Hobby Horses, a Rhinoceros, Fewmets and more!

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

1) Having been informed by his English acquaintances of Henry VIII’s break with the Catholic church, Nicandor Nucius informs us that “it is said, that he did these things by the advice of his consort, for she happened to be stored with general learning, and those sciences common to us, and subtle in arguing;...” [45]

2) Fynes Moryson, describing the natural commodities of the Irish, says :—

Their horses, called hobbies, are much commended for their ambling pace and beuty : but Ireland yeelds few good horses for service in war, and the said hobbies are much inferior to our geldings in strength to endure long journies, and being bred in the fenny soft ground of Ireland, are soone lamed when they are brought into England. (Itinerary, 1617, part iii. p. 160.)

3) A rhinoceros was sent from India, to Emmanuel, King of Portugal, in the year 1513.  He sent it to the pope as a gift, but the animal panicked during the passage and thrash wildly about sinking the vessel  in which it was being transported.

4) Shakespeare was not the only writer of his time to include knowledgeable references to hunting and other sport in his works.   Ben Jonson has many hunting allusions. In The Sad Shepherd (i. 1), for just one example, occurs the following:—

                                             A hart of ten

I trow he be, madam, or blame your men ,

For by his slot, his entries, and his port,

His frayings, fewmets, he doth promise sport,

And standing 'fore the dogs : he bears a head

Large and well beamed, with all rights summed and spread."

The slot of a deer is the print of his feet in the ground; entries are places through which the deer has lately passed, which indicate his size; frayings are the peelings of the horns. [World Wide Words: Fewmets — also called fewmishings — are the excrement or droppings of an animal hunted for game, especially the hart, an adult male deer.]

5) The first llama brought to Europe was landed at Middleburgh, in 1558, and sent as a present to the German Emperor.

6) According to Gerard's Herbal, “Woodroffe, asperula” was put into wine to make a man merry, and to benefit the heart and liver.

7) The 25th of July was dedicated to St. Christopher, whose picture, according to Erasmus, was vulgarly believed to have the power of preserving its owner from a violent death.  Soldiers are said to have drawn his likeness on their tents.

8) The following list of wages and occasional gifts to minstrels, poets, and glee-women, is selected from the “Privy Purse Expenses of Henry the Seventh,” in the Excerpta Historica, where are many others, proving that this monarch had so much literary and musical taste, as to overcome the fondness for money with which he is charged:

Sept. 5 (1493), To the young damoyselle that daunceth, £80.

Mar. 2 (1494), To the king's piper for a rewarde, 6s. 8d.

May 3 (1495), To nine trumpettes, for their wages, £18.

To four shakbusshes for their wages, £7.

To three string mynstrels for their wags, £5.

Nov. 3 (1495), To a woman that singeth with a fidell, 2s.

Sep.20(1496), To the blynde poet in rewarde, £20.

Jan. 7 (1497), To two new grete gestes, £1. 13s. 4d.

To a litelle mayden that daunceth, £12.

Feb. 4 (1498), To my lorde prince poete, £3 6s. 8d.

Feb. 28 (1499), To master Bernerde the blynde poete, £6 13s. 4d.

9) In the reign of Elizabeth I, “stage players,” who were not servants of a nobleman, “were declared to be Rogues and Vagabonds by the three Estates of England met in Parliament, and ordered to be sent to the House of Correction to be imprisoned, set on the Stocks, and whip'd, and if they continued to Play notwithstanding, that they should be burnt with an Hot Iron of the breadth of an English Shilling with a great Roman R in the left shoulder which should there remain as a perpetual mark of a Rogue. If they continued obstinate they were to be Banished, and if they return'd again, and continued incorrigible they were to be executed as felons.”

10) In the reign of Mary, and the beginning of queen Elizabeth’s, all the apprentices in London wore blue cloaks in the summer, and in the winter blue gowns.

Many of these facts are taken all or in part from the Medii Aevi Kalendarium, Angel-Cynnan, Annals of the Liverpool Stage and The Animal-lore of Shakespeare's Time.

Also at Virtual Grub Street:

• Why the Wait for Halloween Seems to Last 7000 Years. October 21, 2019. “The accounts written in the monasteries beginning in the late 7th century are a fascinating resource telling us as much about the scribes as the  purported events they wrote about.”
• Malvolio’s Crow's Feet and “the new Mappe”. October 14, 2019. “Percy Allen’s candidate is not mentioned by any of these parties. The traditionalists, of course, could not consider it possible because it would suggest far too early a date for the play.”
• The Secret Correspondence of Robert Cecil and James I. August 25, 2019.  “As he was planning an armed attempt to “secure the person of the Queen,” after having returned from the country, in disgrace, and to force her to dismiss ministers who did not satisfy him, he was waiting for a return letter from King James VI of Scotland.”
• What Color Were Shakespeare’s Potatoes? July 27, 2019. “By the year 1599-1600, when Shakespeare’s play would seem to have been written, the potato was available in London.  It was considered a delectable treat and an aphrodisiac.”
• 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.”
• Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.