Daily Life in Elizabethan England (47 page)

e the substances that compose the physical world.

inter

est/Spring

Celestial

Quarter / Season

W

East/Summer

South/Autumn

North/W

ind

est

W

South

East

North

W

espondences between various aspects of the physical universe as understood by Elizabe
Qualities
Hot-Moist

Hot-Dry

Cold-Dry

Cold—

Moist

derly scheme of associations, as shown above.

Matter

e

ater

Element

of

Air

Fir

Earth

W

ellow

e the four substances that compose the human body; the elements ar
in
(Y

e integrated into an or

able 9.1.T The “Correspondences”

Humor

the Body

Blood

Choler

bile)

Melancholy

(Black bile)

Phlegm

This table illustrates the system of corr

humors ar

stances ar

The Elizabethan World

239

precisely this mode of thought that would pave the way for Sir Francis Bacon, an up-and-coming figure of the late Elizabethan years, to articulate his influential model of scientific empiricism in
Novum Organum
(1620).

Educated Elizabethans distinguished scholarly magic from the superstitious folk-beliefs of the uneducated. Many people still believed in supernatural creatures, particularly fairies; they used magical charms and recipes and consulted people believed to have supernatural skills or powers, especially in matters such as illness, childbirth, loss of property, love-longing, or predicting the future. A common charm for recovering stolen goods involved balancing a sieve on a pair of shears as a kind of divinatory compass: in 1598 a defendant in the Archdeaconry Court of Nottingham admitted that “a wether [sheep] being lost in their parish, there was a device used to know what was become of the said wether by taking a sieve and a pair of shears and saying, ‘In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,’ after which words the sieve would turn about—which device he and his sister . . . once without any ill intent tried.”10

The position of any individual amidst these cross-currents of belief was complex, even contradictory: any given person might embrace multiple strands of potentially incompatible belief. If there is a common theme that unites these kaleidoscopic perspectives, it is perhaps a preoccupa-tion with change. Elizabethans feared change: some commended it; many condemned it; all paid at least lip-service to the importance of stability and tradition. Yet everyone could sense that change was in the air. Change could be seen in the shrinking populations of villages and growing populations in the towns; it could be seen in rising standards of living for some, in growing levels of poverty for many; it could even be seen in the transformation of clothing from year to year, as the wealthy and powerful cultivated new fashions to distinguish themselves from those around them.

Regardless of their perspective, people across the spectrum of society were leading lives that propelled the country toward change. Catholics longed to see a restoration of the papacy; Puritans yearned for a more Protestant English church; both were undermining the traditional authority of the state to dictate religious practice to its subjects. Landowners worked to increase returns from their holdings; laborers sought new homes in hopes of finding better work opportunities; merchants explored unfamiliar seas in search of new markets for trade; educated young men gravitated toward London looking for personal advancement. But few could have dreamed of the tumultuous transformation for which they were setting the stage.

Within less than a century of the Queen’s death, Parliament would execute a king for treason, the state would cease to require religious uniformity, books would no longer be censored, and Newton would posit a universe fundamentally comprehensible through mathematics. In some ways, the Elizabethan period was the Indian Summer of the Middle Ages; in many ways it prepared the way for a definitive break with the medieval past.

240

Daily Life in Elizabethan England

NOTES

1. P. Razzell, ed.,
The Journals of Two Travellers in Elizabethan and Early Stuart
England
(London: Caliban Books, 1995), 12.

2. William Harrison,
Description of England
[1587] (Ithaca, NY: Folger Shakespeare Library, 1968), 8.

3. D. M. Palliser,
The Age of Elizabeth
(London: Longman, 1992), 10.

4. Nicholas Crane,
Mercator: The Man Who Mapped the Planet
(New York: Holt, 2002), 217.

5. Palliser,
Age of Elizabeth
, 10.

6. Keith Thomas,
Religion and the Decline of Magic
(New York: Scribner, 1971), 199, 201; Palliser,
Age of Elizabeth,
395.

7. Christopher Marlowe,
Complete Plays and Poems,
ed. E. D. Pendry (London: Everyman, 1976), 513.

8. Keith Wrightson,
English Society, 1580–1680
(New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1982), 200.

9. Reginald Scot,
The Discoverie of Witchcraft
(London: n.p., 1584), 1.

10. Thomas,
Religion,
213–14.

Glossary

alderman—A member of a city council.

ale—An early form of beer made without hops; also, another name for a parish wake.

anon—Soon, shortly.

apprentice—A young person learning a craft or trade.

archdeacon—A church officer assigned to assist the bishop in administering his bishopric, having especial authority for church courts.

assizes—A periodic court held by circuit judges for trying major criminal cases.

breeches—Underwear, shorts.

broadside—A single printed sheet, often a ballad, sold for a penny.

buckler—A small round shield carried by civilians.

buckram—Linen impregnated with a stiffening gum.

burgage tenure—The system of landholding in towns, allowing free purchase and sale of the land, unlike manorial tenure in the countryside.

burgess—See citizen.

carrier—A wagoneer plying a regularly scheduled trade route.

cassock—A loose coat.

champion settlement—A system of agricultural organization in which each holding consists of strips of land scattered about a village, as contrasted with woodland settlement. Also called open-field settlement.

242 Glossary

chandler—A candlemaker.

churchwarden—A parish officer chosen periodically from among the inhabitants of the parish and responsible for upkeep of the parish church.

citizen—An inhabitant of a town having the full rights and privileges of the town.

clothespress—A shelved cupboard for clothing.

coif—A linen cap worn by women.

commoner—Anyone not of the gentlemanly class; a person obliged to work for a living.

communion—The religious ceremony in which the communicants receive wine and/or bread as representing the blood and body of Christ.

confi rmation—The religious ceremony by which a young person is fully admitted as a member of the church.

constable—A local officer chosen periodically from among local residents and responsible for law and order.

cottager—The smallest sort of landholding commoner, holding insufficient land to support a family without doing additional labor.

cutler—A knifemaker.

cutwork—A form of decoration combining cutting of the fabric and embroidery.

deacon—A church officer responsible for assisting a priest.

demesne—The manorial land that belongs to the manor lord, not held by manorial tenants.

distaff—A long staff used in spinning flax fibers into linen thread.

doublet—A fitted jacket with buttons worn by both men and women.

esquire—A substantial gentleman, especially one who has a knight among his ancestors.

ewer—A jug used for pouring water.

factor—An agent, often itinerant, working on behalf of a merchant or entrepreneur.

falling band—A detachable collar.

fallow fi eld—A field out of use for a season to allow it to recover for future crops.

farthingale—An underskirt made to flare by means of hoops.

fl ock bed—A bed stuffed with wool.

freeholder—The most privileged class of common landholder, holding his land in perpetuity, generally for insignificant rent.

gaol—A jail, used for holding the accused prior to trial.

Glossary 243

garter—A strip of leather or fabric used to hold up one’s stockings.

gentleman—A man of the class traditionally holding sufficient lands not to be required to work for a living; any man of a gentlemanly family.

gentleman-usher—A personal servant of gentle birth, serving in an aristocratic household.

girdle—A belt.

glazier—A craftsman specializing in glasswork.

goodman—A commoner who is the independent head of a household.

gossip—Originally, a relative through godparentage; also used more generally of close friends.

grocer—A retailer selling nonperishable consumables, such as dried fruit, spices, and soap.

guild—An organization regulating the practice of a craft or trade in a particular town.
Guild
is the modern term; the Elizabethans usually called it a
company.

haberdasher—A retailer specializing in clothing accessories.

hall—The main room in a home.

holding—A parcel or quantity of land rented to a holder in accordance with the custom associated with that holding. Also called a landholding.

hose—A general term for garments worn on the legs. The plural is
hosen.

house of offi ce—See privy.

husbandman—A small but self-sufficient landholding commoner.

joint stool—A stool made with mortice-and-tenon joints, superior to a
boarded
stool made without joints.

journeyman—A craftsman or tradesman who has completed apprenticeship but does not possess a business of his own, working instead for others.

justice of the peace—A gentleman empowered by the crown to administer minor legal matters in a locality.

kersey—An inexpensive woolen cloth.

kirtle—A long fitted garment for women; an ankle-length, close-fitting dress.

lady-in-waiting—A female servant of gentle birth, serving in an aristocratic household.

landholding—See holding.

lay peers—The secular aristocracy of the House of Lords in Parliament, as opposed to the bishops who also sat in the House of Lords.

Lent—The period from Ash Wednesday until Easter, during which Elizabethans were supposed to abstain from eating meat and poultry.

244 Glossary

lime—Calcium oxide, which can be obtained from limestone and is useful for enhancing soil and as a component in mortar, plaster, and similar building materials.

marl—A heavy clay useful for enriching agricultural soil.

master—A craftsman or tradesman who has his own shop.

master of arts—A university graduate.

open-fi eld settlement—See champion settlement.

page—The lowest rank of servant, usually a young boy.

pallet—A mattress stuffed with straw.

petticoat—A skirt.

pickadill—One of a row of decorative tabs on the edge of a garment.

point—A lace used for fastening clothing.

privy—An outhouse or secluded indoor toilet. Euphemistically called a house of office.

Privy Council—The committee of royal officers with primary responsibility for advising the queen and carrying out her policies.