How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England

A Guide for Knaves, Fools, Harlots, Cuckolds, Drunkards, Liars, Thieves, and Braggarts

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Pub Date 30 Oct 2018 | Archive Date 30 Sep 2018

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Description

Every age and social strata has its bad eggs, rule-breakers, and nose-thumbers. As acclaimed popular historian and author of How to Be a Victorian Ruth Goodman shows in her madcap chronicle, Elizabethan England was particularly rank with troublemakers, from snooty needlers who took aim with a cutting “thee,” to lowbrow drunkards with revolting table manners. Goodman draws on advice manuals, court cases, and sermons to offer this colorfully crude portrait of offenses most foul. Mischievous readers will delight in learning how to time your impressions for the biggest laugh, why quoting Shakespeare was poor form, and why curses hurled at women were almost always about sex (and why we shouldn’t be surprised). Bringing her signature “exhilarating and contagious” enthusiasm (Boston Globe), this is a celebration of one of history’s naughtiest periods, when derision was an art form.

Every age and social strata has its bad eggs, rule-breakers, and nose-thumbers. As acclaimed popular historian and author of How to Be a Victorian Ruth Goodman shows in her madcap chronicle...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781631495113
PRICE $28.95 (USD)
PAGES 320

Average rating from 9 members


Featured Reviews

How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England is a wonderful, hilarious historical compilation of manners, curses, insults and anecdotes of unsavoury behavior. The images included help explain the exact nature of gestures, and the author has generously captioned the pictures with lines like:

"Swiss mercenaries were famous across Europe for their military prowess and their extravagant clothing and strutting."

"This city miss with her body weight held well forward and head held high is all ready to go 'tripping' along"

"Besides passing out and vomiting, drunkards were easy prey to a host of other vices, from gambling, smoking and fighting, to making fools of themselves through the medium of dance."

In addition, sources for the plethora of illustrations are listed at length, and there is a lovely, if a bit sparse, bibliography. So enjoyable! This book is directly up my alley in my wheelhouse...

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