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Early modern life

The Cotswold Olympicks
Photo illustration by David Dilworth
Shakespeare and Beyond

The Cotswold Olympicks

Posted
Author
Karen Lyon

The Ancient Greeks may hold the franchise on Olympic wrestling—but how would they have fared against a 17th-century British shin-kicker? Explore the story of the Cotswold Olympicks.

A perfect pairing: A recipe for almond jumballs and a podcast episode on "Recipes for Thought"
Wendy Wall, Recipes for Thought: Knowledge and Taste in the Early Modern Kitchen
Shakespeare and Beyond

A perfect pairing: A recipe for almond jumballs and a podcast episode on "Recipes for Thought"

Posted
Author
Shakespeare & Beyond

Early modern kitchens, food, and recipes offer an intriguing window on the world in which Shakespeare lived. Our new Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episode is a fascinating interview with Wendy Wall, who explores the role of food, kitchens, and other related subjects in…

Ask a Librarian: Summertime in Elizabethan England
Shakespeare and Beyond

Ask a Librarian: Summertime in Elizabethan England

Posted
Author
Karen Lyon

Q: I know about Queen Elizabeth I’s summer progresses, but how did ordinary people spend their summers in Shakespeare’s time? A: For most Elizabethans, summer presented little opportunity for a vacation from regular work routines. There were still farms to tend,…

The Elizabethan Garden: 11 plants Shakespeare would have known well
Elizabethan Garden
Shakespeare and Beyond

The Elizabethan Garden: 11 plants Shakespeare would have known well

Posted
Author
Esther French

The text for this blog post is adapted from an article in the Summer 2009 issue of Folger Magazine. Shakespeare, who grew up in a riverside country town and was the grandchild of prosperous farmers, refers with familiarity to an extraordinary number of plants…

How Queen Elizabeth I spent her summer vacation
Queen Elizabeth I arriving at Nonsuch
Shakespeare and Beyond

How Queen Elizabeth I spent her summer vacation

Posted
Author
Karen Lyon

Part political theater, part theme park extravaganza, the summertime progresses of Queen Elizabeth I helped shape her image and ensure her legacy.

Elizabethan Holidays: Christmas, New Year's Day... and Plough Monday?
Shakespeare and Beyond

Elizabethan Holidays: Christmas, New Year's Day... and Plough Monday?

Posted
Author
Karen Lyon

The Twelve Days of Christmas, from December 25 to January 6, was the longest and most enthusiastically celebrated festival in the Elizabethan calendar. Presiding over the revelries throughout the twelve days was the Lord of Misrule, a clownish figure appointed to organize the entertainments.

Happy Holidays from Elizabethan England
Shakespeare and Beyond

Happy Holidays from Elizabethan England

Posted
Author
Karen Lyon

Some people believe that the Renaissance image of “Merry England,” a land of festivity and mirth, was a myth created during the Stuart reign by people nostalgic for the good old days before the Puritans put the kibosh on fun. But scholar Ronald Hutton, who pored through records of church ales and other gatherings, finds more than a grain of truth in the idea.

The Four Humors: Eating in the Renaissance
The Taming of the Shrew
Shakespeare and Beyond

The Four Humors: Eating in the Renaissance

Posted
Author
Karen Lyon

John Augustus Atkinson. The Taming of the Shrew. Watercolor drawing, late 18th or early 19th century. Folger Shakespeare Library. In The Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio attempts to squelch Katherine’s hot temper by denying her meat, snatching away a roast…

What to eat after a long morning's work in the Star Chamber
Collation

What to eat after a long morning's work in the Star Chamber

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Author
Heather Wolfe

Well, if it’s fish Friday, the menu consisted of… fish! Fish, glorious fish. Thirty or more courses of fish, including oysters, ling, green fish, salt white herring, salt salmon, salmon, great pike, smaller pike, crayfish, roach, great carp, smaller carp, roasting…

Filing, seventeenth-century style
Collation

Filing, seventeenth-century style

Posted
Author
Heather Wolfe

When we think of filing today, we think of digital files and folders, and manilla folders, hanging files, and filing cabinets. But what did filing look like in early modern England? How did people deal with all their receipts and…

Women marking the text
Collation

Women marking the text

Posted
Author
Georgianna Ziegler

“I beegan, to ourloke this Booke . . . .”  These words are written by Lady Anne Clifford on the title page of her copy of John Selden’s Titles of Honor (1631), which is featured in the first case of…

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