Pins and Poking Sticks: Decoding dress in Shakespeare’s time

Pins and Poking Sticks: Decoding dress in Shakespeare’s time Lecturer: Jacqui Ansell A contemporary of Shakespeare informs us that ‘a ship is sooner rigged by far than a Gentlewoman made ready’. In The Winter’s Tale Autolycus peddles ‘pins and poking sticks of steel’, seductive smocks, perfumed gloves, bugle beads and other irresistible items. What were these objects and what was their role in the ‘art’ of dress? Moral messages and secretive signals in emblematic jewellery and embroidery contributed to Elizabeth I’s image as the ‘Virgin Queen’. Elizabethan and Jacobean portraits will be explored, to enable us to decode the dress worn by the courtly elite, and their monarchs. Light Supper incl.