Candlelit Shakespeare

Over the past few days I have been working my way through Hester Lees-Jeffries' wonderful new book: Textile Shakespeare. It was only published last week and offers a detailed examination of ways in which textiles were created, handled, used and subsequently viewed in Early Modern England, with occasional reference to the intervening years between then and now. Hilary Mantel's use of textiles in her Wolf Hall trilogy gets special coverage.

I am reading Textile Shakespeare because I believe that it has direct relevance to my own book, currently in development, about Candlelit Shakespeare. The critical point, of course, is that in a candlelit performance the textiles appearing on the stage would have been perceived differently to when viewed in daylight. In this connection it is widely appreciated that sparkly things would have 'sparkled' in candlelight, but the effects on colour and shape and pattern and movement are all somewhat less understood. These are among the topics I cover in my book and they are topics which I believe help explain (or at least offer further evidence for) some of the issues which any study of the early modern period throws up. There is, you see, relatively little evidence which still exists today for so many elements of daily life, and theatre, back then. One piece of evidence which does exist, however, and which Hester Lees-Jeffries examines in Textile Shakespeare, is what has become known as the Bacton Altar Cloth.

The Bacton Altar Cloth is, from all accounts, a strange object. It appears to have resided in a Herefordshire church since the 19th century (at least) but seems originally to have been an item from Queen Elizabeth I's wardrobe. Its arrival in Bacton was likely (?) due to Bacton being the home town of Queen Elizabeth's chief gentlewoman, Blanche Perry (see Textile Shakespeare, p. 291). Lees-Jeffries, analysing the construction and pattern of the extant fabric, conjectures that it may originally have been a dress or a petticoat or even a procession canopy.

While this item was unknown to me until this week, one thing struck me as I parsed Lees-Jeffries work through the logic of Candlelit Shakespeare: the colours and patterns of the Bacton Altar Cloth's fabric seem clearly designed for candlelight. This observation is, at present, no more than a preliminary conjecture and it is only based on a single image of the fabric as recorded by a modern photograph of the cloth, reproduced in a book. However, it is not only the colour choice (there is evidence of carnation, yellow, green, and silver) and the use of metal thread that lead me to this conclusion. The cloth's potential origins in a candlelit event are also suggested by the relatively bold outlines of the figures and patterns depicted on the cloth - which contrast strikingly with the apparently lighter background. This is one of the features that I term 'candlelight-friendly' in my book.

Lees-Jeffries makes no explicit mention of candlelight when discussing the cloth, and there is no obvious need for her to do so. However, when determining the original use of the fabric - for a procession canopy or dress - the design might certainly

be considered to point towards a candlelit ceremony or event. Lees-Jeffries herself suggests that the cloth may have formed part of an Elizabethan Masque outfit and this is a notion which the candlelight-friendly design of the cloth certainly supports. Of course, this is all conjecture. Even the origins of the cloth are not entirely clear, though it is certainly more than an altar cloth. And this uncertainty and lack of concrete evidence is the challenge that my own exploration of Candlelit Shakespeare faces: there is much seemingly immutable science but there is also much unknown at the heart of Shakespeare's life and dramatic works.

In my book I will be illustrating the myriad ways in which candlelight appears to have shaped Shakespeare's Romances (particularly The Tempest, Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale and his contribution to The Two Noble Kinsmen). I am currently in the process of securing a publisher but, if the response of people who have encountered the ideas to date is anything to go by, the book clearly has something interesting and important to say about Shakespeare and candlelight, and the early modern period as a whole. Textile Shakespeare is now contributing to my feeling that the academic importance of my research - quite apart from the general interest it provokes - is significant. Watch this space!

In related but other news, next month I finally graduate as Dr Brownlie with full colours at the University of Birmingham's winter graduation ceremony. I'm looking forward to it immensely and will no doubt find a way to get a couple of pictures in the next blog - whenever that may be! Till then, best wishes... and don't forget that our full programme of 2026 Shakespeare retreats - for lovers of Shakespeare - is available to peruse and book on the website!

Nic