Life in Shakespearean
England
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Services and Occupations
You get...
From the...
Books
Stationer
Cloth
Mercer
Hats
Milliner or Hatter
Suit of Clothes
Tailor
Shirts/Smocks
Seamstress
Arrows
Fletcher
Bows
Bowyer
Horseshoes
Farrier
Other iron work
Blacksmith
A Portrait
Limner
Legal Service
Lawyer
Drugs etc.
Apothecary
Dentistry
Barber Surgeon
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Gaming
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Card games and dice games
were popular and played at
local taverns.
A game called Tables was also
popular . It was much like
backgammon.
Bear baiting involved tying a
bear to a tree or pole and then
allowing the village dogs to
attack it.
Executions were considered
sporting events . They were
held in the open. Criminals were
hanged: then pulled down and
had their intestines cut out.
They were then beheaded.
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Money
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All coins are silver or gold, including the pennies.
There is no paper money..
The basic denominations are pounds, shillings, and pence.
– 12 pence make a shilling
– 20 shillings make a pound
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The Coins In Your Pocket
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A sovereign is a gold coin worth 1 pound (but try to think of it as 20
shillings).
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The angel is one of the most common gold coins in circulation. The
angel is worth 10 shillings (1/2 pound).
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Religion
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The official religion of England is the Church of England. This means that
the people were Protestants. These people were called Anglicans.
Being a Roman Catholic was not a crime but the authorities made it
difficult for Catholics to practice their religion. Priests were not allowed to
preside over Catholic services, for example. In 1570 the Pope decreed that
it would not be a sin to assassinate Queen Elizabeth because she was a
Protestant ruler.
Everyone was required to attend an Anglican prayer service once a month
or pay a fine of approximately 12 pence.
People used their faith to explain much of what they did not understand in
the world.
Anyone who disagreed with your religious beliefs or your God was called
an atheist.
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Betrothal & Weddings
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A betrothal is an engagement to be
married. Both people joined hands
and the prospective groom placed a
ring on the woman’s right hand. It was
moved to the left hand at the actual
wedding.
The contract was sealed with a kiss.
It was luckiest to have the wedding
before noon.
Bridesmaids made the floral
decorations for the guests and the
garland that the bride carried during
the ceremony. After the ceremony she
wore the garland in her hair.
The average age of marriage was 27
for men and 24 for women, but girls
could legally marry at 12 years of age.
The men’s family was required to pay
money to the girl’s family before the
wedding. This money would be used
by the girl’s family to help support her
in the event of the husband’s death.
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Children & Childhood
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A little boy is dressed in skirts, pretty much like his sisters,
until the age of six or seven, when he got his first pair of
breeches or breech hose.
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This event, called breeching, is celebrated with a party. The
boy is now said to have been breeched.."
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Infants are wrapped in swaddling bands for the first 6 to 12
months. It was considered unhealthy to give them the free
use of their limbs.
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Bastards cannot legally own or inherit property, hold public
office, marry, or any number of ordinary things.
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Hugh Rhodes's Book of Nurture (1577) provides lessons in
the behavior expected from children and, presumably, from
properly brought up adults.
Reverence thy father and mother as Nature requires. .
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– Rise early in the morning to be holy, healthy, and wealthy.
– *Say your morning prayers.
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Children & Childhood Part 2
– At dinner, press not thyself too high; sit in the place appointed thee.
– Sup not loud of thy pottage.
– Dip not thy meat in the saltcellar, but take it with a knife.
– Belch near no man's face with a corrupt fumosity.
– Eat small morsels of meat; eat softly, and drink mannerly.
– Corrupt not thy lips with eating, as a pig doth.
– Scratch not thy head with thy fingers, nor spit you over the table.
– If your teeth be putrefied, it is not right to touch meat that others eat.
– Wipe thy mouth when thou shalt drink ale or wine on thy napkin only,
not on the table cloth.
– Blow not your nose in the napkin where ye wipe your hand.
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Food
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The Elizabethans knew very little of healthy eating.
The better off classes ate huge amounts of meat but
few fruits or vegetables. This made them suffer from
scurvy which is a deficiency of Vitamin C. Tomatoes
were considered to be poisonous.
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Poorer people relied on the rabbits and pigeons they
could catch.
The main source of food was bread. The wealthy
could afford white bread while the poor bought brown
bread baked brown barley or rye.
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Since it was not easy to keep animals over the winter,
most had to be slaughtered in the autumn and the
meat preserved by slating or smoking. Canning and
refrigeration were unheard of.
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Most food was eaten with the hands.
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Beer was the most popular drink.
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Food
Elizabethan cookery is generally sweeter than today's; meats
are often cooked with fruits, producing a mix of sweet and
savory.
Chocolate has not yet come in, except for medicinal
purposes. The Swiss have not yet added milk and sugar to it
(and neither has anyone else). If you have ever tasted
chocolate (which is very doubtful) it was a thin and bitter
drink.
Almond is the most common flavoring in sweets, followed by
cinnamon, clove, and saunders (sandalwood).
Coffee and, not in use in Europe, except medicinally, and
even then are very, very rare.
Sugar is available, but is rather more expensive than honey,
since it has to be imported. Grown as sugar cane, it comes
as a 3- or 4-pound square or conical loaf, and has to be
grated or pounded into useful form.
Woman forced to
wear a gossip’s
girdle as
punishment.
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Snack Foods
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Marzipan. Almond paste that is sweetened, colored, and made into shapes,
often very elaborate ones.
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Gingerbread - Both the crisp, cookie kind and the cake. The familiar
gingerbread men are called gingerbread husbands. The cake form may be
German.
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Fruit pies, sweetened with sugar, thickened with almond milk. .
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Puddings - This means more than just dessert.
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Daryole (cheesecakes) and custards.
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Pretzels and bagels are popular
Sweets are commonly flavored with ginger, nutmeg, mace, cloves, anise,
coriander, rose water, sherry (sack), almond and/or saffron
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Titles and Forms of Address
Sir goes only with a given name. To address a knight
using only his surname, say Master (see examples
below).
Lord implies a peerage (baron or better). Not every knight
is a lord; not every lord is a knight. It is best not to say My
Lord to anyone not so entitled.
Peers sign their names and refer to themselves and each
other by their territorial titles, such as "Henry
Southampton", "Francis Bedford", or "Thomas Rutland."
Every woman married to a knight or better can be called
my lady.
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Only the eldest son of an earl is called lord (because he
takes his father's secondary title and is one, by courtesy)
though all an earl's daughters are styled lady. They retain
this courtesy even if they marry a commoner.
Your Grace belongs properly only to royal blood: the
queen, dukes, and visiting princesses. It does not apply to
Earls or Countesses in the 16th century.
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Science and Health
Everything in the world is composed of four elements:
Earth, Air, Fire and Water
In the human body, the humours are the natural bodily fluids.
They correspond to the elements and have various qualities: cold, dry, hot, and
moist.
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Doctors bleed their patients to restore this balance of fluids.
Bleeding is performed with a lancet and a bowl, not with leeches (ick). In fact,
leeching is a separate type of operation.
Blood is usually drawn from the arm or the foot.
Someone with a natural abundance of choler (yellow bile) is said to be choleric, or
naturally angry and quick-tempered.
The liver, not the heart, is considered the source of the emotions, although the
heart is the source of love.
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The stomach is the seat of courage.
Honor & Dueling
Calling someone a liar, or otherwise
impugning his honor, his courage, or
his name is a challenge in itself.
Dueling is illegal, so you take the
fight out of the way, and sometimes
out of the country (any war-zone will
do)
If you are angry enough, you may
not wait for a duel, or even for a fair
fight. One (or some) of your men
may lie in ambush. People get killed
this way all the time.
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Classical Education
The ability to read and write was not as widespread as today. Rich children were
often sent to boarding schools to study music and Latin, but most were taught at
home by tutors.
Riding, shooting and hawking (catching birds) were important skills which had to
be mastered to become a gentlemen.
Other children often attended a parish school associated
with a local church. Most schools charged fees.
Few girls attended school.
Much of the schoolwork consisted of memorizing Bible
passages. Students were beaten with a birch whip for
disobeying rules.
The Seven Liberal Arts This is what a
person studied at a university.
Grammar
Rhetoric
Logic
Arithmetic
Geometry
Music
Astronomy
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Keeping Christmas
The Christmas season or Christmastide ran the twelve days from 24
December to 6 January; that is, Christmas Eve to Epiphany or
Twelfth Day. The evening of that day is called Twelfth Night, and is
the last party of the season.
Hospitality is the rule. All who can do so furnish their tables with all
the meats,, pies, custards, and so on that they can afford, and
more.
Gifts are given at New Year's, not on Christmas day.] Although the
official year starts in March, the midwinter custom is too entrenched
to change.
The decorations about any house include holly, ivy, box, yew, bay,
laurel, holm oak, and in fact, anything still green.
Entertainments in the season include mummer's plays of various
kinds, often incorporating music and morris dancing (also performed
at May Day). The story of St George and the Dragon is especially
popular.
Food. The most popular Christmas dinner is brawn (roast pork) with
mustard or roast beef. Also popular are mince pies, frumenty, plum
porridge, and a Christmas pie of neat's tongue, eggs, sugar, lemon
& orange peel, spices
Communal Activities. In many homes, they play Flapdragon or
Snapdragon. You take turns picking raisins out of a dish of flaming
brandy and popping them into your mouth. Try not to get burnt!
Wager on each person's chances of success.
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