Shakespeare's Christmas

This anthology recalls Christmas in Shakespeare's day, when it was an expansive festival, dominated by strict religious observance on the day itself, but including a long season of merrymaking, feasting and, most important of all, masques and plays. "Measure for Measure" was one of many of Shakespeare's plays first performed by "His Majestie's plaiers" during the 12-day festival at the Royal Court. Also included are little-known delights such as: the story of how Elizabeth I interrupted Shakespeare's performance by walking across the stage and dropping a glove at his feet; the 32 dishes expected to grace the table of a "modest home", including delectable Elizabethan desserts and Shakespeare's "roasted crabs hissing in the bowl"; how the barristers at Inns of Court danced before the judges; the ballad by George Wither of an Elizabethan Christmas, celebrated 16th-century poet Robert Herrick's verse on the ceremonies for Christmas, and the winter poem by the Catholic martyr, Father Robert Southwell. "The Masque of Christmas" by Shakespeare's contemporary, Ben Jonson, appears here complete, and readers learn of the ignoble goings-on of the Lord of Misrule.