SC - Fools and Fricasees at the Folger

[Christine A Seelye-King]

> I would love to see a list of the books that you thought good 
> sources for info. I didn't see any that were very accurate in the
cookery field and noticed right away that they had 'Fabulous Feasts'
prominently  displayed for sale. No reproductions of any the manuals from
the display were available for sale. ;-( 
> Ras

Yes, they still had Fab Feasts prominently displayed, and we laughed that
you hadn't had much effect on them.  We thought the lady taking money in
the giftshop was singularly unhelpful in anything but the sale itself. :(
Ok, let's see.  I started with the exhibit cataloge, which I thought dear
at $27.00, but it has almost every page and illustration they had showing
printed in it, with all of the text info.  The illustrations are so well
done, that I can see much more detail in them than I could see in the
dimly lit original with my nose pressed to the glass :/   I had stood
there and made a sketch of the Father Christmas from 1687, only to find
it in the book.  Ah, well.  I bought a National Trust book called
"Investigating Food History", which is a children's book, but very well
laid out, I thought, and a handy teaching tool.  Yes, Molli, we can use
some of it for Penfeathers.  I bought "Christmas in Shakespeare's
England" compiled by Maria Hubert, which is a treasure trove of stories
about period Christmas practices, recipies (mostly from sources known to
us), a play or two, and other neat stuff (you see, I have some small
interest in Christmas customs and celebrations...).  I bought "The
Housewife's Rich Cabinet: Remedies, Recipes & Helpful Hints", which is
sort of a companion piece to the exhibit, but is also a reprint of a
little book in the collection called "The Complete English and French
Vermin Killer" dated 1707.  It is introduced as an example of the how-to
books that became fashionable in Shakespeare's time and just beyond, of
which there are many in the display.  I also bought two tapes of the
Folger Consort, and have lots of new music and documentation (great liner
notes!) to work on with the Chorusters.  
	I just loved the exhibit, and thought it was well worth the trip to see
it.  There were very few objects, but lots of books, including originals
of the Plat and Digby I have been working with photocopies of for years. 
And here we thought they had been reduced to fit 4 pages on one regular
page!  But no, they really are that small!  They had an original Robert
May, La Varenne, Thomas Tusser, Gervase Markham, lots of things we
recognized and appreciated.  Tara was most impressed with the spice box,
even though it looked like a stationary one and not a travelling variety.
 I like the spice grinder.  It was two pieces.  The pestle part was about
the size of a dixie cup with a finial for a handle, all in a dark wood. 
The mortar part was just enough bigger for the pestle to fit in snugly. 
On the bottom of the inside was a pierced metal circle (tin?) with the
rough points sticking up, and the bottom of the pestle had the same stuff
pointing down.  It looked like it would be very efficient, and I would
like to have one.  It had me standing on tiptoe, craning my neck around
and pressing my nose to the glass to get a look inside it, but I think I
could re-create one.  I have not even looked in the book, but it may be
in there.  
	We even sat in on the end of a tour, in the theatre, and got to hear and
take part in a wonderful discussion of Shakespeare's theatre and
surrounding life.   We walked the length of the Mall and took in the
Museum of American History before we left town, which would have been
better if it hadn't started raining outside and got packed with wet
people just as we got there.  I'm sure once Tara gets a chance to look
over her goodies that she bought, she'll post her thoughts to the list as
well.  
	The exhibit goes until December 30th, and we were able to get round trip
tickets on Delta for $113.50.  It cost us another $19.00 for the bus from
the airport and the Metro ride there and back, which we thought wasn't
too bad, considering the price of a taxi!  I would recommend the trip to
anyone on this list, we were glad we went.  
	Christianna

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