The BBC has launched its Shakespeare Unlocked season, and as part of it, the British Museum's Director, Neil MacGregor has, in the style of 'A History of the World in 100 Objects', been looking at items from Shakespeare's era.
Last week, the third part of Shakespeare's Restless World (which you can listen to here if you're in the UK) looked at a fork found during an archaeological dig at the Rose theatre (run by a rival of The Bard's own company), using it as a jumping off point to talk about the food of the era, and of course, particularly theatre snacks.
The fork itself was a new arrival to England from the continent. Early adopters of forks were mercilessly mocked by their peers - who, generally speaking, would have eaten with a knife, perhaps a spoon, and certainly their fingers. Even later on, the foreignness of a fork was cause for suspicion, and entirely reserved for the rich. Given the general state of hygeine at the time we can only assume people had far tougher digestive and immune systems than we do today.
So, a little collection of facts about Elizabethan food:
Shellfish, bread, nuts and fruit make up the bulk of the goodies on offer from merchants roaming the auditorium throughout the performance.
Apples were often thrown at the stage when the groundlings (members of the audience on the ground of the theatre, without a seat) got bored or fidgety, or felt the performers were less than entertaining.
Oysters - now seen mostly as a luxury (albeit not by me, I don't really find the idea of seawater flavoured snot appealing) were a staple of theatre nibbles.
Some of the female food sellers made extra money as prostitutes
Water wasn't clean enough to drink, so everybody was drinking ale, beer, wine or mead all the time. Some estimates suggest the population of London got through a gallon of ale each every day.
Potatoes were a novelty rather than an often taken for granted staple in the Elizabethan diet. Brought from America, they thrived in Britain's damp mud, and with a little help from deep-fat frying, this versatile vegetable became utterly ubiquitous.
The British tradition of eating lamb with mint sauce began with Elizabeth I decreeing that lamb may only be eaten with 'bitter herbs' in an effort to discourage people from eating it to help out the wool industry.
The spice trade became a big earner for England at this time, and new flavours were arriving and being adopted all the time. It was also a catalyst for the rise of the British Empire.
Sugar, another new import, was a weakness for Queen Elizabeth herself. She had one hell of a sweet tooth, especially for candied violets, and (despite its huge price - she was queen after all) ate so much sugar that she rotted all of her teeth.
Exploration in America brought a lot to our diets beyond potatoes. Tomatoes, maize, chilli, peanuts, turkey, pineapples, pumpkins, coffee and chocolate also came to our shores from the New World.
