The Material Culture of Shakespeare's England
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The Material Culture of Shakespeare’s England: a study of the early modern objects in the museum collection of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust by Peter Hewitt A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY School of History and Cultures College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham 2014 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract This thesis investigates the material culture of early modern England as reflected in the object collections of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon. The collection consists of nearly 300 objects and six buildings dating from the period 1500-1650 representing ‗the life, work and times of William Shakespeare‘, with a particular emphasis on domestic and community life in Shakespeare‘s Stratford. Using approaches from museum studies and material culture studies together with historical research, this thesis demonstrates how objects add depth and complexity to historical and museological narratives, and presents a range of unique and never before examined material sources for the study of the social and cultural history of the period. For different reasons, collectors, scholars and museum practitioners have all tended to place the Trust‘s objects within existing historical narratives whilst neglecting the physical evidence of the objects themselves. By closely examining the object as well as the cultural context of its manufacture and use, this study seeks to rejuvenate the way this and similar collections are seen and used in studies of the early modern period. Acknowledgements I would firstly like to thank all of the staff and students at the History department at Birmingham and the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford for creating a welcoming and stimulating research environment. Secondly, I am particularly grateful and indebted to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust: thanks go especially to Delia Garratt for her patience and encouragement, and to Roz Sklar, Mareike Doleschal, Helen Hargest, Madeleine Cox, Amy Hurst, Paul Taylor, Catherine Simpson, Paula Wilkinson and Emily Millward for their assistance. Many thanks also to former staff-members at the Trust, Sheila McVey, Robyn Greenwood, Ann Donnelly and David Hopes for their enthusiastic support. Thanks also to my fellow PhD candidates Stephanie Appleton, Victoria Jackson and Elizabeth Sharrett. Above all, I want to thank my supervisor, Tara Hamling for her expert supervision of this Collaborative Doctoral project, as well as her kindness, professionalism, academic rigour, and generosity. On a personal level I wish to thank my wife Judith for her patience and love. Contents List of Contents List of Illustrations List of Abbreviations Introduction 1 1. The object in early modern historical studies 11 1.1 Histories of consumption and social history 11 1.2 Social history 14 1.3 Interdisciplinarity: history, literature, archaeology and material 18 culture 1.4 Objects as evidence and methodology: the ‗working knowledge‘ inherent in early modern objects 25 1.5 A ‗medicine chest‘ 28 2. Collecting Shakespeare: the legacy of James Orchard Halliwell 38 2.1 The ‗scholar-curator‘ 38 2.2 Collecting Shakespeare: Susan M. Pearce and the study of collecting 40 2.3 Collecting Shakespeare prior to 1847 42 2.3.1 Souvenirs and relics: The Hornbys 43 2.3.2 The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and James Orchard Halliwell 47 2.3.3 Exhibitions at the Birthplace 54 2.3.4 ‗A sheath for a pair of knives, formerly carried by ladies, and by Juliet‘ 61 3. The Cultural Heritage of Shakespeare’s England: The Trust’s 67 Shakespeare Properties 3.1 Why Shakespeare? 67 3.2 An overview of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust 71 3.3 Assessing the Trust‘s museology: museum and heritage sites in their late twentieth century contexts 74 3.4 The Birthplace 78 3.4.1 Re-visualising the Birthplace: ‗Wealden‘ houses in Stratford-upon-Avon 83 3.4.2 Mediated realities 85 3.5 Nash‘s House: an index of Shakespearean material culture 89 3.6 Hall‘s Croft 93 4. The Material Culture of Stratford’s late-medieval Guild and 101 early modern Corporation 4.1 Stratford-upon-Avon, the Guild and the Corporation 102 4.2 Methodology: objects, archives and spaces 104 4.3 Exploring the interior spaces of the Guild Complex 107 4.3.1 The Guildhall 109 4.4 The material culture of the Guild in the collection of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust 112 4.4.1 The elm muniment chest 113 4.4.2 Physical description 114 4.4.3 Locating the chest in the Guild records 116 4.4.4 Use and meanings 118 4.5 The Stratford Corporation 121 4.5.1 The Corporation and the Borough 122 4.5.2 The Council Chamber 126 4.5.3 The ‗newe Cubborde of Boxes‘ 128 4.5.4 The Corporation at work 134 4.5.5 Conclusion 141 5. Making and using magical objects in early modern England: 142 apotropaia and objects of folk-belief in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust collection 5.1 Magic, material culture and early modern English society 142 5.1.1 Cunning-folk and their products 146 5.1.2 The Hall‘s Croft shoe cache 152 5.2 Precious metals and the economy of magic 158 5.2.1 The folkloric use of sigils and coins 162 5.2.2 Coin bending 164 5.2.3 Coins as touch pieces 169 5.3 Conclusion 173 6. Clothing, accessories and identity in early modern England 175 6.1 The self, fashion and identity 176 6.2 English Femininity: a seventeenth century bodice 183 6.3 Fragmented identities, disparate objects 196 6.3.1 The early modern girdle 197 6.3.2 ‗Give me my Girdle, and see that all the Furniture be at it‘ 204 6.3.3 A box wood cutlery case 207 6.3.4 Psalm books and bags 215 6.3.5 A.M‘s bodkin 220 Conclusion 226 Appendices 1. Creative Catalogue 232 Bibliography 301 List of Illustrations 1. SBT 2001-5, An oak ‗medicine chest‘ 2. Surgeon‘s chest from William Clowes, A prooued practise for all young chirurgians, (London, 1596) 3. SBT L249n, A glass urine flask, c. 1600-1675 4. SBT L249o , a blown glass urine flask, c. 1600-1675 5. Illustration of a death's head ring in the collection of J. Halliwell (1852) 6. Illustration of a corroded knife with bone handle 7. The Shakespeare Birthplace, Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon 8. Shakespeare‘s Birthplace, engraving by Benjamin Cole after a drawing by Richard Greene, published in the Gentleman‘s Magazine, July 1769 9. Shakespeare‘s Birthplace by John Richards, 1769 10. The Swan and Maidenhead Inn, c. 1858 11. Mason‘s Court on Rother Street, Stratford-upon-Avon 12. The ‗consulting room‘ of John Hall, Hall‘s Croft, Stratford-upon-Avon 13. Death and the Maiden, c. 1570-75 14. SBT 1865-2/1 to 4, carved angels from the Guild Chapel 15. SBT Lt2, an elm muniment chest, c. 1400 -1458 16. The Corporation Council Chamber, facing north-west 17. SBT L513, the Corporation‘s ‗cubborde of Boxes‘, built 1595 18. SBT L513, the ‗cubborde of Boxes‘, door open 19. SBT 1996-33/2, box for the ‗Cubborde of Boxes‘, c. 1595 20. SBT 1996-33, leather bound wooden box for the ‗Cubborde of Boxes‘, c. 1550 21. SBT 1996-33, leather bound box, interior 22. A selection of circular marks, found in English buildings c. 1300-1900 23. SBT no accession number, low stool with concentric circle decoration 24. SBT 2003-21, panelled oak chest with iron lock plates and latches cast with bead patterns and saltire crosses, c. 1615 25. Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, no accession number, a late sixteenth or early seventeenth century child‘s or baby‘s shoe from Hall‘s Croft shoe cache 26. Three metal disks found beneath the floorboards of the main hall of Palmer‘s Farm, c. 1600-1900 27. SBT 2003-4/5, a bent Elizabethan gold ¼ Angel, minted in 1582 28. SBT 2003 4/4, a full Elizabethan gold Angel, minted 1578-81 29. SBT 1993-35, a bodice, c. 1610-1620 30. SBT 1993-35, bodice, side/rear view 31. Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, detail, Margaret Layton, c. 1620 32. William Larkin, Lady Dorothy Cary, c. 1614 33. Unknown artist of the English school, Lettice Newdigate (aged 2), c. 1606 34. Hans Holbein the Younger, An English Lady Walking , c. 1540 35. Hans Holbein the Younger, Woman of Basle, c. 1523 36. Lucas de Heere, London Gentlewomen, c. 1573-75 37. ‗English Woman‘, illustrated in John Speed‘s European Atlas, c. 1626 38. Eleanor Benlowes, c. 1565 39. Elizabeth Sydenham (Lady Drake), c. 1585 40. Sweet bag, pincushion and knife-sheath, with chatelaine, c. 1630-1660 41. ‗A English Woman‘, from Recueil de la diversite des habits, 1567 42. SBT 1868/3/903, cutlery sheath, carved box wood, dated 1602 43. Morning and evening praiers by Lady Elizabeth Tyrwhit, c. 1574 44. Embroidered exterior of The whole book of Psalms (SR 98 83421815) 45. SBT 1992-86, an embroidered bag, c. 1575-1600 46. SBT 2003-13, a bodkin, etched with the initials 'A M', silver, c.