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In Elizabethan times, Shakespeare lived (duh) and the times were, to put it nicely, gross. People threw their trash and garbage out the window, and if their dog or cat died, they would throw them out the window, too. Whenever it rained, the dogs and cats would flow down the street, coin the phrase," Raining cats and dogs." Back then people took baths maybe once a month, but more than likely only once or twice a year. In a book I recently read, it quoted another book as saying,"The Queen, Elizabeth,takes her bath whether she needs it or no. Back the everyone had lice and fleas, and women would tie pieces of meat to their legs, under their big dresses, so that the fleas would jump onto that, and then they would put small dogs under the dresses to eat the fleas and meat.
Posted by Devun on April 20, 1997 at 11:34:28
In Reply to "Life in Elizabethan England" posted by Andrew Maiman on April 18, 1997 at 06:28:56
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