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| It's that time again!!! Welcome to Tudor Trivia Tuesday!!! |
1) The town of Melton Mowbray chose Lord and Ladie of the Whitsuntide-Ale [festival] on Maundy Thursday and made a collection towards the expenses. They also gathered the malt and wheat at around this time for brewing the ale. Accounts for 1563 show:
Itm. Rd Hawe [Holy] Thorsday
at the chosinge of the Lorde and Ladye. xviijs xd"
Itm. at the gatheringe of the malt & whete' . . . . . . .
. . . . xviiis
2) According to a 1551 inventory, William Lawson, of
Newcastle-on Tyne, had in his hall “one yryn chymney, and a poor[poker], with
one paire of tonges,” valued at thirty shillings. This may be the first mention
of the iron chimney, or grate, but it occurs continually after the middle of
the sixteenth century. [History of Domestic Manners]
3) March 25th was the first day of the calendar year,
in England and its dominions, until 1752, when it joined the rest of the western
world in celebrating the New Year on January 1st. Being the New Year
it was the day to pay quarterly rent for the Easter term. George Gascoigne
describes the gift-giving that went along with payment:
And when the tenauntes come to paie
their quarters rent,
They bring some fowle at Midsummer, a
dish of fish in Lent,
At Christmasse a capon, at
Michaelmasse, a goose,
And somewhat else at New Yeares tide for feare their lease flie loose.
4) Buns with crosses stamped upon them, and hence called Cross
Buns, were commonly eaten in London and other places on Good Friday at
breakfast. [Medii Ævi Kalendarium]
5) In accordance with the ancient custom, Henry VII, being
thirty eight years old, gave thirty-eight coins and thirty-eight small purses
to as many poor people, on Maundy Thursday, the king being then in 1494,
thirty-eight years of age.
6) According to Stowe, in the week before Easter there were
great shows in London for going into the woods, and fetching into the King's
house, a twisted tree or Withe; and the like in the house of every man
of consequence.
7) According to Holinshed’s Chronicle, “a Banketting-house
was begun at Westminster, on the South West side of hir Majestie's Palace of Whitehall,”
in preparation for a grand entertainment for French Ambassadors, on March 26, Easter
Day, 1581. It was “made in manner and
forme of a long square, three hundred thirtie and two foot in measure about;
thirtie principals made of great masts, being fortie foot in length apeece,
standing up right; betweene everie one of these masts ten foot asunder and
more. The walles of this house were closed with canvas, and painted all the
outsides of the same most artificiallie with a worke called rustike, much like
to stone. This house had two hundred ninetie and two lights of glass. The sides
within the same house was made with ten heights of degrees for people to stand
upon : and in the top of this house was wrought most cunninglie upon canvas,
works of ivie and hollie, with pendents made of wicker rods, and garnished with
baie, rue, and all manner of strange flowers garnished with spangles of gold,
as also beautified with hanging toseans made of hollie and ivie, with all
manner of strange fruits, as pomegranats, orenges, pompions, cucumbers, grapes,
carrets, with such other like, spangled with gold, and most richlie hanged.
Betwixt these works of baies and ivie, were great spaces of canvas, which was
most cunninglie painted, the cloudes with starres, the sunne and sunne beames,
with diverse other cotes of sundrie sorts belonging to the Queene's Majestie,
most richlie garnished with gold.”
8) Good Friday is generally believed to be derived from the old
German Gute Freytag, which may have been a corruption of Gottes
Freytag, God's Friday.
9) In 1557, the accounts of St Mary’s Parish, Reading, received
the following entry: “Item, payed to the Morrys Daunsers and the Mynstrelles,
mete and drink at Whytsontide, iijs. iiijd”.
10) In Mr. Coates's History of Reading, parish of St.
Laurence, we read:
A.D. 1499. Itm. payed for horse mete to the horses for the
kyngs of Colen on May-day, vid.
A note adds:
This was a part of the pageant called the King-play, or
King-game, which was a representation of the Wise Men's Offering, who are
supposed by the Romish Church to have been kings, and to have been interred at
Cologne.” Then follows. “Itm. payed to mynstrells the same day, xijd.”
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
- Elizabeth I’s Progress to Cambridge University, 1564: The host is notified. March 15, 2021. “We learn from one Matthew Stokys, a beddle for the University, who kept a running record relating to matters of the progress,…”
- Simnel Cake: Lenten Treat of the Ages. March 7, 2021. “Samuel Pegge sees confirmation that saffron was used in the crusts of simnel cakes in Shakespeare's Winter's Tale…”
- Excerpts from Letters about the Origin of the 1563 Plague. January 17, 2021. “on the progress of the conflict between Queen Elizabeth I’s forces and those of the French Regent, the Queen Mother, Catherine de Medici.”
- 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.
- Check out the English Renaissance Letter Index for many letters from this fascinating time, some related to the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
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