Religious Card
An Urdu polychrome card and text, from Asia. It bears a religious inscription on a shield against multi-coloured printed flowers.
Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - A corpse awaits burial, p.89r, detail.
A body in its linen burial cloth, or shroud, and laid in a tomb: a possible source for Shakespeare.
William Shakespeare, in 1605, purchased an interest in the local tithes, and so automatically became ...
Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - Animals woodcut, p.81r.
An ornamental woodcut, on a text contemporary with Shakespeare.
Among the many woodcut ornaments in Richard Day’s book of prayers is a distinctive group of animals which include a mythical unicorn, ...
Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - Christian duty p.53v, detail.
Homilies : life-style advised for Shakespeare and his contemporaries.
All children would accompany their parents to church each Sunday, where they would hear the readings from the Bible, and also the ...
Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - Communion woodcut, p.62r, detail.
Holy Communion: a church service attended by all Elizabethans.
This woodcut shows the distribution of wine and bread at Holy Communion to the congregation at the altar. It was the duty of all confirmed ...
Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - Confessional prayer, p.56v.
The Christian life to be followed by Elizabethans.
This prayer asks for forgiveness of sins and is flanked by flowers, a quotation and a woodcut on the sense of smell. Smells, both pleasant and unpleasant, ...
Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - Feed the Hungry woodcut, p.72v.
Charity: feeding the poor in Shakespeare's time.
All communities had their share of the poor and Elizabethans would regularly offer their unwanted ‘left-over’ food to those less fortunate ...
Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - Help the thirsty woodcut p.73r detail
Drinks available in Shakespeare's time.
The regular drink of Elizabethans was cider, ale (which was not strong beer), or for the more wealthy, wine was imported from France, or Germany. Water was used ...
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 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 - 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 ...