Dec 6, 2021
Metal was used in Shakespeare’s lifetime to create a variety of items including swords, armor, guns, and even horseshoes. In one reference from Henry IV Part II, Shakespeare draws attention to the fact that a “smith” the term for someone who works with metal, was responsible for creating some of these items when the character Davy says “Here is now the smith's note for shoeing and plough-irons.” That comes from Act V, Scene 1. While most of Shakespeare’s uses of the word “smith” in his plays refer specifically to a goldsmith (that term being used at least 11 times in his works), there were other kinds of smiths, like silversmiths, blacksmiths, tinsmiths, and coppersmiths who worked in Shakespeare’s lifetime. Shakespeare gives us a glimpse of this metallurgical enterprise when the character Hubert de Burgh, in King John, Act IV Scene II says “I saw a smith stand with his hammer... whilst his iron did on the anvil cool.” We can tell from what references Shakespeare leaves us that metallurgy and working with metals held common place in society for his lifetime, but seeing as how most of don’t visit the blacksmith today on a regular basis, we asked our guest, Alan Williams, an Archaeometallurgist at The Wallace Collection, to visit with us today and take us back to Shakespeare’s lifetime where we can explore exactly how the metal was acquired, used, and molded into some of these essential household items for Shakespeare’s lifetime.