Post-mortem inventory of the goods of John Edolf 1576 Friday, May 9 2008 

16c and elizabethan and english and letters and wardrobe accounts Melissa Barton 11:56 pm

I found this in, of all things, a book on Elizabethan handwriting and paleography (WHICH IS AWESOME AND I WANT TO LEARN SECRETARY HAND NOW AND I NEED A COPY OF THIS BOOK. But more on that later). It’s an inventory of the worldly goods of a provincial Elizabethan gentleman, presumably of modest means. I don’t know if the book provides the complete inventory–if it does, they’re very modest means, as his hall furniture consists of two square tables, two forms (?), one long settle, two chairs, six cushions, two andirons, a fire fork, a pair of tongs, and “hangings about the same,” which is less than you’d find in a minor noblewoman’s bedchamber. Anyway, I found the clothing inventory (which is complete) particularly interesting:

In Apparrell

Item fower gownes fower dublets one
damask Cassok two paier of hose fower
Shurtes two caps two hatts

In Apparel

Item, four gowns, four doublets, one
damask cassock, two pairs of hose, four
shirts, two caps, and two hats.

Master Edolf was, I’m guessing, a somewhat older and more conservative gentleman, judging by the gowns. The cassock is the only material of a specified fabric, and possibly the richest garment he owned (a damask is a figured woven fabric, probably silk in this case).

The hose must be trunkhose, since by that time period doublets were short enough to require trunkhose or Venetian hose to be worn with them–I couldn’t guess as to whether “two pairs of hose” means trunkhose/netherhose sets, but that seems probable (I’m not that familiar with Elizabethan wardrobe conventions).

I’m not sure about the distinction between caps and hats–I would guess the hats are more structured, e.g. tall hats, and caps are softer, but I could be completely wrong.

Anyway, what I find interesting is that contrary to what people seem to assume now about Elizabethans (and medieval people, for that matter) having more undergarments and fewer outer garments, Master Edolf had essentially four sets of clothing. A “set” as being a shirt, doublet, and gown (I guess he only changed his hose every other day), although the gown is optional. No more garments than undergarments (the cassock is outerwear, like a coat).

I think a thorough analysis of Elizabethan wardrobe accounts could be very, very interesting. I haven’t seen one, but it doesn’t mean none exist….

Original account pictured on p. 57 of
Dawson, G.E., and Kennedy-Skipton, L. Elizabethan Handwriting 1500-1650: A Manual, W.W. Norton & Co. (New York): 1966, 130 pp.

 

As always, my overly ambitious plans change! Friday, Feb 1 2008 

16c and clothing and elizabethan and embroidery and english and letters Melissa Barton 4:19 pm

A&S report for January 2008:

I fear I did not ply my Needle so industr’ously as I had hoped this month:

Item, a brodered slip of Aquilegia (columbine) for a Cushonne (I have yet three more slips to complete, though I find I know not yet which other flowers most please me, for there are so many most fair!).
Item, a payre of Gartyres brodered with blakwoorke for my lord (I have a few more Snailles yet to complete).

And with m’lady Laura I did teach a class on Buttons wrapt with sylke for the arts and sciences Collegium of our fair Barony of Caer Galen, which was attended well. I continue to strive to better my correspondence, and am most grateful for the assistance of my dear cousins in this matter.

My ambitious Estrella plans have changed. I’m not trying to get shoes done, although I might still try for the Anglo-Saxon. But I want a wool skirt, some petticoats, and possibly a wool doublet. The problem is that I only have about 1.5 yards of my lovely tan camelhair/cashmere, and the nice brown wool Joann’s had a few months ago is gone gone gone. So my options are to make a doublet of the camelhair and a skirt of something else, or go to Denver Fabrics this weekend and see if I can find 4 yards of something appropriate on the remnant table. I want to do some really nice black cording on the doublet and guarding on the skirt, which probably makes this a really bad pre-Estrella project. It’s not like I don’t have plenty of real-life stuff to do (and I have a cold, blech).

It would be good if I could get the cuffs onto my gloves, too. We’ll see, I guess!

 

Period correspondence Thursday, Dec 6 2007 

16c and elizabethan and english and letters Melissa Barton 8:39 pm

I have been laboriously trying to teach myself to write in a period style (by “a” I mean any given time in England, depending on my mood. Eventually I shall try to focus, but attempting to write 14th or 16th century Spanish correspondence in English is…unlikely). At the moment, this mostly consists of me reading a lot of 16th century letters, copy-pasting the greetings and closures (the easiest parts) and trying to get the rest to sound correct. Out of pity for my recipients, I’m not using period spelling.

Anyway, I borrowed my lord’s copy of Queen Elizabeth I: Selected Works, ed.Steven W. May, and I may have to buy my own copy because it’s fascinating, both for the insight into period writing (it contains letters, poems, speeches, prayers, essays, and translations) and into QEI’s relationships with family and friends. It definitely overturned some of the assumptions I had about Elizabethan writing–it’s not all formal (some to family and friends are extremely casual), greeting and closure are not mandatory at all, and she could definitely be quite nasty when she was angry. Of course for modern SCA purposes, it’s better not to imitate her grouchier letters.

Not one letter uses thee/thou, and I think this is because she wasn’t using them rather than because of the spelling modernization, since other atypical usages are preserved in their original spelling. I have a hypothesis as to why it’s not used, but I think a linguist would probably have a better idea than I do.

I’m not yet comfortable enough with -th verbs, I don’t have anything like the classical education Elizabethan had (the letters are sprinkled with Latin phrases and translations of Cicero, etc., mostly done by her–when did she have the time?), and I don’t have a vast period vocabulary yet (solution: read lots of Shakespeare with close attention to the annotations). But I think I’m getting better, especially when it comes to textile terms.

So, in sum, what I’d recommend to anyone trying to learn to write like an Elizabethan:

  1. Forget all that “speaking forsoothly” stuff you’ve read. Real Elizabethans didn’t talk (or write) like that.
  2. Shakespeare is a great resource for vocabulary, but real people generally do not speak in iambic pentameter. Get good annotated versions and pay careful attention to both unfamiliar vocabulary and words that you think you know but that have footnotes explaining that they meant something totally different in the 16th century.
  3. Most importantly, READ 16TH CENTURY LETTERS. The Elizabethan book I mentioned above is a good resource, but there are others, and there’s quite a bit online as well.
  4. If you can, Elizabethan texts regarding your topics (e.g. wardrobe accounts for writing about clothing) are also an important source of vocabulary. For example, where I would say “A silk brocade gown decorated with embroidery and couched silk cord and lined with satin,” a wardrobe inventory usually says something like, “A gown of brocade lin’d with sarcanet and brodered and laid with silk.”
  5. If you don’t have that classical education, fake it. A little Latin goes a long way. So do paraphrases of dead Romans.