Passage II

One Fair Season

At first glance a Renaissance fair, looks a lot like a theme park. Crowds of people mill about, moseying they’re way past costumed characters and colorful booths. Being that roller coasters and Ferris wheels, the fair’s attractions are the sights, sounds, and tastes inspired by sixteenth-century England. Musicians, magicians, and archers demonstrate their talents to curious fairgoers. Horses carrying knights to a jousting match walk along the streets. Vendors, ranging from king-sized turkey legs to suits of armor, peddle wares.

I’ve always enjoyed attending Renaissance fairs, and I found out just how interesting they are. Those of us working at the fair spent weeks perfecting our characters’ accents and mannerisms. We also incorporated sixteenth-century English vocabulary into our speech. Substituting good morrow for “good morning” and gramercy for “thank you”. In my role as a lady-in-waiting, I often used the sixteenth-century expressions while I served the queen’s meals or introduced her to guests.

It was exhausting to spend every day in the hot summer temperatures while pretending to be a person whom had lived in a different country and century. The physical demands were especially strenuous for the queen and us ladies-in-waiting because our costumes, they consisted of confining corsets, several scratchy petticoats, and heavy velvet gowns. (27)

We strove to make the fairgoers’ experience as authentic as possible. Things that had come into existence more recently after the sixteenth century had to be explained in Renaissance terms. However, when a guest wished to take a photograph, we would marvel at the camera and ask how such lifelike paintings were created inside the tiny box.

After three tiring months of rehearsals and performances, the fair closed for the season, and I bade fare thee well to my Renaissance character when the summer months were over. Although it had been a wonderful trip back in time, it was a relief to return to the comforts of my own century.