Not all embroidery was created in the peace and tranquility of a palace or country estate.

In Taylor’s sonnet “The Praise of The Needle”, a part of this larger book, he takes particular note of queens such as Katherine of Aragon, Mary Tudor, and Queen Elizabeth I, who all engaged in needlework. Needlewomen decorated clothing and accessories from smocks to gloves they crafted samplers like the one described by Hermia, book covers, caskets and mirrors, and small pictures to be used as cushions or wall hangings.Ī group of embroidered bindings in the Folger collection: V.a.94, STC 2661, STC 2662 copy 1, STC 22934.3ĭuring the seventeenth century, John Taylor’s popular embroidery pattern book, The Needle’s Excellency (first published in 1624), describes the various stitches and techniques used by needlewomen and notes the virtues of women who fill their days with this craft. Spangles, semi-precious stones, and pearls frequently accentuated these delicately woven treasures. Threads ranging from silver, gold, deep blues, greens, earth tones, and subtle shades of pink and yellow were stitched by nimble hands across linen, silk, and satin. While lower-class women were spinners and seamstresses, upper-class ladies of leisure devoted their time to decorating cloth. Throughout early modern Europe, the craft of needlework was so pervasive throughout the domestic sphere that when upper-class women spoke of “work” at home they were referring to their needlework. In recent years, scholars have even compared Helena’s speech to the language of traditional marriage vows: “our hands, our sides, voices and minds/ Had been incorporate.” Needlework once brought these two women together, a pastime shared by all women of the gentry and aristocratic rank during the age of Shakespeare and beyond. In this passage, Shakespeare beautifully describes the unity and kinship created by women absorbed together in the craft of embroidery. These two, like birds “warbling of one song”, were once as close as any two gentlewomen could have been as their “needles created both one flower” while “sitting on one cushion”.

In her plea to Hermia in Act III, Scene 2 of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Helena attempts to regain her childhood friend’s trust by reminding her of the times they spent together engaged as one at their needlework. (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene 2, Lines 208-213) Have with our needles created both one flower,īoth on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,īoth warbling of one song, both in one key,Īs if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds

Sonnet 19 shakespeare