Tuesday, April 9, 2013

A-Z: "G & H" is for the Guildsmen and a Harberdasher in The Canterbury Tales

And the A-Z challenge continues   I'm combining my "G" & "H" post today since they go hand and hand.  First up, "G" is for Guildsmen and Games. In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales there are the five Guildsmen mentioned in the General Prologue.

The Guildsmen are:
- Dyer
- Carpenter
- Weaver
- Tapestry-maker
- Haberdasher

Chaucer mentions very little about the guildsmen only that they dressed to impressed and expected to be treated much like nobility.  Maybe it was because they were successful tradesmen and were well off that they had such great expectations.  Who knows?   

"G" for Games based on The Canterbury Tales
Bingo based on The Canterbury Tales?  Really?  Can you hear the speaker?  "G, The Clerk."  Oh shoot me now.


"H" is for Haberdasher
During the fourteenth century, a haberdasher would sell items for sewing which were imperative in those days.  Back then most people sewed their own clothes and therefore were in need of all types of materials, needles, thread and buttons.  Here's a picture of a Haberdasher I found that depicts one centuries later that I found waaaay cooler:


Can you imagine sewing your own clothes? Or someone like the Headless Horseman?  I love to sew but haven't in years.  If I had to, I'd wear nothing but potato-bag and draw-string type clothes.  What about you?

Mina B.

9 comments:

S. L. Hennessy said...

I feel like the guildsmen have this secret life I desperately want to know more about.

Mark Means said...

Cute cartoon and I keep learning more and more about the Tales.

Thanks :)

Dani said...

I actually knew what a haberdasher was! iCarly taught me. lmao!
Dani @ Entertaining Interests
#warriorminion

Michelle said...

I used to sew back in the day... but now I have no time to do so and the machine is collecting dust at the back of some wardrobe...

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

NO one in America can sew their own clothes anymore. If the zombie apocalypse ever hits, Americans will be naked while the Chinese and people in Bangladesh have all the fashions.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I can mend socks - does that count?

Elise Fallson said...

If had to sew my own clothes, it'd be togas and ponchos for me. (=

Cynthia said...

It's always neat to see what jobs people have in other "worlds."

Anonymous said...

So interesting that Bingo is based on the Canterbury Tales!