Friday Mini Letter #2: Drunk Shakespeareans
No water, only ale in Shakespeare's time
Hey Y’all!
Here’s your first #FridayFactoid. Everybody in Shakespeare’s time spent every day tipsy.
Club English Renaissance Going Up Everyday
It was extremely rare to drink water in Shakespeare’s time. Potable water was extremely difficult to find in this age of chamber pots and emptying waste onto streets and into the Thames River. Nobody could survive ingesting that…if you could get past the smell.
So what did people drink? Milk, wine, beer, and, most often, ale. And everybody drank ale, yes, even the children. Folks would often brew it in their own homes at three different strengths: the kid-friendly single, the stronger double, and the extra-heavy double-double. That double-double was some serious stuff, so much so that Queen Elizabeth banned its brewing in 1560 in hopes of cutting down on drunken brawling.
These were the folks who would’ve been watching and performing in Shakespeare’s plays. Shoutout to The Drunk Shakespeare Society for keeping to the traditions.
Pour It Up, Pour It Up
Now the Shakespeareans LOVED their wines and they drank a bunch of different kinds. Shout out to Malmsey, the sweet wine they used to drown the Duke of Clarence in Shakespeare’s Richard III. Now, I mentioned that folks didn’t drink water but they would boil and use it to dilute wine. Priorities, baby!
Got References?
Want to read more about this? Here’s a couple of books:
Elizabeth’s London: Everyday Life in Elizabethan London by Liza Picard
Shakespeare’s London on 5 Groats a Day by Richard Tames
If there’s anything you want to know or read about, let me know in the comments. I’m looking forward to writing more and bringing y’all more goodies.
Love to you all!
Events
This party is hitting the road! Come through and talk books with me. Swing on by and say hey!
October 28: Louisiana Book Festival - Baton Rouge, LA
Schedule TBANovember 10-11: YALLFest - Charleston, SC
Schedule TBA
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