Summary
When Em was a kid, she was told that knights in shining armor didn’t bathe, that Elizabeth I had bathed only three times in her life, and various other assertions. But we know that soap is not a modern invention–the word itself comes from the Latin, and no less than Pliny the Elder discusses how to make it from tallow and ashes. So what constitutes bathing? Were people before the year 1900 CE just terribly smelly all the time? And what were bathrooms–and plumbing–like around the world? Join Em and Jesse for a far-ranging discussion of cleanliness, won’t you?
Notes
0/ Em’s new novel, Old Time Religion, can be ordered here. Dionysus in Wisconsin is here.
1/ This episode was apparently recorded in April of 2022. Amusingly, the novel I was working on is NOT either of the novels that have been published! It was TWO AND A HALF novels BEFORE Dionysus. 2022 was wild.
2/ William Alcott’s tract Thoughts on Bathing:
Catalog entry: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011604824
Full text!: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044014202691&seq=5
I think Em says 1939, she meant 1839.
3/ The most famous portrait of someone in a bath is, in my mind, The Death of Marat, by Jacques-Louis David, which is SOLIDLY 18th century. But there are others, from earlier.
(Also, who doesn’t love JLD? He’s amazing.)
4/ York Medieval interactive Viking attraction: https://www.jorvikvikingcentre.co.uk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorvik_Viking_Centre
5/ Nope, this is from a letter that Queen Elizabeth I wrote to George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon, who is better known for being Lord Chamberlain and the patron of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (Shakespeare’s Company) after his father Henry, also Lord Chamberlain and patron of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, died. He was apparently having a great time at Bath, and the Queen wrote him: “[I] can not but wonder, considering the great number of pails of water that I hear have been poured upon you, that you are not rather drowned than otherwise. But I trust all shall be for your better means to health.” Here is a link to the letter. (Berkeley Castle Muniments Select Letter 8). The letter is also available in Katherine Duncan-Jones, ‘Elizabeth I and her “Good George” unpublished letters’, in P. Beal and G. Ioppolo (eds.), Elizabeth I and the Culture of Writing (British Library, 2007), 29–41.
6/ Monty Python scenes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi8vXOUi-eI
Dennis the peasant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2c-X8HiBng
7/ The process of making soap is called SAPONIFICATION. Sometimes this happens to bodies that get buried in certain environments. The word soap came to Latin (saponem) from a proto-Fresian dialect (I don’t think we have that word, just a reconstruction of it) and thence to many other languages, including savon (French), xa bong (Vietnamese), sebon (Welsh), soap (English), sabuu (Thai–I don’t know for sure it’s related but I’d be willing to place a bet)…
8/ Natron is hydrated sodium carbonate (https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/history-technology/mummies-pigments-and-pretzels)
9/ Books for travelers Em alludes to:
H. M. L. S., A Few Words of Advice on Travelling and Its Requirements Addressed to Ladies with short vocabulary in French and German, London: Thomas Cook and Son, 1876 (2nd ed.) https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/CHgBAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1
Anglo-Indian, Indian Outfits & Establishments: Practical Guide for Persons about to Reside in India: detailing the articles which should be taken out, and the requirements of home life and management there. London: L. Upcott Gill, 1882. https://archive.org/details/indianoutfitsest00angliala/page/n3/mode/2up
F. A. Steel and G. Gardiner, The Complete Indian Housekeeper & Cook: Giving the duties of mistress and servants, the general management of the house, and practical recipes for cooking in all its branches. London: William Heinemann, 1909. https://archive.org/details/b21528640/page/n7/mode/2up
10/ Polar plunge:
Wim Hof: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wim_Hof
It’s madness if you ask me. [-Em]
11/ I Henry IV scene: I think this is II.i.15, which is actually about fleas not lice! Same idea though. 🙂 –Jesse
12/ A truly disturbing fact: most lice now have become impervious to the anti-lice shampoos we used to use when we were kids. [Oh god!! –Jesse]
13/ For example, Bolton Strid (or “the Strid”) is a small, fairly calm-appearing waterway that has claimed a lot of lives. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/bolton-strid
14/ There’s a long section on bathing in Matrix, by Lauren Groff.
15/ Mr Darcy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBaspD6Aq9E
16/ Inca baths: https://www.archaeology.wiki/blog/2019/02/27/researchers-reveal-inca-bath-complex-structure/
https://www.livescience.com/64845-inca-ceremonial-baths-archaeology.html
17/ Em was being a bit flippant about how long Japan’s written history goes back. The earliest written work recounting Japanese history (in Classical Chinese) was the Tennok and the Kokki, written in 620 CE. Neither survives. The Kojiki was the oldest account of Japan’s history (or it’s semi-historical, anyway) that still survives, and it dates from the early 700s. The first work to unambiguously mention Japan was the Book of Han, which was a Chinese book dating from 111 CE that covers history from 206 BCE to 23 CE.
18/ I know WAY MORE about the history of the 1970s now. Anyway, in his excellent autobiography, On the Move, Oliver Sacks mentions going to a bathhouse with a friend in San Francisco in 1978. Uncharacteristically, he doesn’t say anything more about the bathhouse itself.
Another fun fact, here at UW the pool at the Red Gym was men-only and swimsuit-optional until 1973. NINETEEN SEVENTY-THREE. A group of female students who forced their way into the pool (nude) forced the university to reconsider their policy.
19/ Greece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXt0VCPKfQ4
20/ Brooklyn 99 is the best. REST IN POWER Captain Holt: Andre Braugher (1962–2023) (https://www.npr.org/2023/12/19/1220282449/remembering-andre-braugher-star-of-homicide-and-brooklyn-nine-nine)
21/ Shanxi province excavations: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5111981/Luxurious-2-300-year-old-imperial-bathrooms-China.html
22/ Editing this, it is once again winter and I [Em] would happily move into a sauna for the next five months if available.
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