Part 1: An Introduction to Elizabethan England

Elizabethan people also consider their health when choosing what to eat. . . . But our ideas about healthy food are very different from Elizabethan ones. For example, while we make use of sage in our cooking on account of its taste, Elizabethans use it because it is thought to sharpen the brain. Sir Thomas Elyot is worth listening to on this subject. Although he is a layman and not a physician, his book, The Castel of Health, proves hugely influential—it goes into its sixteenth edition in 1595. He declares that mutton is the most wholesome meat you can eat and that fish is not so good because it thins the blood. -The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England, Ian Mortimer Which details give explicit information about Elizabethans' beliefs about health? Check all that apply.

"Elizabethan people also consider their health when choosing what to eat." "Elizabethans use [sage] because it is thought to sharpen the brain." "[Sir Thomas Elyot] declares that mutton is the most wholesome meat you can eat"

Which detail from the text best supports the inference that winter months produce less food?

"Most yeomen will have vats and presses for making cheeses—a valuable source of protein in the long winter season."

. . . storage of food is most important. The principal rule is to have separate places for different types of commodity: dry things can be kept in a pantry with bread and dry linen; wet things are normally stored in the buttery. Wine and meat must be kept apart, and cellars should be avoided on account of their dampness. Meat should be seethed in summer to keep it fresh, then kept in a cool cellar, soaked in vinegar with juniper seeds and salt. Most yeomen will have vats and presses for making cheeses—a valuable source of protein in the long winter season. Similarly, most livestock owners have troughs for salting meat or allowing it to steep in brine. -The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England, Ian Mortimer Which details are stated explicitly? Check all that apply.

-Storage of food was important. -Wine and meat needed to be stored apart. -Most yeomen had vats and presses to make cheese

For the vast majority of yeomen in the country, it is vitally important to store hard fruit through the whole year. To do this, select faultless apples and pears without a bruise or other mark, and leave a length of stalk on them. Place them carefully in your fruit house or "hoard house" on clean dry straw, make sure they are not touching each other, and turn them very carefully every month to avoid their collecting moisture. And, most important, keep the door to the fruit house shut, "lest children make havoc there." Which detail from the text best supports the inference that one bad apple can spoil all the others?

. . . make sure they are not touching each other . . .

Food is valuable in Elizabethan England, far more so than in the modern world. A flock of 180 sheep is worth more than the average detached house. The difficulties of transportation mean that the food supply depends heavily on what grows locally and how much surplus is available. It also depends on the season. Which statement is a logical inference based on details in the passage?

During the Elizabethan period, food was often scarce.

In London you can buy ready-made marmalade imported from the Continent, as well as dates and figs; but these are for the tables of the wealthy. For the vast majority of yeomen in the country, it is vitally important to store hard fruit through the whole year. -The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England, Ian Mortimer Which statement is a logical inference based on details in the passage?

Imported marmalade was expensive.

Pig farmers keep their flitches of bacon back in storage until they can get a better price for them later in the winter. Such tactics are made even more profitable by the unhappy fact that harvests can fail, causing local—and sometimes national—food shortages. Large towns are less vulnerable, being part of an international market that sees preserved foods traded long-distance; but much of the countryside is dependent on fresh food. After a poor harvest, prices for all commodities—not just grain—rise dramatically and the poor are unable to make ends meet. Which detail from the excerpt best supports the inference that food was more consistently available in larger towns?

Large towns are less vulnerable, being part of an international market that sees preserved foods traded long-distance; but much of the countryside is dependent on fresh food.

Food is valuable in Elizabethan England, far more so than in the modern world. A flock of 180 sheep is worth more than the average detached house. The difficulties of transportation mean that the food supply depends heavily on what grows locally and how much surplus is available. It also depends on the season. Harvest is obviously a time of much grain and fruit. Which ideas are implicitly stated in the excerpt? Check all that apply.

Not many Elizabethans ate exotic fruit. Food was more scarce during the winter months. More people had food during harvest season.

So much grain is produced in 1592 that Francis Bacon proudly declares that England can now afford to feed other nations as well as her own people. It is an unfortunate remark, for it is very soon followed by a great dearth. The harvest of 1594 is poor, that of 1595 is worse, and the following year worse still: wheat hits 170 percent of its normal price, oats reach a level of 191 percent, and rye has to be imported from Denmark. Other bad years—when the price of grain is 20 percent or more above the rolling average—are 1573, 1586, and 1600. The year 1590 is almost as bad, made worse by the high cost of livestock. Prices for animal products hit new heights and never really diminish. Which detail from the text best supports the inference that many Elizabethans could not afford to buy grain during some years?

Other bad years—when the price of grain is 20 percent or more above the rolling average—are 1573, 1586, and 1600.

The underlying reasons for such differences are not hard to find. In a society in which people still starve to death, an orchard is not a beautiful thing in itself: its beauty lies in the fact that it produces apples and cider. A wide flat field is "finer" than rugged terrain for it can be tilled easily to produce wheat and so represents good white bread. A small thatched cottage, which a modern viewer might consider pretty, will be considered unattractive by an Elizabethan traveler, for cottagers are generally poor and able to offer little in the way of hospitality. Ranges of hills and mountains are obstacles to Elizabethan travelers and very far from picturesque features you go out of your way to see. Hills might feature in an Elizabethan writer's description of a county because of their potential for sheep grazing, but on the whole he will be more concerned with listing all the houses of the gentry, their seats and parks. Which detail gives implicit information about the modern view of the Elizabethan landscape?

Ranges of hills and mountains are obstacles to Elizabethan travelers and very far from picturesque features you go out of your way to see.

Taking livestock is theft, and theft is a felony which carries the death sentence. . . . It is unlikely that you will be hanged for taking a wild animal such as a rabbit; but, even so, you will get a fine amounting to three times the value of the animal as well as three months in prison, and you will have to enter into a bond to guarantee your good behavior in the future; a second offense will be treated more harshly. If a gamekeeper attacks you and you defend yourself, you can be charged with assault. You may find yourself on the gallows if you injure him. -The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England, Ian Mortimer In three to five sentences, identify and explain the effect of the point of view in this passage.

The author uses second-person point of view in this text by addressing the reader directly. The consequences listed for the felony of theft of livestock seem much more severe when readers consider they might happen to them. By speaking to the reader as a distinct individual, the author captures the attention of a reader who in other circumstances might not take the punishment of a crime in Elizabethan England as seriously.

What inference can be made about the availability of food, based on this passage?

The winter months produced less food.

Asked to describe their county, most Devonians will mention the great city of Exeter, the ports of Dartmouth, Plymouth, and Barnstaple, and the dozens of market towns. They will generally neglect to mention that the region is dominated by a great moor, Dartmoor, two thousand feet high in places and over two hundred square miles in expanse. -The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England, Ian Mortimer What point of view does the author use in this passage?

Third Person

If you are really determined to eat meat all week, it is possible to buy a license to do so. It will cost you £1 6 shillings 8 pence if you are a lord or a lady, 13 shillings 4 pence if you are a knight or his wife, and 6s 8d if you are anyone else. Even these licenses do not allow you to eat beef or veal between Michaelmas and May 1. There is some respite at the end of the reign: the law against eating meat on Wednesdays is repealed in 1585. At the same time, there is a general slackening of fish-eating and an increase in the consumption of meat. -The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England, Ian Mortimer What point of view does the author use in this passage?

second person

It is worth being aware of these differences at the outset. Those things that Elizabethans take for granted are precisely what you will find most striking: the huge open fields, the muddy roads, and the small size of so many laborers' houses. -The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England, Ian Mortimer What point of view does the author use in this passage?

second person

What is the effect of the point of view?

the reader gets direct advice on the process

But you still have producers holding back corn supplies, even though hoarding is forbidden by law. In Stratford in 1597 seventy-five townsmen are found guilty of hoarding corn, including William Shakespeare, who is hanging on to ten quarters of malt. Worse than this, "engrossers" buy up all the local supply of an important commodity, such as eggs or butter, in order to drive up the price. In the 1590s certain unscrupulous businessmen buy up to twenty thousand pounds of butter—and this is disastrous because it is an important part of people's diet. Combined with hoarding, this has dramatic consequences for the poor. In some places the famine of 1594-97 proves as deadly as the plague of 1563. The details from this excerpt support the inference that

the rich often still prospered while the poor starved.

What is the author's purpose?

to explain how to get around meat instructions.

If you are hungry, you might feel inclined to turn to poaching. But be careful: this is risky. Taking livestock is theft, and theft is a felony which carries the death sentence. Killing wild animals that live on another man's land is also against the law; even taking a single fish from a river can result in a fine of a shilling or more. It is unlikely that you will be hanged for taking a wild animal such as a rabbit; but, even so, you will get a fine amounting to three times the value of the animal as well as three months in prison, and you will have to enter into a bond to guarantee your good behavior in the future; a second offense will be treated more harshly. If a gamekeeper attacks you and you defend yourself, you can be charged with assault. You may find yourself on the gallows if you injure him. What is the author's purpose in this excerpt?

to explain why poaching was dangerous