Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - Instruction woodcut, detail, p.66v.
Boys at school: Shakespeare's education.
There is no direct evidence that Shakespeare attended the Grammar School in Stratford, but as the son of a prominent citizen of the town, William and his brothers ...
Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - Life and death, p.122v.
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 ...
Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - Momento mori woodcut, p.89v, detail.
A possible source for the Capulet tomb.
The end of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet takes place in the Capulet family tomb where the apparently dead Juliet has been laid. Such places had a ghostly reputation, ...
Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - Momento mori woodcuts, p.89v.
The everyday presence of death in Shakespeare's England.
Much of Richard Day’s prayerbook has illustrations which remind readers of the everyday presence of death in the 16th century. ‘Thou ...
Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - Prayers for family use, p.61v.
The Shakespeare family in Elizabethan England.
Richard Day's popular book of prayers intended for personal use by Elizabethans, was re-published several times after it was first printed in 1578. Its ...
Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - Prayers for our enemies, p.54r.
Life-style advice for Shakespeare and his contemporaries.
Many of Day’s marginal woodcuts included scripture quotations and advice on lifestyle, such as ministering to the sick.
Full title: ...
Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - Prayers for private use, p.62r.
Personal confessions: available to Shakespeare's contemporaries.
Richard Day’s book of prayers was a very popular book owned by many of Shakespeare’s contemporaries. The prayers printed ...
Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - Prayers for wisdom, p.89r.
Private prayers in Shakespeare's time.
Many members of the gentry and the nobility had ordained clergymen as part of their households, and had private indoor chapels, or churches in the grounds of ...
Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - Printers woodcuts, details. p.90v
The hand-press was well-known to Shakespeare.
In the 1580s when William Shakespeare came to London the Stationers' Company had been established for thirty years, since 1557, and it attempted to control ...
Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - Printing tradesmen, p.90v.
Printing books in Shakespeare's time.
By the time of William Shakespeare the printing trade had been established in England for a hundred years since William Caxton first set up a press in London in ...
Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - reminders of mortality, p.112r.
‘Momenti Mori’: reminders to Shakespeare's contemporaries.
The ‘momenti mori’ (reminders of death) are skulls and skeletons that may also have provided inspiration for dramatic ...
Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - Shelter strangers woodcut, p.53r, detail.
Christian charity offering shelter, in Shakespeare's time.
Strangers traveling in the countryside were often made welcome, as Autolycus, Polixenes and Camillo find at the feast in the play of The Winter’s ...
Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - shepherdess woodcut , p.99v, detail.
A countrywoman: Shakespeare married a local farmer's daughter.
When he was eighteen Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a local landowner and farmer, who was seven years his elder. She ...
Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - Tending the sick woodcut, p.74v, detail.
A family death-bed: a scene familiar to Shakespeare.
A generation before William Shakespeare's birth, England was a Roman Catholic country changed by the actions of Henry VIII who declared himself ...
Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - Tending the sick woodcut, p.74v, detail.
Women in the home in Shakespeare's time.
The role of women, though legally inferior to men, was in effect recognised of equal importance as they were expected to carry out all the responsibilities ...
Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - Wisdom and prudence, p.66v.
Reading and study is praised in Shakespeare's England.
The marginal illustration in Day's Book of Christian Prayers tells its readers that 'wisdom is better than gold'. The woodcuts are reminders of ...
Richard Quiney addresses his letter to Shakespeare, 25 October 1598. Reverse
Quiney folded up his letter, sealed it, and addressed it: 'To my Loveinge good frend & contreymann Mr Wm. Shackespere deliver thees.'
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust reference: ER 27/4
Richard Quiney asks Shakespeare's help with a loan of £30, 25 October 1598
In late 1598, Richard Quiney was in London on Corporation business. On 16 October his friend, Abraham Sturley had written to him from Stratford, outlining the financial difficulties he was in, and asking ...