Paris Garden, Shylock’s tax, Frankfort Fair and more.

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 17^th 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.