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The Princess & The Pea
When the Roman Empire fell, the first age of the
elegant bedroom with the plump and ornate bed fell
with it. Most Saxons shared simple single room
houses with their animals. In the centre was a smoky
fire and the benches (baence) on which they sat
during the day and which at night with the addition of
some straw became their bed – the original bed and
board. A larger Saxon house might have a permanent
raised sleeping platform at one end reserved for
women and important guests. Here too the mattress
was made from a sack or animal skin stuffed with
leaves, straw or sometimes even pea pods – a practice
that continued into the mediaeval period and which
probably gave rise to the story of the Princess and the
Pea. Beds with pillows, quilts and fur rugs were only
for the wealthy, everyone else would have slept on
the floor of the hall, around the fire.
When in Rome
We know that the Roman bedroom or
cubiculum
was often quite small by our standards - the remains
of Pompeii and Herculaneum have told us a great
deal about Roman beds The bed was set against a
wall with little other furniture save maybe a trunk
for clothing, a bench at the end of the bed and a
chamber pot. The Romans viewed beds as signs of
personal wealth and they could be quite ostentatious,
particularly in the use of fabrics and pillows.
The Roman poet Martial wrote about one man who
pretended to be ill so that visitors would visit and
admire his posh bed covers.
Mattresses were cloth bags stuffed with reeds, hay
or wool but as time marched on and decadence grew
so the fabulously wealthy stuffed their mattresses
with feathers. Indeed wealthy Romans might well
own a number of beds each with a specific purpose.
The plain old sleeping bed (right) was the
lectus
cubicularis
, the marriage bed or
lectus genialis
would be far more decorous and was placed in the
centrepiece of the house – the lavishly furnished
atrium or central courtyard. Only poor couples slept
together. The
lectus lucubratorius
was for study and
the one we are perhaps most familiar through
television programmes from
Up Pompeii
! to the
recently rescreened
I, Claudius
is the three-part
dining bed called the
lectus discubitorius
or
triclinaris
. If you do ever find yourself in Ancient
Rome and you’re not sure to which end of the lectus
triclinaris you should put your feet it is worth
remembering that etiquette demands that you lay
on your left side. Beyond that anything goes?
Bes
Tutankhamun’s bed and inset Tawaret