Pot Luck, Beggars’ Cant, the Queen’s Carcase and more.

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

1) In sixteenth century wardrobe inventories, body vestments and sleeves were listed as separate items, as the rule, indicating that sleeves were generally detachable.  The base garment, then, could be worn with or without sleeves as preferred.

2) We learn from Harrison’s Description of England that farmers banquets were generally pot-luck “ech one bringing such a dish, or so manie, as his wife & he doo consult vpon, but alwaies with this consideration, that the leefer freend shall haue the better prouision. This also is commonlie seene at these bankets, that the good man of the house is not charged with any thing sauing bread, drink, [sauce,] house roome and fire.”

3) Long before houses were assigned sequential numbers for postal purposes prisoners in the Fleet used to direct their letters "9 Fleet Market," because a large “9” was inset within the tracery of the wrought iron over the Prison Gate.

4) The 1557 Will of Robert Goodchild, parish clerk of St. Andrew's, in Newcastle, valued his “little pestle and mortar” at 2s.

5) The Italian visitor Francesco Capello was shocked to discover, during his 1502 tour of the country, that after the age of 7-9 the English put their children out “both males and females, to hard service in the houses of other people, binding them generally for another 7 or 9 years.”  He considered it proof of a lack of affection.

6) According to Frederick, Duke of  Wirtemburg, who visited England in 1592, “Sheep-shearing takes place only once, viz. in the month of June; the heaviest wethers weigh sixty pounds, others from forty to fifty pounds; they bear at the most no more than six, others four to five pounds of wool; one of the best wethers (notwithstanding that they are very abundant) sells for about twenty shillings, that is, ten French francs or five thalers; the inferior sort about ten shillings, or five francs; and the worst about six or eight English shillings.”

7) We are informed by Master Estienne Perlin (Description d’Angleterre, 1558) that “They consume great quantities of beer double and single [i.e. strong and small], and do not drink it out of glasses, but from earthen pots with silver handles and covers, and this even in houses of persons of middling fortune; for as to the poor, the covers of their pots are merely of pewter, and in some places, such as villages, their beer pots are made only of wood. With their beer they have a custom of eating very soft saffron cakes, in which there are likewise raisins, which give an excellent relish to the beer…”

8) Of professional beggars  we learn from Harrison’s Description of England that “in counterfeiting the Egyptian roges [Gypsies], they haue deuised a language among themselues, which they name ‘ Canting,’ but other[s] ‘pedlers French,’ a speach compact thirtie yeares since, of English, and a great number of od words of their owne deuising, without all order or reason: and yet such is it as none but themselues are able to vnderstand.”

9) In Antony and Cleopatra, V.ii.105-7, Shakespeare wrote of the dead Antony:

For his Bounty,

There was no winter in't. An Anthony it was,

That grew the more by reaping

The strange, seemingly inexplicable use of Antony’s name is actually a stunning metaphor on the Classical Greek ΄Ανθóνομος [Anthonomos], a flowering, that which nourishes flowers.

10) In his anger at the Queen, whose favor he had lost, the Earl of Essex is reputed to have said “that she grew old and canker'd, and that her mind was become as crooked as her carcase”.  This was reputed by Sir Walter Raleigh who claimed that the comment had reached the ears of the Queen and assured that he would receive no pardon from his execution for treason.

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.