Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - Life and death, p.122v.

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Date:1581

Description:Death in everyday life in Shakespeare's time.

Life and death went hand-in-hand everywhere in Shakespeare’s England, where medical knowledge was very limited, and most illness depended on traditional herbal remedies for treatment. Many children died young, and everyone was encouraged by the Church to lead a disciplined, prayerful life at home, as well as on Sundays when normal work rested for the day. This popular book of prayers is ornamented throughout with reminders that death was always just behind the shoulder of young and old alike, as the woodcuts to the left of this page show.

Full title: Richard Day, A Booke of Christian Prayers collected out of the auncient writers and best learned in our tyme, worthy to be read with earnest mynde of all Christians in these daungerous and troublesome dayes', London, John Daye, 1581.


Timeline

The timeline shows resources around this location over a number of years.

1570s
Henri Estienne, A mervaylous discourse upon... Katherine de Medici…, 1575 - title page
Henri Estienne, A mervaylous discourse upon... Katherine de Medici…, 1575 - title page

Shakespeare may have owned this book. Shakespeare purchased New Place, the largest ...

1590s
William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis, 1594, leaf F4v.
William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis, 1594, leaf F4v.

Shakespeare’s first published works. The long poem, Venus and Adonis, was ...

1610s
George Tuberville, The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting, 1611 -  A royal picnic, p.91.
George Tuberville, The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting, 1611 - A royal picnic, p.91.

A picnic for Shakespeare's royal patron. Among the many engravings of huntsmen ...

1630s
William Shakespeare, Quartos, Love's Labour's Lost, 1631 - title page
William Shakespeare, Quartos, Love's Labour's Lost, 1631 - title page

A play for the Blackfriars Theatre: Shakespeare's Love’s Labour’s Lost. The ...

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Source: The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust - Library

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