by L E Pembroke
Penalties could be harsh if sumptuary laws were not adhered to and they could entail, loss of property and confiscation of the offending garment and fines.
TOMBSTONES SUSANNA HALL AND WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
William Shakespeare, his wife and daughter were entombed under the Chancel of the Holy Trinity Church, by the river in Stratford.
The words engraved on Susanna’s tomb are as follows:
“Here lyeth the body of Susanna, wife of John Hall, gent,
the daughter of William Shakespeare, gent.
She deceased the 11th day of July, Anno 1649 aged 66.
Witty above her sex, but that’s not all
Wise to salvation was good Mistress Hall
Something of Shakespeare was in that, but this
Wholly of him with whom she’s now in blisse.
Then, passenger, hast nere a tear
To weep with her that wept with all
That wept, yet set herself to chere
Them up with comforts cordiale
Her love shall live, her mercy spread
When thou hast nere a tear to shed”
The epithet on Shakespeare’s tomb reads:
“Good friend, for Jesus sake forebore
To digg the dust enclosed heare
Blest be the man that spares thes stones
And curst be he that moves my bones”
It is presumed this epithet was prepared by his family.
TYBURN
For six hundred years public hangings were held at Tyburn which was, in the twelfth century, a spot in a village in Middlesex adjacent to a rivulet of the same name. It was just outside the London city walls. The first time the gallows were used was in 1196 when the victim, William Fitz Osbern was dragged naked behind a horse to Tyburn and then, what was left of him, hanged.
By 1571 Tyburn was within the walls of the city of London (at Marble Arch). That year the Tyburn Tree was erected which enabled at least twenty hangings to take place simultaneously. The first person hanged on the Tyburn Tree was a recusant who refused to recognise Queen Elizabeth as the head of the church. He and many others died with a paying audience of thousands cheering from specially constructed stands and debating amongst themselves whether it had been a good or bad hanging. In other words did the person being hanged behave like a “gent” hiding his feelings and facing the hangman stoically, or did he wriggle and writhe and address the crowd plaintively?
