Re: OT: Life in the 1500s...where some sayings come from

Guess I should have checked it out before I posted. I keep telling my
friend not to send me these things without checking first. Oh well,
thanks for the illuminating post.

On Mar 22 2007 1:04 AM, FaceDownAcesUp wrote:

On Mar 22, 1:12 am, "pokerchimp" <mixth...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
LIFE IN THE 1500'S

The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water
temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be.
Here are some facts about the1500s:



Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in
May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to
smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence
the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

In the agricultural communities of medieval England, the most popular
months for weddings were January, November and October,1 when harvest
was past and the time for planting had not yet arrived. Late autumn
and winter were also when animals were usually slaughtered for food,
so freshly butchered beef, pork, mutton and similar meats would be
available for the wedding feast, which often coincided with annual
festivals.

Summer weddings, which might also coincide with annual festivals,
enjoyed some popularity, as well.

Depending on the culture, flowers have numerous symbolic meanings,
some of the most significant being loyalty, purity and love. In the
late fifteenth century, roses were popular in medieval Europe for
their connection to romantic love and were used in many ceremonies,
including weddings.

As for "yearly baths," the idea that medieval people rarely bathed is
a persistent but false one. Most people washed themselves on a regular
basis. Going without washing was considered a penance even in the
early Middle Ages. Soap, possibly invented by the Gauls sometime
before Christ, was in widespread use throughout Europe by the end of
the ninth century, and made its first appearance in cake form in the
twelfth century. Public bathhouses were not uncommon, although their
ostensible purpose was often secondary to their clandestine use by
prosititutes.3

In short, there were numerous opportunities for medieval people to
cleanse their bodies. Thus, the prospect of going a full month without
washing, and then appearing at her wedding with a bouquet of flowers
to hide her stench, is not something a medieval bride was likely to
consider any more than a modern bride would.




Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the
house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons
and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies.
By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it.
Hence the saying, Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water..

Most peasant folk could not afford a bathtub and used a barrel with
the top removed.1 The time and energy required to draw enough water
from the well to fill a barrel was prohibitive enough to make a full-
body bath a rare occasion. However, it wasn't necessary to immerse
oneself completely to get clean. Think of what you can do with some
cloths, soap, and a bucket of water.

There is no evidence to confirm that peasant families bathed serially
in the same bathwater, but they may have occasionally done so to save
the extra labor.

However, whatever special occasion prompted the work of a full-body
bath may have also prohibited letting the water get too dirty for it
to be of much use. Contrary to popular belief, medieval people were
not entirely oblivious to matters of hygiene, and are unlikely to have
blithely plunged themselves into filthy water "to get clean."

Those who could afford a real bathtub could also afford servants to
fill and replenish it, and would have no reason to make their families
follow in their polluted bathwater.

For the most part, children were treated with the special care with
which they have been treated since the beginning of time. Rather than
being submerged in a barrel full of water (filthy or otherwise), an
infant would be bathed in a smaller vessel like a basin. There is no
reason to believe that the relatively small amount of water needed
would not be freshly drawn from the well or mildly heated over the
fire in a kettle. There are no known instances of a child being
"thrown out" when his bathwater was disposed of.

The expression "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water" is
German in origin and can be traced to the fifteenth century satire
Narrenbeschwörung by Thomas Murner. For more about this, check out
Wolfgang Mieder's article at De Proverbio.




Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood
underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats
and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof When it rained it
became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the
roof. Hence the saying . It's raining cats and dogs.

Most peasant cottages and many town buildings had thatched roofs --
which, rather than being simply "thick straw-piled high," were
constructed of carefully, tightly woven straw, brom, heather, reeds or
rushes.1 When properly devised, thatch was (and still is) very good at
keeping out the elements, including rain, snow and hail.

Unfortunately, thatch could be an attractive abode for such uninvited
guests as small rodents, insects and birds, it was subject to rot
relatively quickly in wet weather, and in dry weather it posed a fire
hazard.


On the other hand, it was cheap and easy to construct, so cottages
could, and did, get a new thatch roof when the old one ceased to
provide adequate shelter. Most peasant housing was fairly impermanent
in any case, and cottages were usually completely rebuilt every
generation or so.2

While it is quite possible that a cat would jump up on the roof to
hunt vermin, he would not "live" there, nor would dogs or other small
animals. Have a look at a thatch roof, and you'll see that there is
really no place for an animal as large as a cat (let alone a dog) to
remain comfortably "in the roof." This is simply one of the sillier
claims of the hoax.

Alas, the origin of the phrase "raining cats and dogs" is currently
unknown. Its first known use in print was in the seventeenth century,
but it may go back a few hundred years before that. Michael Quinion
explores several theories at his World Wide Words site.




There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This
posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could
mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a *** hung
over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into
existence.


In most castles and manor houses and in some town dwellings, materials
such as wood, clay tiles and stone were used for roofing. All served
even better than thatch to "stop things from falling into the house."
Poor peasant folk, who were the most likely to suffer the annoyances
brought about by an ill-kept thatch roof, commonly slept on straw
pallets on the floor or in a loft.1 They did not have canopy beds to
keep out falling dead wasps and rat droppings.

Wealthier people didn't need canopies to keep out things that dropped
from the roof; yet wealthy people such as noble lords and ladies or
prosperous burghers did have beds with canopies and curtains. Why?
Because the canopy beds used in medieval England and Europe have their
origins in an entirely different domestic situation.

In the earliest days of the European castle, the lord and his family
slept in the great hall, along with all their servants. The noble
family's sleeping area was usually at one end of the hall and was
separated from the rest by simple curtains.2 In time, castle builders
constructed separate chambers for the nobility, but though lords and
ladies had their bed(s) to themselves, attendants might share the room
for convenience and security. For the sake of warmth as well as
privacy, the lord's bed was curtained, and his attendants slept on
simple pallets on the floor, on trundle beds, or on benches.

A knight or lady's bed was large and wood-framed, and its "springs"
were interlaced ropes or leather strips upon which a feather mattress
would rest. It had sheets, fur coverlets, quilts and pillows, and it
could be fairly easily dismantled and transported to other castles
when the lord made a tour of his holdings.3 Originally, curtains were
hung from the ceiling, but as the bed evolved, a frame was added to
support a canopy, or "tester," from which the curtains hung.4

Similar beds were welcome additions to town homes, which weren't
necessarily warmer than castles. And, as in matters of manners and
dress, prosperous town-folk emulated the nobility in the style of
furnishings used in their homes





The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt.
Hence the saying, Dirt poor. The wealthy had slate floors that would get
slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to
help! keep t heir footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh
until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A
piece of wood was placed in the entranceway. Hence the saying a thresh
hold.


Most peasant cottages did indeed have dirt floors. Some peasants lived
in homes that sheltered animals as well as themselves.1 When livestock
was enclosed in a peasant home, it was usually partitioned off in a
separate room, sometimes at right angles to the family's living
space.

However, there is no evidence that the term "dirt poor" was used in
any context before the 20th century. One theory suggests that its
origins lie in the Dust Bowl of 1930s Oklahoma, where drought and
poverty combined to create some of the most horrific living conditions
in American history; but direct evidence is lacking.

In castles, the ground floor might be beaten earth, stone or plaster,
but upper stories almost invariably had wooden floors,2 and the same
pattern likely held true in town dwellings. Straw was not needed to
keep people from slipping on wet slate, but it was used as a floor
covering on all surfaces to provide a modicum of warmth and
cushioning. Reeds or rushes were sometimes supplemented with aromatic
herbs like lavender, and the entire floor would usually be swept clean
and strewn with fresh straw and herbs on a regular basis. Old straw
was not simply left down when fresh straw was added.

If such were indeed the case, it might be logical to think of the
little raised strip in a doorway as an item intended to "hold" in
"thresh," except for one significant detail.

There's no such thing as "thresh."

The word "thresh" is a verb which, according to the Merriam-Webster
Dictionary, means "to separate seed" or "to strike repeatedly." It is
not, and never has been, a noun used to designate floor rushes. The
word "threshold," like "thresh," is Old English in origin and dates to
before the twelfth century. Both OE words appear to relate to the
movement of one's feet; thresh (OE threscan) meaning to stamp or
trample3 and threshold (OE therscwold) being a place to step.4




Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special.
When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It
was a sign of wealth that a man could, bring home the bacon. They would
cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew
the fat..


Meat was indeed scarce for the poorest peasants, but the one type of
meat they were most likely to have was meat they could preserve for an
extended period. This was done by smoking, curing or salting. In
medieval Europe, the most popular meat for smoking was pork.1 Smoked
and cured ham or bacon would be edible far longer than any other type
of meat, and thus was a thrifty choice for a peasant on the edge of
starvation.

Bacon (and just about every other foodstuff that was stored indoors)
was indeed hung from the rafters, but not for display. It was done
simply to keep it off the floor, away from rats and other vermin.2

The food situation was much different in the homes of well-to-do
townfolk and castle-dwellers. The amount of food prepared on a daily
basis in a castle kitchen was staggering, and included such items as
ale, wine, bread, orchard fruits, wild fruits, wild nuts, onions,
peas, beans, garden vegetables, fresh fish, dried fish, shellfish,
beef, mutton, goose, wild game and -- yes! -- pork. This doesn't
include the delicacies served on special occasions or to very great
lords, such as lamb, veal, suckling pig, hedgehog or swan, or imported
items like almonds, dates, oranges, raisins, figs, and pomegranates.3

For these prosperous people and their households, "chewing the fat"
was not a common pastime. Nor was it a phrase used in the sixteenth
century. Informal sources indicate that both "bringing home the bacon"
and "chewing the fat" originated in 19th-century North America, but
currently I have no confirmation. If you have any sources concerning
either phrase, please feel free to post them on our bulletin board.




Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid
content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead
poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next
400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.


Pewter was used for plates, drinking vessels and other tableware in
the Middle Ages, but not exclusively. Wealthier folk used silver or
gold for special occasions, and wooden plates evolved in the later
Middle Ages. It was quite true that the lead content (about 30% at
most1) of pewter plates would leach out upon contact with acidic
foods. However, lead poisoning is not a quick process, but is a slow
accumulation of toxins over time,2 and its effects would not have been
associated with any one particular food.

Furthermore, the tomato -- which originated in South America and was
evidently cultivated in Mexico long before the arrival of Europeans --
did not make an appearance in any European cuisine until it came to
Spain in the early 16th century.

The Spanish and Italian peoples adopted it wholeheartedly into many
recipies, and there are no known instances of any claims in either
region that the fruit was poisonous.

However, in northern Europe, tomato plants remained purely decorative,
and they were rarely seen in Britain at all in the sixteenth century.
There was indeed a belief that the plant was poisonous, due in part to
its resemblance to belladonna and deadly nightshade. As a member of
the nightshade family, the tomato plant's roots and leaves contain the
neurotoxin solanine, and thus are indeed poisonous.3 This may explain
the northern Europeans' reluctance to use its fruit, as well as the
lack of enthusiasm on the part of the English to experiment with it.





Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of
the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper
crust.

This singularly ridiculous assertion appears to refer to households
such as castles or manor houses where workers, families and guests
must all be provided for, as opposed to single-family peasant
dwellings or poor townfolk households. I wonder, but cannot discover,
how large a loaf would have to be to feed dozens or even hundreds of
people. And how much time would the serving staff waste cutting it up
"according to status"?

The fact is that in castles and manor houses, bread was baked in
manageable loaves and the individual loaves were distributed among the
tables.

Generally, two kinds of bread were baked in the castle ovens: white
bread used with meals, and coarser bread used for trenchers. Workers
ate in a separate area of the dining hall from the lord and his
family, and they may have received coarser bread than the finer
variety provided to the nobles, or they too may have had white bread
with their meals.

Peasants, who didn't have ovens in their homes, didn't always have
bread with meals, but they could bring the loaves they had prepared to
the village's communal oven.1 There the baker would bake it for a fee,
part of which would go to the lord. Peasant bread was usually coarse
and brown. In towns, baking was an industry with guildmembers, shops,
and varieties of breads at various prices.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the phrase "upper crust"
dates to the year 1836.



Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would
sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking
along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They
were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family
would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake
up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.


As mentioned previously, lead poisoning was a slow, cumulative process
and not a fast-acting toxin. Furthermore, pure lead was not used to
make drinking vessels. By the 1500s pewter, which had at most 30% lead
in its makeup,1 horn, ceramic, gold, silver, glass and even wood were
all used to make cups, goblets, jugs, flagons, tankards, bowls and
other items to hold liquid.

In less formal situations, folk would forgo individual cups and drink
straight from the jug, which was usually ceramic. People were not
commonly knocked out by the combination of whiskey and lead, and those
who overindulged in liquor to the point of unconsciousness generally
recovered within a day.

The consumption of alcohol was a popular pastime in both the
countryside and town, and coroner's records are filled with reports of
accidents, both minor and fatal, that occurred to the inebriated.
Anyone discovered in an alley or by the side of the road could be
quickly determined alive or dead by whether or not he was breathing,
and you can be fairly certain that medieval people were bright enough
to observe this symptom. It was never necessary to lay out hung-over
carousers "on the kitchen table" and wait to see if they woke up --
especially since poorer folk had neither kitchens nor permanent
tables.

The custom of holding a "wake" goes back much further than the 1500s.
In Britain it appears to have its origins in Celtic custom, and was a
watch over the recently-deceased that may have been intended to
protect his body from evil spirits. The Anglo-Saxons called it a "lich-
wake" from the Old English lic, a corpse. When Christianity came to
Britain, prayer was added to the vigil.2

Over time the event took on a social character, where family and
friends of the deceased would gather to bid him farewell and enjoy
some food and drink in the process.The Church tried to discourage this,
3 but the celebration of life in the face of death is not something
humans easily relinquish.





England is old and small and the local folks started running out of
places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the
bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins,
1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and
they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a
string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up
through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in
the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell;
thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a dead
ringer..


England was not so "old and small" that new cemeteries could not be
established, but crowded graveyards did exist, due to the Christian
tradition of burying the dead in the consecrated grounds of Church
yards.

Some towns managed to arrange for cemeteries outside the municipal
boundaries, but Church property was not subjected to secular law and
the practice continued throughout the Middle Ages.

There were no "bone houses" in England, but there were "charnel
houses." These were consecrated buildings for the storage of bones,
usually uncovered in the course of digging new graves. If these bones
had been buried in coffins in the first place -- a fairly uncommon
practice among all but the wealthy -- the coffins had long since
fallen apart. Some charnel houses were set up during the plague, when
the cemetery was overwhelmed by the number of bodies to be buried, and
the corpses in previous graves were removed to make room to bury the
freshly dead.

It wasn't until the 18th century that the nefarious practice of
secretly removing the bones from a grave to make room for new coffins
took place. Church sextons would quietly dispose of the bones in
nearby pits. The coffins were usually so decayed that if scratch-marks
had ever been made inside them they would not be distinguishable in
the rotted wood. The gravediggers would often appropriate the hardware
(handles, plates, and nails) of decayed coffins to sell for waste
metal.1 The matter was resolved in the mid-nineteenth century when
London succeeded in passing a law that closed the churchyards and put
heavy restrictions on burial within the city limits, and most cities
and towns across Great Britain soon followed its lead.

At no time during the Middle Ages was there a prevalent fear that
people were getting buried alive, and in no known instance did anyone
rig up a bell-pull to notify the living. Most medieval people were
smart enough to distinguish a living person from a dead one.
Throughout history there has been the occasional case of someone
getting buried alive, but by no means was this as frequent as the hoax
would have you believe.

The common phrases used in the last portion of the hoax have
absolutely nothing to do with premature burial, and each has its
origin in a different source.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the phrase "graveyard
shift" dates to the early 20th century. It may have its source in the
night shift on nautical vessels, which was called "graveyard watch"
for its quiet loneliness.

"Saved by the bell" originates from the sport of boxing, in which a
fighter is "saved" from further punishment or from a ten-count when
the bell signifies that the round is over. (But the next round is
another story.)

A "ringer" is slang for an imposter. It was used in cheating at horse
races, when an unscrupulous trainer would substitute a fast horse, or
ringer, for a nag with a bad racing record. This sporting association
continues in the modern use of the term "ringer" for a professional
athlete playing in an amateur game. But a human can also be a ringer
in the sense of a person who closely resembles someone else, like the
professional entertainers who impersonate celebrities such as Dolly
Parton and Cher.

A "dead ringer" is simply someone who is extremely close in appearance
to another, in the same way as someone who is "dead wrong" is as wrong
as he can possibly can be.


thumbers on stars, dieseldyke on absolute/vegaspoker24/7

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