Elizabethan lives / Senses
BRIDGEMANT
raditionally, the
past is something
we look at from
afar. The very act
of ‘doing history’
is one of reaching
for something that has gone and
is therefore, by definition, out of
reach. So it is hardly surprising
that we approach its remains
objectively, picking over them with
a pair of metaphorical tweezers.
But what would we feel if the
past were not out of reach? Imagine
how your ideas about the past
would be different if you could get
close up and personal with your
forebears. What would you notice
if you could see through their eyes,
hear with their ears, and smell
through their nostrils? What were
the tastes and feelings of the past?
Can we make any headway in
trying to recover them?
Adopting this approach is a
particularly interesting exercise
when it comes to Elizabethan
England – much more revealing
than simply looking at ourselves in
a 450-year-old mirror. Not only do
we see the similarities, but we see
the differences, too – the cruelty
of a society that enthusiastically
supports baiting games, regularly
sentences people to horrific execu-
tions, and approves of torture in
the interests of the state. We see the
extraordinary hierarchy, violence
and misogyny of society, and how
young people are (half of them
are under 22).
And then, as we peel away the
layers of tradition that make us feel
that we are fundamentally the same
as Shakespeare’s contemporaries,
we realise that they inhabit a
sensory world that is considerably
different from our own. Few people
can come to terms with humanity
in another age and not see them-
selves in a new – and sometimes
quite disturbing – light.The visual world
Darkness reigns in a era when only
the rich can afford glassF
or s ix months of every year there is
less than 12 hours of daylight, and
street lighting is almost unheard of in
Elizabethan England, so time out of
doors in autumn and winter is charac-
terised by darkness.
But dimness is also an aspect of being
indoors, even in summer. Domestic
glass is rare, because of the paucity of
glassmakers in 16th-century England.
Although the aristocracy have used
glass since the late Middle Ages, and
the Countess of Shrewsbury famously
has “more glass than wall” at Hardwick
Hall, most houses have only small
windows to prevent massive heat
loss in winter.
Wooden shutters or small opaque
screens of horn are used to cover the
windows, so there is never much light
inside. In winter, you will walk around a
farmhouse or cottage in near-darkness.
Candles are expensive and, if
unprotected by a lantern casing, they
constitute a serious fire hazard, so most
people make do with just one or two,
and carry them between rooms. If they
cannot afford wax candles, then they
use tallow candles and rushlights – or
just the light from the hearth.
When you do have light, you will
notice that Elizabethans see colour
differently from you, because of the
restricted range of dyes in nature. The
only natural red in England is madder
(taken from the plant of that name);most women have their petticoats dyed
this colour. If you want a brighter red,
you will need to obtain it from abroad.
Scarlet is made from kermes, a
parasitic larva from the Mediterranean.
Cochineal is hardly known in England,
being made from an insect in Latin
America, and brazilwood has to be im-
ported from the Middle East or bought
from Portuguese traders coming from
the New World. These sources are not
easily available to English merchants,
being under the control of Catholic
states – especially the Spanish, who are
at war with the English from 1585.
As for purple, very few Elizabethans
will have ever seen it. The nearest shade
they will have seen is a sort of violet
made from madder and the only
natural blue dye commonly available
in England, woad. If you were to appear
in a purple shirt, you would leave
Elizabethans reeling.
Status is not the only significance of
colour. True black (again, very rare) is
a sign of death and mourning. It also
symbolises eternity. White symbolises
virginity, so the queen’s use of black and
white clothing in her early years is a
bold statement of her intention to
remain unwed.
Were you to visit Elizabethan
England, you would need to learn
a whole new visual vocabulary to under-
stand these modes of expression among
those who can afford them.Victor Hugo’s depiction of the house where Shakespeare was born. Tudor
houses were designed to keep in heat and, because of that, kept out light