shes experienced almost every activity she describes. It takes a lot of hunger to do that to people, she adds. In doing so, she wholeheartedly embodies the phrase "living history." She slept in a one-room, timber framed house on an earthen floor covered by six inches of rushes, did not bathe for three months, only changing her Tudor-style undergarments daily (and surprisingly passed a modern smell test of her peers), fashioned her own writing quill, and washed her teeth with linen rags and soot. Author 1, Ruth Goodman Editorial Review, Most historians simply research the past she lives it. Goodman notes that the poor were markedly shorter than the wealthy, and several inches shorter than the average Londoner today. This, and other details fill Goodman's follow-up to her 2014 volume, How to Be a Victorian.įans of the BBC's Wolf Hall will be happy to learn that Goodman, who was the historical advisor for the series, wanted the producers to portray the times accurately. Shakespeare was simply ensuring that his wife would have a warm place to lay her head when he was gone. After reading Ruth Goodman's How to Be a Tudor (Liveright Publishing, $29.95, 336 pages), the reason is clear: Beds in the 16th century were precious commodities, and often the first items mentioned in wills. Though that passage was not considered a slight on Shakespeare's part, I admit I didn't understand why. While exploring the Folger Shakespeare Library's latest online endeavor in a blog last month, I cited the Bard's will where he bequeaths his 'second best bed' to his wife, Anne.
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