The Ashgate Research Companion to Popular Culture in Early Modern England

397 Pages·2014·4.33 MB·English

by  Andrew Hadfield

ASHGATE

RESEARCH
COMPANION
The AshgATe ReseARch comp Anion
To popul AR cul TuRe in eARly
modeRn e nglAnd
ASHGATE

RESEARCH
COMPANION
The Ashgate Research Companions are designed to offer scholars and graduate
students a comprehensive and authoritative state-of-the-art review of current
research in a particular area. The companions’ editors bring together a team of
respected and experienced experts to write chapters on the key issues in their
speciality, providing a comprehensive reference to the field.
The Ashgate Research
Companion to Popular Culture in
Early Modern England
Edited by
AndRew hA dfield
University of Sussex, UK
mATThew dimmock
University of Sussex, UK
AbigAil shinn
University of Leeds, UK
© Andrew Hadfield, Matthew Dimmock and Abigail Shinn 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Andrew Hadfield, Matthew Dimmock and Abigail Shinn have asserted their right under the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
Published by
Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company
Wey Court East 110 Cherry Street
Union Road Suite 3-1
Farnham Burlington, VT 05401-3818
Surrey, GU9 7PT USA
England
www.ashgate.com
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Ashgate research companion to popular culture in early modern England / edited by
Andrew Hadfield, Matthew Dimmock and Abigail Shinn.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4094-3684-3 (hardcover) – ISBN 978-1-4094-3685-0 (ebook) –
ISBN 978-1-4724-0578-4 (epub) 1. Popular culture–England–History–17th century.
2. England–Social life and customs–17th century. 3. Social classes–England–History–
17th century. 4. Literature and society–England–History–17th century.
I. Hadfield, Andrew. II. Dimmock, Matthew. III. Shinn, Abigail. IV. Title:
Research companion to popular culture in early modern England.
DA380.A785 2014
306.094209'03–dc23
2013045830
ISBN 9781409436843 (hbk)
ISBN 9781409436850 (ebk – PDF)
ISBN 9781472405784 (ebk - ePUB)
V
Printed in the United Kingdom by Henry Ling Limited,
at the Dorset Press, Dorchester, DT1 1HD
contents
List of Figures   vii
Notes on Contributors   ix
Acknowledgements   xiii
Introduction: Thinking About Popular Culture In Early Modern England   1
Matthew Dimmock, Andrew Hadfield and Abigail Shinn
PART I: KEY ISSUES
1 Recovering Speech Acts   13
Arnold Hunt
2 Youth Culture   31
Edel Lamb
3 Festivals   43
Tracey Hill
4 Popular Reading and Writing   59
Femke Molekamp
5 Visual Culture   75
Tara Hamling
6 Myth and Legend   103
Angus Vine
7 Religious Belief   119
Mike Rodman Jones
PART II: EVER YDAY LIFE
8 Courtship, Sex and Marriage   133
Ian Frederick Moulton
9 Food and Drink   149
Phil Withington
ASHgATe ReSeARCH CoMPANioN To PoPuLAR CuLTuRe iN eARLy MoDeRN eNgLAND
10 Work   163
Mark Netzloff
11 Gendered Labour   177
Helen Smith
12 Crime   193
Duncan Salkeld
13 Popular Xenophobia   207
Matthew Birchwood and Matthew Dimmock
14 Games   221
Joachim Frenk
15 Cultures of Mending   235
Abigail Shinn
PART III: The exPeRIence of The WoRLd
16 Politics   253
Andrew Hadfield
17 Riot and Rebellion   267
elizabeth Sauer
18 Time   283
Neil Rhodes
19 Property   295
Ceri Sullivan
20 Popular Medicine   309
Margaret Healy
21 Superstition and Witchcraft   323
Simon Davies
22 Military Culture   337
Rory Rapple
23 London and Urban Popular Culture   357
Lawrence Manley
index   373
vi
list of figures
5.1 The dacre beasts, c. 1525. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.   80
5.2 purse, embroidered with heraldic shields, c. 1540. © Victoria and
Albert Museum, London.   82
5.3 plasterwork overmantel with the arms of Queen elizabeth i, formerly
in 229 high street, exeter, now installed in st nicholas priory, exeter.
Author’s photograph   84
5.4 View of the interior of ground-floor room in the ‘Old Merchants
House’, Great Yarmouth Row Houses, Norfolk. © English Heritage.   85
5.5 Plasterwork overmantel, late sixteenth century, in first-floor room
of ‘Harvard House’, Stratford-upon-Avon. Author’s photograph
reproduced by kind permission of The shakespeare birthplace
Trust.   86
5.6 Plasterwork overmantel formerly in 35 High Street in
stratford-upon-Avon, now installed at packwood house,
warwickshire. Author’s photograph reproduced with permission
of National Trust Images.   87
5.7 Illustrations from Randle Holme, The Academy of Armory (1688),
Book 1, Chapter 6, fol. 55 and Book 2, Chapter 1, fol. 2. These
items are reproduced by permission of The huntington library,
San Marino, California, RB 140916.   89
5.8 Henry Denham’s device and imprint (1582). © The British Library
Board, E3:1(146) and Titlepage from John King, Lectures upon Jonas
(1599). This item is reproduced by permission of The Huntington
Library, San Marino, California, RB 20866.   90
5.9 Allegorical designs. British Library, Stowe 309, ff. 1v-2. Accessible
through the british library’s catalogue of illuminated manuscripts
website: http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts.   91
5.10 The Lenard Fireback, dated 1636. Anne of Cleves House Museum,
lewes. Reproduced by kind permission of the sussex Archaeological
Society, Barbican House.   93
5.11 Plasterwork overmantel with a scene of the Judgement of Solomon,
Barrington Court, Somerset. © National Trust Images.   96
5.12 The Blewett family pew, All Saint’s Church, Holcombe Rogus, Devon.
Author’s photograph.   97
5.13 Moses, Aaron and Hur during the battle against the Amalekites,
detail of one of the biblical scenes depicted in the Blewett family pew,
All Saint’s Church, Holcombe Rogus, Devon. Author’s photograph.   97
AshgATe ReseARch compAnion To p opuLAR cuLTuRe in eARLy modeRn engLAnd
5.14 Carved exterior of ‘Bishop Lloyd’s House’ in Chester. Author’s
photograph.   98
5.15 Detail of carved exterior of ‘Bishop Lloyd’s House’, Chester.
Author’s photograph.   99
11.1 Anon., A womans work is never done (London: for John Andrews, 1660?).
BL Roxburghe 1.534–535. © The British Library Board.   178
11.2 The Wise and Foolish Virgins, carved alabaster chimneypiece in
the great hall at Burton Agnes Hall, c. 1610. © The author.   180
11.3 Anon., cries of London, C17th. British Museum 1843, 0311.279.
© Trustees of the British Museum.   188
11.4 After Marcellus Laroon II, ‘Buy any Wax or Wafers’, from
The cryes of the city of London drawne after the Life (London:
Pierce Tempest, 1688). British Museum 1972, U.370.11.
© Trustees of the British Museum.   189
14.1 Pieter Breugel the Elder’s children’s games (1560). By permission
of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.   222
15.1 John Taylor, The needles excellency (4th ed., London, 1640).
© The British Library Board. C.31.h.30 (frontispiece).   236
viii
notes on contributors
Matthew Birchwood is senior lecturer in english literature at kingston university,
london. his research interests lie in the role of islam and the east in the literary-political
discourses of the seventeenth century. he is author of Staging Islam in England: Drama and
Culture 1640–1685 (2007) and is currently working on a study of toleration and drama in the
early enlightenment.
Simon Davies recently completed a doctorate at the university of sussex and is currently
finishing a monograph on the production and reception of the literature of witchcraft in
early modern england. his research interests include witchcraft, the history of the book, the
history of reading and seventeenth-century lyric poetry.
Matthew Dimmock is professor of early modern studies at the university of sussex.
His work focuses on the field of cultural encounter and amongst other publications he is
author of New Turkes: Dramatizing Islam and the Ottomans in Early Modern England (2005) and
Mythologies of Muhammad in Early Modern English Culture (2013) and editor of William Percy’s
mahomet and his heaven: A Critical Edition (2006).
Joachim Frenk is professor of british literary and cultural studies at the universität
des saarlandes in germany. he is co-editor of the Jahrbuch of the deutsche shakespeare-
gesellschaft, and has published, for example, on early modern authorship, shakespeare,
Jonson, middleton and nashe. other research interests include nineteenth-century literature
and culture and the cultural impact of James bond. his latest book is Textualised Objects:
Material Culture in Early Modern English Literature (2012).
Andrew Hadfield is professor of english at the university of sussex, Visiting professor
at the university of granada and Vice-chair of the society for Renaissance studies. he is
the author of a number of books on the literature and culture of early modern england
including Edmund Spenser: A Life (2012), Shakespeare and Republicanism (2005) and Literature,
Travel and Colonial Writing, 1540–1620 (1998). he is also the editor of the Oxford Handbook to
Early Modern Prose, 1500–1640 (2013).
Tara Hamling is senior lecturer in the history department, university of birmingham.
her research focuses on the visual arts and material culture of early modern britain,
especially in a domestic context. she is author of Decorating the Godly Household: Religious
Art in Post-Reformation Britain (2010) and editor (with catherine Richardson) of Everyday
Objects: Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture (2010) and (with Richard l. williams)
Art Re-formed: Reassessing the Impact of the Reformation on the Visual Arts (2007). her next
book, A Day at Home in Early Modern England: The Materiality of Domestic Life (co-authored
with catherine Richardson) is forthcoming with yale university press.