In the accounts of the Stratford Corporation of 1576, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mother Margaret\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is recorded as having been paid three pence for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153making clean before the chapel\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. That may be the first record of a woman who later appears as Margaret Smith, in 1578 doing the same job, the pay having risen to 20 pence in 1580, with an extra pence for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sweeping the street after the tiler\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. In 1582 she was paid 16 pence, the following year the same, but she has become \u00e2\u20ac\u0153old Margaret\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. <\/p>\n
By 1585 she is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153lame Margaret\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, but obviously still doing a good enough job, being paid again 16 pence. Her will was written on April 11 1586. She had to give one coffer, a brass pot and the corn in her bag to one Richard Holmes, another coffer to her son, and to John Johnston and Isabel Barrymore a kerchief each. Five shillings was to be bestowed on the day of her funeral to the poor, probably for a feast.<\/p>\n
This from Germaine Greer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Shakespeare\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Wife<\/i>, on which more after the Green Party conference, but a short note that it contains many such lovely tales that create a vivid picture of the life, particularly the female life, of Stratford. Greer says:
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Margaret\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s will \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 is a dignified little document, a fitting epilogue to an ordered, frugal and useful life.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (p. 160-161)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the accounts of the Stratford Corporation of 1576, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mother Margaret\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is recorded as having been paid three pence for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153making clean before the chapel\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. That may be the first record of a woman who later appears as Margaret Smith, in 1578 doing the same job, the pay having risen to 20 pence in 1580, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-womens-history","author-natalieben"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philobiblon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philobiblon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philobiblon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philobiblon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philobiblon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/philobiblon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philobiblon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philobiblon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philobiblon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}