DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52829#0215
139
of fine painted earth, brought hither from Venice, but of oriental
manufacture. In the reign of Elizabeth several Spanish caracks were
taken, partly laden with “ China ware of porcelaine.”* The Portuguese
first brought this ware into Europe; Philip II. having seized Por-
tugal, and her colonies begun the commerce with the East Indies.
Earthen dishes were not uncommon in Shakspeare’s time: the clown in
Measure for Measure, speaks of “ a fruit-dish, a dish of some three
pence; your honours have seen such dishes; they are not china dishes,
but very good dishes.”f
—Carpets, which at earlier periods were almost the
only coverings for dining-tables and cupboards, continued in occasional
use as late as Shakspeare’s time. Grumio, the servant of Petruchio,
preparing for the return of his master, inquires “ where’s the cook ? Is
supper ready, the rushes strewed, the jacks fair within, the carpets laid?”
But throughout the period to which these observations apply, fine
linen, or as it was called, ^aperp, was possessed by the higher orders.
Mention of diaper and damask for table-cloths frequently occurs. The
“ fine damask table-cloths” at Wolsey’s feasts were “ sweetly per-
fumed,” as they were also at the royal banquets. In 1520, Thomas,
Duke of Norfolk, bequeathed his naperie to Agnes his wife; and at
the death of Sir Thomas Kytson, in 1540, his napery was valued at
“ xxli. viii^. xrZ.” Du Cange mentions a curious feudal privilege—that of
the lord being entitled to the table-cloth of the house where he dined as
a guest. At the commencement of the seventeenth century this kind of
linen was to be had, of very expensive fabrication. Mrs. Otter, in Ben
Johnson’s Silent Woman, first played in 1609, complains of a table-cloth
being stained, which cost her eighteen pounds. It was particularly
* Douce’s Ill. of Shakspeare.
-f Act II. Scene 1.
of fine painted earth, brought hither from Venice, but of oriental
manufacture. In the reign of Elizabeth several Spanish caracks were
taken, partly laden with “ China ware of porcelaine.”* The Portuguese
first brought this ware into Europe; Philip II. having seized Por-
tugal, and her colonies begun the commerce with the East Indies.
Earthen dishes were not uncommon in Shakspeare’s time: the clown in
Measure for Measure, speaks of “ a fruit-dish, a dish of some three
pence; your honours have seen such dishes; they are not china dishes,
but very good dishes.”f
—Carpets, which at earlier periods were almost the
only coverings for dining-tables and cupboards, continued in occasional
use as late as Shakspeare’s time. Grumio, the servant of Petruchio,
preparing for the return of his master, inquires “ where’s the cook ? Is
supper ready, the rushes strewed, the jacks fair within, the carpets laid?”
But throughout the period to which these observations apply, fine
linen, or as it was called, ^aperp, was possessed by the higher orders.
Mention of diaper and damask for table-cloths frequently occurs. The
“ fine damask table-cloths” at Wolsey’s feasts were “ sweetly per-
fumed,” as they were also at the royal banquets. In 1520, Thomas,
Duke of Norfolk, bequeathed his naperie to Agnes his wife; and at
the death of Sir Thomas Kytson, in 1540, his napery was valued at
“ xxli. viii^. xrZ.” Du Cange mentions a curious feudal privilege—that of
the lord being entitled to the table-cloth of the house where he dined as
a guest. At the commencement of the seventeenth century this kind of
linen was to be had, of very expensive fabrication. Mrs. Otter, in Ben
Johnson’s Silent Woman, first played in 1609, complains of a table-cloth
being stained, which cost her eighteen pounds. It was particularly
* Douce’s Ill. of Shakspeare.
-f Act II. Scene 1.