The Poor and The Fragrant...

The Renaissance Faire is a peculiar event that sprouted from a high school history project in Southern California during the early 1960’s. It has grown into a sub-culture that spans across the United States, Canada and Europe. Some events are solid historically based events, others are hysterical spectacles of flesh and fantasy, clinging to a thread of Renaissance history…

The low or the low...the poor, the beggars, the petty criminals...the dregs of society.  Renaissance Faires don't represent this caste of society very well.  Everyone seems to want to dress as a mythical being, like fairies, she-orcs, elves and Vulcans...but nobody wants to represent the real deal and portray the nitty gritty poor of Elizabethan England...or whatever European country is being represented.  One thing is certain, no matter where you were in the Renaissance, there were poor, and they were dirty...and stinky.

I get it, you cannot really represent the smell.  We are modern historical interpreters and cannot go for months without bathing, wiping and using underarm deodorant.  It's just not going to happen...and who wants to go to their day job sporting the fragrance of ass sweat?  Not me...

What you can do is represent visually.  It's not difficult to make your clothing look used almost to the point of falling apart, you can use make-up to simulate dirt and grime...or sores upon your legs, arms and face.  You could use product to make your hair look matted and grimy.  And don't forget your mouth...there's stuff out there to safely make your teeth look nasty or missing.

Look at this slag...from 1570...she is the "gold standard" when it comes to Renaissance poverty.  Torn hose, mules on her feet, and oh that hair! It just screams...filthy rabble!

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Johannes van Vliet created a series of etchings showing beggars and the poor in the early 1600s.  All are dated to 1632.  So while these can be considered extremely late Renaissance examples, they are still good representations for the earlier era we as Renaissance Faire reenactors portray.

   

   

   

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Squarely in Elizabeth's England, this dirty peasant exhibits all the traits of the honest poor and have-nots, from the rags tied round his legs, to a stinky old jerkin and a surprisingly nice looking flat cap/bonnet... He represents is what was called a soap-eater.  Shifty individuals or charlatans who feigned sickness, madness...whatever...by putting bits of soap in their mouths so it would froth. They would beg for alms...or scare little children.

     

Two more period English examples of the destitute...

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Here's another example from 1567 of a almost destitute peasant man (although he is in an actual structure as opposed to a tent-like hovel) and when you look you can just smell the poverty.  Look at the shoes as well, almost like modern sandals, and the ripped open hose, the doublet without any elbows left...he does have a griddle (belt) though.

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Peasants Gone Wild!