Set of twelve late 16th century Elizabethan posy trenchers/table mats; sycamore; with hand-written rhymes set within a coloured floral and strapwork border on each roundel; slight traces of wear on some of set; contained in circular pasteboard box covered with black vellum and lined with printed papers bearing the date 1597.
3 mm
130 mm
he that/most the house of/-ais haunte. The/more hee looks/the more hir face/enchante., O bondage/vile the Worthie/mass deface flie/far from hym that/leaving doth embr/ace, O death yi/power is great I/must confese I often/wish that it were/lese, No fish so/dumbe no beast so/dull of heart that/heres mee sing and/will not heare a part, Women are/like nettles, who tou/cheth them, they sting/them. But hurte not those that wringe/them, Be neither/dumbe, nor give/this tonge the lease/but speak thou well/or heare, and hold/yi peace., Who looks/for time, and prey/sent time mislikes/Shall loose his time/whilst future/time hee seeks, Hee that/climes higher than/hee should. Is like/to fall lower than/he would., Who in his/life is voide of/care. Shall in ye/end have simple/fare., eate rather/for hunger than/delight, or plesure/for when thought/hungrie then meate/is a tresure., If women/were as litle as/they are good a pese/cod would make em y/gowne, and a/hood., Who in the/life, of his soule/doth delight his car-/nall luste, he must/mortifie quiglie.,
CC-BY-NC-ND Image Courtesy of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
