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Early modern life

Toil and trouble: Recipes and the witches in 'Macbeth'
recipes
Shakespeare and Beyond

Toil and trouble: Recipes and the witches in 'Macbeth'

Posted
Author
David B. Goldstein

Shakespeare’s witches, like nearly all witches of Shakespeare’s time, have their roots in the kitchen more than in the study.

Mince pies and mirth: Transcribed 17th-century recipes
Recipe for mirth from the cookbook of L. Cromwell
Shakespeare and Beyond

Mince pies and mirth: Transcribed 17th-century recipes

Posted
Author
Sarah Powell

Mince pies and a honey-spiced drink called mirth are just two of hundreds of recipes found in a 17th-century handwritten recipe book once owned by Leticia Cromwell.

Collecting the world in seventeenth-century London
Collation

Collecting the world in seventeenth-century London

Posted
Author
Surekha Davies 

Guest post by Surekha Davies  From at least the sixteenth century, overseas artifacts found their way into European princely and scholarly collections. There they were catalogued, analyzed, and displayed alongside natural and artificial curiosities from classical cameos to blowfish. I am…

News, News, News
Collation

News, News, News

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Author
Abbie Weinberg

How do you get your news today? TV? Radio? Printed newspapers? Online news sites? Social media? Today we seem to be inundated by the news 24/7 and it sometimes takes a conscious effort to step away from the barrage. News…

A pumpkin pie recipe from 17th-century England
Pumpkin pie
Shakespeare and Beyond

A pumpkin pie recipe from 17th-century England

Posted
Author
Amanda Herbert

In this pumpkin pie recipe from the late 1600s, you peel and slice the pumpkin into thin wedges, dipping them in egg before frying them. Apples, raisins, currants, and sherry also get added to the pie.

Etiquette in early modern England (part 2)
Folger Shakespeare Library V.a.311
Shakespeare and Beyond

Etiquette in early modern England (part 2)

Posted
Author
Karen Lyon

Books on manners became so popular during the Elizabethan period that it was only a matter of time before someone satirized them.

Etiquette in early modern England (part 1)
Folger Shakespeare Library. ART Vol. c91, no. 8c
Shakespeare and Beyond

Etiquette in early modern England (part 1)

Posted
Author
Karen Lyon

“Manners maketh man” was the motto of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. Would your own table manners pass inspection?

Early modern legal violence: for the common good?
Image of stocks
Collation

Early modern legal violence: for the common good?

Posted
Author
Sarah Higinbotham

A guest post by Dr. Sarah Higinbotham In a 1628 sermon preached before the Assize court at Oxford, Robert Harris reminds the “Sheriffes, Iustices, Iudges” that they have taken “an oath for the common good.” He reminds them that they…

An English Garden: Dancing tunes and lyric poetry in Elizabethan England
Shakespeare and Beyond

An English Garden: Dancing tunes and lyric poetry in Elizabethan England

Posted
Author
Shakespeare & Beyond

As the arts and culture flourished in Shakespeare’s England, musical life blossomed as well.

The rise and fall of sumptuary laws: Rules for dressing in Shakespeare's England
A court costume of the time of James I. Folger Shakespeare Library.
Shakespeare and Beyond

The rise and fall of sumptuary laws: Rules for dressing in Shakespeare's England

Posted
Author
Karen Lyon

In Shakespeare’s England, those wearing clothes adjudged to be above their station were subject to fines or imprisonment under sumptuary laws.

The well-dressed Elizabethan: Renaissance fashions as social markers
English clothing
Shakespeare and Beyond

The well-dressed Elizabethan: Renaissance fashions as social markers

Posted
Author
Karen Lyon

Renaissance fashion was unquestionably distinctive, especially among the upper class, who favored clothing with luxurious fabrics and dramatic silhouettes.

Educating and training a child in the early modern period
Guild chapel and school
Shakespeare and Beyond

Educating and training a child in the early modern period

Posted
Author
Karen Lyon

Education was increasingly important in the early modern period with the rise of social mobility, but children were also put to work around the household.

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