A codpiece 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
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. Scholars have noted that the appearance of Renaissance
codpiece was coincident with aggressive spread of syphilis in the early 16th
century, and suggest that it may have first served to allow extra room in the
clothing for bandages or other dressings for the afflicted male member.
Armor of the 16th century followed civilian fashion, and for a time armored codpieces were a prominent addition to the best full harnesses. A few of these are on display in museums today: the Metropolitan Museum of Art in
Wolf Hall TV show uses 'too small' Tudor codpieces for fear of baffling
US audiences
Mark Rylance, the star of BBC's Wolf Hall,
reveals the impressive codpieces of the Tudor court were made smaller out of
respect for audiences
Hannah
Furness By Hannah Furness, Arts Correspondent7:00AM GMT 12 Dec 2014 /
They may
have been the crowning glory for any right-thinking Tudor gentleman, but it
appears the traditional codpiece may be a little too much for American
television viewers.
The stars
of Wolf Hall, the BBC’s new period drama based on the novels of Hilary Mantel,
have disclosed they have been issued with “smaller”-than average codpieces, out
of respect for viewers' sensibilities.
Mark
Rylance, who stars as Thomas Cromwell in the forthcoming BBC series, said
programme-makers had decided on “very small codpieces” which had to be “tucked
away”.
He
suggested allowances had been made amid concerns about the taste of modern
audiences, particularly in America
It is one
of few concessions permitted by programme-makers, who have otherwise gone to
remarkable lengths to ensure historical accuracy, including trips to
Shakespeare’s Globe to learn sword-fighting, lessons in etiquette and bowing,
and a comprehensive study on spoons.
Mantel has
given her seal of approval to the production, issuing a statement of glowing
praise for how it has been adapted on screen.
Saying she
was pleased programme-makers had resisted the temptation to “patronise” the
Tudors to make them “cute”, she said: “My expectations were high and have been
exceeded.”
When asked
about the costumes in a Q&A to launch the BBC show, alongside actors Damian
Lewis and Claire Foy, Rylance said they “did take a while to put on” but
praised the overall effect.
“I think
the codpieces are too small,” he added. “I think it was a direction from our
American producers PBS [the US
When asked
to clarify, he said: “I wasn’t personally disappointed by the codpieces: I’m a
little more used to them than other people from being at the Globe for ten
years.
“But I can
see for modern audiences, perhaps more in America
Lewis, who
plays Henry VIII, hinted there had been some on-set “giggling” over the matter,
with the curtain-like effect of the male costumes finally making it a moot
point.
“Codpieces
at the time in the Tudor period were a symbol of virility and actually men of
the court were encouraged to wear prominent cod pieces,” he said. “It was a
symbol of your virility, your derring-do, your sense of adventure.
“They were
encouraged, it was a fashion, and Henry liked them.”
Colin
Callender, the executive producer, later clarified there had been “no hidden
codpiece memo” handed down by PBS or the BBC.
Foy, who
plays Anne Boleyn, added costumes had been created and worn with meticulous
detail, with no zips or Velcro added for ease and constant vigilance about
whether everyone on set had the correct attire.
As well as
teaching the cast to swordfight and being taught the difference between the
bows suitable for Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, programme-makers also paid
particular attention to who would be joining in the relatively new fashion for
using a spoon.
“We had to
make a decision on whether Thomas More was a spoon kind of guy,” Peter
Kosminsky, the director, said. “Anne Boleyn went for spoons in a big way.”
The team
relied heavily on the scholarship of Hilary Mantel, who spent five years
researching the Tudor court before writing the Man Booker Prize-winning novels.
Peter
Straughan, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter, said had known “absolutely
nothing” about Tudor history beforehand, joking he had kept a copy of the
“Dummies Guide to Elizabethans” on his desk to help him along.
Callender
added he hoped the drama would perfectly suit modern audiences, who have
already enjoyed high-tension programmes such as Breaking Bad.
Referring
to Cromwell’s mixed reputation, he said: “Modern audiences are fascinated by
characters that cross moral lines, trapped between doing the right thing and
surviving.”
Wolf Hall,
a six-part series covering the first two novels of Mantel’s trilogy, is due for
broadcast on BBC One in January.
A little article on the history of the codpiece…
‘There is
no hidden codpiece memo.’
So says
Colin Callendar, executive producer of the upcoming BBC Two drama series Wolf
Hall, denying claims that the size of his stars’ codpieces were reduced beyond
the point of historical accuracy to avoid offending or baffling an American
audience.
Actor
Damian Lewis did indeed describe the black velvet codpiece that came with his
costume as Henry VIII as a ‘little dinky one.’
But it was Mark Rylance, playing Thomas Cromwell himself, who provided a
possible reason why, claiming that ‘modern audiences, perhaps more in America
So what
exactly is this controversial garment?
The codpiece is buttoned, or tied with strings, to a man’s
breeches. It takes its name from the
word ‘cod’, middle English for both ‘bag’ and ‘scrotum’, and arose because
medieval men wore hose – essentially, very long socks – beneath their doublets,
and nothing else in the way of underwear.
When the
fourteenth-century fashion for very short doublets emerged, the codpiece was invented
to cover up the gap at the top of those hose.
If you believe ‘the Parson’ in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, it was a
much-needed innovation. He disliked the
short doublets of his day because ‘Alas! Some of them show the very boss of
their penis and the horrible pushed-out testicles that look like the malady of
hernia’.
Originally
just a triangle of cloth, the codpiece became more substantial and more
decorative as time went on, until its decline in the late sixteenth century.
The
codpiece, of course, forms part of the picture of Henry VIII that we all carry
round in our heads. In the portraits
after Hans Holbein the Younger, Henry’s enormous codpiece emphasizes his
virility, and hence his capacity for providing England Whitehall
None of
Henry’s fabric codpieces survive, but the suit of his 1540 armour displayed at
the Tower of London
Codpieces
also functioned a useful little purse for storing precious items like coins, or
jewels, and tradition claims this as the origin of the expression ‘a man’s
family jewels.’
They are
garments that tend to arouse wonder and disbelief in post-Tudor viewers, so
much so that the Museum
of London
But none of
them were quite as big as the one worn by Rowan Atkinson as Edmund Blackadder,
in his first, late-medieval, incarnation.
For his installation as Archbishop of Canterbury, Blackadder decides to
wear his best and biggest codpiece.
‘Let’s go
for the Black Russian,’ he tells Lord Percy.
‘It always terrifies the clergy.’
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