I finally got around to watching Shakespeare in Love and just finished it about fifteen minutes ago. Good movie but I was distracted more than once by what I think is an anachronism: a handful of male characters, including Shakespeare himself, wearing a single earring.
Was this custom then? I thought earrings were a distinctly feminine affectation in Western European society until recently but am I mistaken? If so, how far back does the practice go?
Earrings weren’t uncommon on Elizabethan men, and actually, here is a picture of Shakespeare with an earring, although I’m not sure when it was painted.
Except we know whenever it was painted, it was before 1688, because it was owned by William Davenant, who died in 1688. It’s in the National Portrait Gallery in London.
I forgot all about that painting. I must be going senile.
Yes, and that ring was in the right ear, so we know what that scamp was up to.