bearbayting. Many being killed thereby, more hart,
and all amased. The godly expownd it as a due plage of God for the wickednes
ther usid, and the Sabath day so profanely spent.”
3) Prior to the 17th century, travelers to Europe
and elsewhere often deposited money with a merchant/broker to be forfeited if the
traveler did not return by a certain date.
The date chosen was well beyond the expected date of return and meant
the traveler was likely dead. An
agreement was drawn up between them, and, if the traveler did return before the
date, he would receive three or more times the original amount depending upon
how risky the market in these transactions had considered the trip to be.
4) The
character Puntarvolo, from Ben Jonson’s Everyman Out of His Humour refers
to this custom.
Punt. I do intend, this year of
jubilee coming
on, to travel: and because I will not
altogether
go upon expense, I am determined to put
forth
some five thousand pound, to be paid me
five
for one, upon the return of myself, my
wife,
and my dog from the Turk's court in
Constantinople.
By the time the play was written, however, travel was much
safer and the practice was dying out.
5) In Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, Shylock cries
out:
Why there, there, there, there, a
diamond gone cost me two thousand ducats in Franckford,…
The Frankfort Fair was the equal of any in Europe during the
Tudor era. It was held twice a year, in
the spring and autumn. Jewish merchants traveled
through the Alpine passes to it from Venice.
6) Shylock would have paid just a bit more for his diamond
than he mentions. Every Jewish traveler
in Frankfort after nightfall had to pay a tax called the “Night Tax” (Nachtgeld).
7) English merchants going to the Frankfort Fair were
pressed into service as postmen. They
went laden with many letters, each way, to and from English merchants and
intellectuals residing in Germany. Many
letters surviving from that time contain one or another variation on the the
line “I received your letter from the Frankfort Fair.” See more on the fair in my essay “ShakespeareAuthorship, March the 17th and Social Media”.
8) Upon the death of the longtime English Royal overseas agent,
Christopher Mont, the German Johannes Sturmius, of Strasbourg, offered to serve
in his place. William Cecil, First
Secretary to the English Queen, accepted his offer in a letter of Sept. 15,
1572.
9) In 1422, the last year of the reign of King Henry V,
Parliament passed an act extending the term of sheriffs from one year to four because
of the reduction of qualified candidates due to pestilence and the French Wars.
10) In the County of
Norfolk, in the year 1519, a yard of lace could be purchased for 4d.
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
- The Fascinating Itinerary of the Gelosi Troupe, 1576. June 10, 2019. “The Spanish soldiers had not been paid and unpaid soldiers tend to rob and loot. The citizens were prepared to give them a fight. Violent flare ups were occurring everywhere.”
- A Thousand Years of English Terms. June 2, 2019. ‘One person did not say to another, “Meet you at three o’clock”. There was no clock to be o’. But the church bell rang the hour of Nones and you arranged to meet “upon the Nones bell”.’
- 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.”
- 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.
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