Clever Nyppers, The Boar’s Head, Red Lattice Phrases, and more.

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

1) The Worshipful Company of Joiners and Ceilers received its charter from Queen Elizabeth I in 1569.

2) The Clothworkers gave a grand dinner to James I on his inauguration as a Member of that Company, and it is recorded that in the old Hall of the Company the glorious anthem, "God save the King," was first heard; Dr. John Bull having composed it expressly for the ceremony. (1619) [Cheeswright]

3) In 1585, a college for cutpurses was discovered, in London. “In this house was a room to learn young boys to cut purses. Two devices were hung up; one was a pocket, the other was a purse. The pocket had in it certain counters, and was hung round with hawk's bells, and over them hung a little sacring bell. The pocket had silver in it, and he that could take out a counter without any noise was allowed to be a public  foyster; and he that could take a piece of silver out of the purse without noise of any of the bells was adjudged a clever nypper.”

4) A sacring bell was the bell which was rung during mass upon the elevation of the host.

5) The Catholic Father Laurence Vaux lingered in various places of incarceration, in England,for years.  Having no interest in overthrowing the English Queen, his conditions were surprisingly humane.  Vaux was such a mild and venerable old priest that William Cecil, Baron Burghley, intervened in his behalf to save him when he was in danger of gruesome execution for a catechism he had written long before his imprisonment that was reissued from the press without his involvement in 1583.  Having come under suspicion, Vaux was, however, unable any longer to receive the help of friends or charities.  He died in the Clink prison of starvation in 1585.

6) In Shakespeare’s King John, I.i., the Bastard says:

My face so thin,

That in mine ear I durst not stick a rose,

Lest men should say—look, where three farthings goes!

The reference is not to three farthings from the reign of John but from that of Elizabeth I.  She issued an infamously thin three-farthing piece, in 1561, that featured a rose behind her head.

7) Queen Elizabeth I’s silver three-farthing piece was too thin for many hands to handle and was often inadvertently dropped or lost.  For this reason, the coins were unpopular in consequence of which coins of small value began to be minted with copper or copper alloy.  The less valuable metal made for a bigger coin.

8) Sir John Falstaff’s favorite wine, called Sack, was not licensed for sale in England until 1543 thus could not be had from taverns before that year.

9) The earliest known tavern called the “Boar’s Head” was listed in the undated, late-16th century quarto pamphlet Newes from Bartholomew Fayre in which it was located near the London Stone, the then residence, in the city, of the Earls of Oxford.  It has been suggested that, the boar being the heraldic symbol of that family, the sign that gave the tavern its name was a tip of the hat to the Earls of Oxford.

10) In the 16^th century taverns featured painted lattices in lieu of glass windows.  The nature of the clientele did not allow for such a fragile and expensive touch as glass.  Thus Falstaff’s colorful phrase “your red-lattice phrases”, in the Merry Wives of Windsor, meaning phrases spoken through a tavern lattice.

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.