Romeo and Juliet Hands With Dagger Romeo and Juliet Art Dagger

SBT_2017_10 Bollock Dagger Mid C16th Hilt

This wonderful dagger was fabricated during the 1500s and is known as a 'bollock dagger'. The name, although slightly alarming, is more descriptive than utilitarian. These daggers were and then-chosen considering of the pair of lobes at the base of the haft, or handle. They are also known as ballock daggers, or kidney daggers.

Bollock daggers were used throughout the northernmost parts of Europe, including the British Isles, from as early as the 1300s upward to the 1800s. They were detail popular during the Tudor Flow in England and a large number were discovered on the wreck of the Mary Rose . This example was found in Holland in the early twenty^th century. The bollock dagger was commonly used every bit a backup to the lance or sword. Just gentlemen were permitted to carry swords in Shakespeare's day but many men would accept carried daggers like this one.

This instance has a triangular section iron blade and a haft made of turned walrus ivory with a small contumely knop, it is just under 30cm long and very lightweight. The grip of the ivory haft is worn where it has been handled over the years and there is a separate at the base of operations.  The apply of walrus ivory for the haft is interesting as it does not seem to accept been a commonly used material.  Instead, similar daggers in other collections across the UK tend to have wooden hafts. Horn, elephant ivory, os and metallic were likewise used.  Information technology would originally accept had a sheath, virtually probably fabricated of leather. The everyday usefulness of a dagger similar this is attested to by the fact that some surviving sheaths also accept pockets for other necessary items such as a knife and fork set or a option.

SBT_2017_10 Bollock Dagger

Perhaps Shakespeare himself carried a dagger like this one. There are tantalising stories about Shakespeare getting into diverse scrapes – poaching deer at Charlecote Park and existence the subject area of a sixteen^th century restraining society among others – but no real bear witness that he led annihilation other than a peaceful and law abiding life. London's South Banking company was a notorious surface area for roistering and drinking. It was home to London's theatres, bear pits, taverns and brothels. Shakespeare would have been very familiar with this expanse and no doubt witnessed the occasional fight. Young men, out having a good time and drinking a niggling likewise much must take been just as probable to get into trouble as they are today. The violence that ensued must have frequently had grave consequences when it was fashionable to habiliment a dagger, or even a sword, every bit part of your everyday apparel.

SR ninety.1 Book of Falconry 1611 A falconer with his Goshawk, the haft of what is probably a dagger tin can exist seen protruding from his belt, daggers were oftentimes worn horizontally across the dorsum of the belt whilst swords sat lower on the hip

References to daggers are made in several of Shakespeare's plays including Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Shakespeare ofttimes used the word equally part of a metaphor then that we find Hamlet saying 'I will speak daggers to her, but employ none' in Human activity 3, scene two. Or Donalbain remarking 'there's daggers in men's smiles' in Macbeth, Human activity 2, scene 3. The apply of the give-and-take in this manner evokes threat and provides the audience with a sense of danger and the potential for harm.

Daggers feature in pivotal scenes in Macbeth and Julius Caesar. In the erstwhile, struggling with his decision to kill Duncan, Macbeth talks of seeing a bloodied dagger in forepart of him ('Is this a dagger which I see earlier me,/The handle toward my paw?', Human action ii, scene ane). His after description of the scene is very evocative of the damage such weapons could do:

                '...Hither lay Duncan,

                His silver pare laced with his golden claret;

                And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature

                For ruin's wasteful entrance; there, the murderers,

                Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers

                Unmannerly breech'd with gore...'

Macbeth, Act 2, scene 3

The untimely deaths brought nearly by blades in many of Shakespeare'southward plays emphasise to a modern audition the dangers that Shakespeare would have been familiar with. From the hot headed youths of Romeo and Juliet to the political machinations of Macbeth, Shakespeare lived in a earth where violent decease was much more visible, and even intentionally public.

Related Links:

Shakespeare'southward Earth in 100 Objects: Number 39, 'Spanish' rapiers

http://findingshakespeare.co.uk/shakespeares-globe-in-100-objects-number-39-spanish-rapiers

BBC Radio iv's Shakespeare's Restless World – Swordplay and Swagger

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2NblgTZT0Wlpqk4LDT4mz4l/transcript-shakespeares-restless-globe-programme-5

Is this a dagger which I run across before me,/The handle toward my hand?'

— Macbeth, Act 2 scene I

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Source: https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/blogs/bollock-dagger/

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