The Renaissance smelled…bad. Unwashed bodies of peasants, clothing stinking of rancid sweat, rotting teeth causing breath that could knock the most pious Catholic over, not to mention bodily functions and no concept of toilet tissue, animal and human waste in the street and floating down the river…it was a pungent indeed…
Bathing one’s body for cleanliness and vanity was a concept well known in Europe’s Medieval world. People took baths frequently in the Middle Ages, just as they did when Rome ruled the farthest reaches of civilization. In the Middle and Far East, body cleansing was frequent, and under Islam, was required. People from every walk of life, rich and poor, smelled pretty good. Then the Black Death hit Europe, and Bubonic Plague changed everything. Under misguided information, people stopped bathing because warm water was thought to open their skin pores up, exposing bodies to disease. This of course was nonsense, but they didn’t know that. No one of the era suspected the rats and fleas.
The end result, people in Europe and the British Isles stopped bathing. I’m sure some lower classes would take a dip in the river every once in a while, maybe even using a scrap of soap if they could pinch it…but by and large, they just wandered around…spreading the stench. The wealthy could and would bathe. Bathtubs were known and used, but you needed to have fat stacks of shillings to buy one. Quality tubs were of copper, and lined with fine linen so your little touché would be comfy. Everyone else…well, they stunk.
Most people didn’t own a lot of clothing. Then as now, good threads were pricey. You, as a working class stiff, had a few sets to get you though, and washing your shirt every day was not really an option. People simply wore it until the shirt could stand on its own, and then maybe the time came to put on a fresh one. Upper class folks did have quite a few, and could afford to change out to one of clean linen…essentially taking a “bath” as they perceived it. Practice of the time considered bodily cleanliness the act of letting a clean shirt rub the scum from your skin…not soap and water. So unwashed clothing collected all the sweat, secretions and what not, festered and ripened, following you wherever you went. Not to mention, England is cold, so you probably aren’t going to sit naked while your duds dried…so why even bother.
Dental hygiene was not exactly what we consider it today. Yes, upper-class people would pick their teeth, wipe food from the teeth after a meal and chew herbs and spices in an attempt to freshen the breath. Lower classes, well, they would have had extreme halitosis because you just could not afford silver toothpicks or the Barber Surgeon. Consequently, I don’t think you’d be “swapping spit” all that often in Elizabethan England, if at all. Throw smoking tobacco into the mix, once it became all the rage, and you had a recipe for mouths that would make your eyes water…or cause blindness, depending on how many rotting teeth she has.
The streets of London and the River Thames were virtual cesspools of filth. Rotting offal, dead bodies, excrement, urine…on the land and in the water…made for a very stinky experience. And to think the poor would drink from the river…no wonder they died young. Those of means could afford a pomander…jewelry with something perfumed inside to hold under your nose as you strolled about town…. combatting the stench of certain death. Regardless of all the "medicine show" cheap tricks employed by the sea of humanity stuffed into such a tight living space as London, it remained noxious.
Bathing one’s body for cleanliness and vanity was a concept well known in Europe’s Medieval world. People took baths frequently in the Middle Ages, just as they did when Rome ruled the farthest reaches of civilization. In the Middle and Far East, body cleansing was frequent, and under Islam, was required. People from every walk of life, rich and poor, smelled pretty good. Then the Black Death hit Europe, and Bubonic Plague changed everything. Under misguided information, people stopped bathing because warm water was thought to open their skin pores up, exposing bodies to disease. This of course was nonsense, but they didn’t know that. No one of the era suspected the rats and fleas.
The end result, people in Europe and the British Isles stopped bathing. I’m sure some lower classes would take a dip in the river every once in a while, maybe even using a scrap of soap if they could pinch it…but by and large, they just wandered around…spreading the stench. The wealthy could and would bathe. Bathtubs were known and used, but you needed to have fat stacks of shillings to buy one. Quality tubs were of copper, and lined with fine linen so your little touché would be comfy. Everyone else…well, they stunk.
Most people didn’t own a lot of clothing. Then as now, good threads were pricey. You, as a working class stiff, had a few sets to get you though, and washing your shirt every day was not really an option. People simply wore it until the shirt could stand on its own, and then maybe the time came to put on a fresh one. Upper class folks did have quite a few, and could afford to change out to one of clean linen…essentially taking a “bath” as they perceived it. Practice of the time considered bodily cleanliness the act of letting a clean shirt rub the scum from your skin…not soap and water. So unwashed clothing collected all the sweat, secretions and what not, festered and ripened, following you wherever you went. Not to mention, England is cold, so you probably aren’t going to sit naked while your duds dried…so why even bother.
Dental hygiene was not exactly what we consider it today. Yes, upper-class people would pick their teeth, wipe food from the teeth after a meal and chew herbs and spices in an attempt to freshen the breath. Lower classes, well, they would have had extreme halitosis because you just could not afford silver toothpicks or the Barber Surgeon. Consequently, I don’t think you’d be “swapping spit” all that often in Elizabethan England, if at all. Throw smoking tobacco into the mix, once it became all the rage, and you had a recipe for mouths that would make your eyes water…or cause blindness, depending on how many rotting teeth she has.
The streets of London and the River Thames were virtual cesspools of filth. Rotting offal, dead bodies, excrement, urine…on the land and in the water…made for a very stinky experience. And to think the poor would drink from the river…no wonder they died young. Those of means could afford a pomander…jewelry with something perfumed inside to hold under your nose as you strolled about town…. combatting the stench of certain death. Regardless of all the "medicine show" cheap tricks employed by the sea of humanity stuffed into such a tight living space as London, it remained noxious.
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The Pomander
Finding and purchasing an original 16th or 17th Century pomander is probably not feasible for most Ren Faire reenactors. The good news...there are really good reproductions available, http://www.pewterreplicas.com/pomander, and if push comes to shove, you could make your own.
Jewelry-type pomanders would have been carried by "those with means"...you had a have "dough" to buy a "super nice" one. Lower classes could have a small wooden box or a carved wooden pomander hung about the neck. Here's what they looked like...
Into the pomander you would place a small piece of ambergris, or some crushed herbs...or a small ball of smelly goodness made just for you. There are period recipes available on the Web should you wish to attempt making it. Essentially, the bauble was the "pine scented air-freshener" of its day...whenever the odor of shit-strewn, piss-filled muddy streets became a bit too much, well, you held it to your nose.
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Wooden pomanders carried by the lower classes...
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Here's a small, ornate example from the mid 16th-century...
Two examples of extant Renaissance pieces...
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Three visual sources from the last quarter of the 16th-century, still very relevant to the era we portray...
These portraits range from the 1520s to the early/mid-17th Century. You can see pomanders in all three. Of particular note is the last painting. That is an orange in his hand, studded with cloves. Yes indeed, it appears that type of pomander was being used as well, and more than likely pre-dates the mid 1600s. So should you wish to portray that item...oranges and cloves are relatively inexpensive.
So how does this translate into a modern Ren Faire? Well, I'll never tell you not to bathe, or wear your historical garb for a month in the hot Sun without washing it, or forego deodorant and not wipe your ass...but…you CAN add little things to your kit, giving the impression of living in that smelly, Renaissance world...
Lower classes could use tooth makeup and have their mouths look dreadful (so could the upper classes for that matter)...
Carry a small bouquet of flowers with you and hold them to your nose occasionally as you walk to streets of Faire...
Chew on a small wad of mint leaves...
And of course, the upper and lower classes can carry a reproduction pomander...to ward off the vapors of the drunken unwashed peasant lying in the middle of the road...
