Life in Shakespearean England

1. Life in Shakespearean England

2. Services and Occupations

3. Gaming • 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.

4. Money • 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 • The Coins In Your Pocket • A sovereign is a gold coin worth 1 pound (but try to think of it as 20 shillings). • The angel is one of the most common gold coins in circulation. The angel is worth 10 shillings (1/2 pound).

5. Religion • 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.

6. Betrothal & Weddings • 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.

7. Children & Childhood • 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. • This event, called breeching, is celebrated with a party. The boy is now said to have been breeched.." • 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. • Bastards cannot legally own or inherit property, hold public office, marry, or any number of ordinary things. • 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. . • Rise early in the morning to be holy, healthy, and wealthy. • *Say your morning prayers.

8. 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. • *Chew with your mouth closed. • *In church, kneel, sit, or stand devoutly. Do not cast your eyes about or chatter with women, priests, or clerks.

9. Food • 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. • 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. • 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. • Most food was eaten with the hands. • Beer was the most popular drink.

10. 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.

11. Snack Foods • Marzipan. Almond paste that is sweetened, colored, and made into shapes, often very elaborate ones. • Gingerbread - Both the crisp, cookie kind and the cake. The familiar gingerbread men are called gingerbread husbands. The cake form may be German. • Fruit pies, sweetened with sugar, thickened with almond milk. . • Puddings - This means more than just dessert. • Daryole (cheesecakes) and custards. • Pretzels and bagels are popular . • Sweets are commonly flavored with ginger, nutmeg, mace, cloves, anise, coriander, rose water, sherry (sack), almond and/or saffron

12. 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. . 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.

13. 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. . 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. The stomach is the seat of courage.

14. 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.

15. 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 whipfor disobeying rules. The Seven Liberal Arts This is what a person studied at a university. Grammar Rhetoric Logic Arithmetic Geometry Music Astronomy

16. 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.