A Manual of Directions

 for the Visitation of the Sick with sweet Meditations & Prayers to be used in time of sickness by Lancelot Andrewes late Bishop of Winchester. Andrewes was one of the more moderate independant clergy and had some influence on the young Charles, though he was dead long before war broke out. In the frontispiece by Hollar from the 1642 edition, we see two professional gents (either could be doctor or priest) visiting a poor soul in his sickbed with a serving girl busying herself behind a table.

 

Looking at the picture in more detail we can see the woman on the left is dressed in a laced bodice, over which she wears a neckerchief and linen coif on her head. The two gents are dressed professionally, on the left in a cloak, ruff and wide brimmed hat and on the right in a gown and day cap. It’s almost impossible to decide which is doctor and which is clergy as both professions would have worn either garb, though maybe the vicar is the one on the right with his hand raised in blessing. The patient has a fringed night cap on his head and presumably a shirt, though the detail is a bit scratchy when you look closely. It does look however that he’s thrown his doublet over the top of his bed. Nice collection of living history objects on the table.

Edward Calver

Etched by Wenceslaus Hollar in 1644, Calver was a poet, but not a very good one. In fact his entry in the Dictionary of National Biography says his was “a meagre talent dedicated towards unremarkable moral themes”. Oh dear. Not much is known about him either, apart from his poetry and the fact that he came from Suffolk. Anyway here is Edward, presumably stuck for a rhyme dressed in a smart doublet with narrow shoulder wings and a darted linen falling band. Nice clear view of his doublet buttons too.