The History, Design, and Fashion Culture of Gauntlet Gloves

In Shakespeare's plays, he uses the word "gauntlet" a total of 6 times. In one instance, the stage directions declare that a character "throws down his gauntlet." In Hamlet, stage directions again refer to a gauntlet by saying that attendants bring "foils and gauntlets" into the scene of Act V.

But do you know what you should be seeing on stage in these moments? Do you know what object Shakespeare expected the characters to be carrying for these scenes?

Gauntlet sounds like a military exercise or maybe a very difficult journey through several tough obstacles, and there's a variation of this word which means exactly that—but that kind of gauntlet is for another episode. Today, we're looking at the kind of gauntlet that was actually an article of clothing—a glove, to be precise.

A highly decorated ornate glove that came all the way up to the wrist of the wearer and was designed to protect the hand against wounds. To find out more about what these gloves were made from, who made them, and exactly why a character would throw one down on the ground in Shakespeare's Henry VI, we are talking with Hannah Marples, clothing historian and author of the project "Experimental Archeology: testing the wearability of a pair of gloves worn by Henry Cary in a painting by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, 1603"

Hannah joins us today to help us explore the history of gauntlet gloves, and how they connect with Shakespeare and his plays.