Something Fishy in Ocean Park

Bay Avenue, Ocean Park - January 23, 2015

Bay Avenue, Ocean Park – January 23, 2015

I had to laugh at the sign out in front of Okie’s Sentry Market in Ocean Park yesterday: “Cod Pieces – 2.99 lb.”  Granted, cod piece was two words, not one. But even so. I wonder if Shakespeare and his contemporaries would have seen the humour. More to the point, I wonder how many of the passers-by on Bay Avenue even notice anything odd about it.

For those who are into classical theater or costuming and know about codpieces (one word), it’s a sure-fire chuckle. As defined by Wikipedia, is: A codpiece (from Middle English: cod, meaning “scrotum”) is a covering flap or pouch that attaches to the front of the crotch of men’s trousers and usually accentuates the genital area. It was held closed by string ties, buttons, or other methods. It was an important item of European clothing in the 15th and 16th centuries, and is still worn in the modern era in performance costumes….

Lost Portrait of Henry viii by Hans Holbein the Younger

Lost Portrait of Henry viii by Hans Holbein the Younger

The codpiece evolved from practical necessity. In the 14th century, men’s hose were two separate legs worn over linen drawers, leaving a man’s genitals covered only by a layer of linen. As the century wore on and men’s hemlines rose, the hose became longer and joined at the centre back but remained open at the centre front. The shortening of the cote or doublet resulted in under-disguised genitals, so the codpiece began life as a triangular piece of fabric covering the gap.As time passed, codpieces became shaped and padded to emphasize rather than to conceal, reaching their peak of size and decoration in the 1540s before falling out of use by the 1590s.

Even, so… what would have been the price of a codpiece? In the article, “Clothing in Shakespeare’s Time,” theatrical designer and collector Percy Macquoid (1852-1925) wrote: Her husbands clothes consisted of a gowne five shillings, a dublet and jacket six shillings and eight pence. Two payr hoses two shillings and eightpence. Two sherts one shilling and sixpence. A blak sleved cote three shillings and sixpence. A Fryse one shilling and eightpence. A canvass dublet tenpence, a cappe sixpence.

My best effort at calculating the value of one of Shakespeare’s shillings when compared to today’s dollars – $17.93. And still I know nothing at all about the price of a codpiece. Certainly it wasn’t sold by weight…

One Response to “Something Fishy in Ocean Park”

  1. Diane Buttrell says:

    How fun!

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