Assise of Bread [John Powell, editor], 1608 - woodcuts, p.D1v, detail.
Bakers at work: Shakespeare's neighbours.
In towns few people baked their own bread on account of the dangers of chimney fires. The baker’s role was one of the most important in any community, ...
Assise of Bread [John Powell,editor] , 1608 - title page, p.A1r.
Bakery regulations: a source for Shakespeare.
The woodcuts in this official government text that regulated the work of bakers show the work of kitchens with which Shakespeare would have been familiar. ...
Bible. English. The Bible translated, 1576 (Geneva version) - [?18th century] plate, illustration inserted p.67
A disobedient servant in Shakespeare's England.
Every Elizabethan home employed servants to assist with the daily tasks of housekeeping. Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew ...
Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg, Londinium, c. 1572 - detail
A merchant’s wife and her companion in Shakespeare's London.
Shakespeare's leading ladies frequently reflect contemporary practice by having a companion, or housekeeper, who is not a servant ...
Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg, Londinium, c. 1572 - detail of a citizen and his servant
An alderman and his servant in Shakespeare's London.
The Londoner's fashionable gown with hanging sleeves is 'guarded' [edged] with fur. His servant carries a sword and buckler as a sign that he will ...
Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg, Londinium, c. 1572 - detail of Londoners
Townsfolk of Shakespeare's England.
For country merchant class people such as the Shakespeare family the fashions of the city were slow to be adopted. Shakespeare was swift to comment in his plays ...
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 and their dogs that illustrate Turberville’s book of the chase, is this of the mid-day break for a meal with wine, ...
George Tuberville, The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting, 1611 - title page.
The care of hunting dogs in Shakespeare's time.
Turberville’s handbook was popular in Queen Elizabeth’s time and was reprinted after James I succeeded her on the English throne. The care ...
John Gerarde, The Herball, 1597 - Apples are described, p.1275, detail.
The uses of apples: Shakespeare's references to fruit.
The Herball of John Gerarde explains how apple trees cost little to maintain, but produce a fine crop for everyone. The orchards of Kent and of ...
John Gerarde, The Herball, 1597 - apples woodcut, p.1274, detail.
Apples, at the end of a meal are mentioned in Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor.
Gerarde’s herbal includes all kinds of fruit and trees as well as flowers and vegetables, many of which ...
John Gerarde, The Herball, 1597 - gilloflowers (Wall Flowers), p.370.
The names of plants, discussed by Shakespeare.
The detail with which Gerarde describes plants, vegetables and fruit as well as flowers assisted contemporary herbalists and housewives with their gardens. ...
John Gerarde, The Herball, 1597 - Goosetree [barnacles], detail, p.1391, detail.
Truth and Myth in Shakespeare's books of reference: The Barnacle Goose Tree.
Shakespeare includes, in The Winter's Tale (4.4), a similar myth to Gerarde’s tale of a barnacle-goose tree in the ...
John Gerarde, The Herball, 1597 - Goosetree [Barnakle tree], p.1391.
The Elizabethan myth of the goose-tree.
Myth and legend, passed on by word of mouth until it was written down and becomes almost a fact, included the story that Gerarde records at the end of his herbal, ...
John Gerarde, The Herball, 1597 - Goosetree described by Gerarde, p.1392.
Locations of plants known to Shakespeare's contemporaries.
Herbals and gardening books in Elizabethan England often describe the locations in which a plant may be found in the wild, as well as where ...
John Gerarde, The Herball, 1597 - holly, p. 1155,detail.
Holly and its uses in Shakespeare's time.
There were twenty-seven holy days, or ‘holidays’ spread through the Elizabethan year, but the twelve days of Christmas, at the time of the winter ...
John Gerarde, The Herball, 1597 - narcissus, p.108.
Flowers for enjoyment in Shakespeare's England.
The Elizabethans loved colour of all kinds in their embroidered and decorated clothes. The often elaborate painted wall-hangings of their homes frequently ...
John Gerarde, The Herball, 1597 - portrait, on back of title-page, p.B6v.
John Gerarde, herbalist: a contemporary of Shakespeare.
The large linen ruff was a fashion imported from the Netherlands, but adopted by all who could afford the starches needed to create such an accessory. ...
John Gerarde, The Herball, 1597 - roses, p.1079.
Roses feature more than once in Shakespeare’s plays.
Gerarde's Herbal gave Elizabethans the chance to see the plants that Shakespeare had in mind as he wrote certain scenes in his plays. In the ...