How to behave badly in Elizabethan England : a guide for knaves, fools, harlots, cuckolds, drunkards, liars, thieves, and braggarts
(Book)

"First published in Great Britain under the title How to Behave Badly in Renaissance Britain"--title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Draws on advice manuals, court cases, and sermons to illustrate the social mores of the Elizabethan Era.

Offensive language, insolent behavior, slights, brawls, and scandals -- Elizabethan England was particularly rank with troublemakers. Goodman draws on advice manuals, court cases, and sermons to offer this colorfully crude portrait of offenses most foul. 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). A celebration of one of history's naughtiest periods, when derision was an art form. -- adapted from jacket.

"Rowdy street gangs scouring taverns. Gentlewomen holding insolent eye contact. Drunkards wagging dirty fingers at the dinner table. Every age and social strata has its rule-breakers and nose-thumbers, but Elizabethan England had perhaps more than its fair share. As Ruth Goodman demonstrates in her raucous [book], these troublemakers reveal more than just rudeness; they can illuminate an era. Known for an erudite and immersive approach in her beloved previous volumes, How to Be a Victorian and How to Be a Tudor, Ruth Goodman stays true to form, cracking her knuckles and cheerfully embracing the naughty bits of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Drawing from advice manuals, court cases, and sermons, she offers a veritable how-to guide for both the cheeky and the downright cunning. Social mores of the era are revealed in fascinating detail, including why it was bad form to quote Shakespeare; why nose-blowing was disgusting, but spitting was acceptable; why curses hurled at women were almost always about sex (and why we shouldn't be surprised). Guiding us through a colorfully crude catalog of offenses most foul, Goodman delves into the tumultuous and fascinating period of Elizabethan history. For example, it was during this time that a new "brand of religion and non-religion" was born; democracy was evolving in areas such as voting, representation, and taxation; and a linguistic evolution spread through the streets and on the page. Despite a hierarchical and misogynistic social structure there was, at last, room for the brave -- or the mischievous -- to maneuver beyond his station. Indeed, Goodman shows that behind most of these quirky quips lurks a deeper lesson of Elizabethan England, its anxiety about class, confusion about faith, and all-consuming obsession with sex. With infectious charm and her signature eye for arresting detail, Ruth Goodman has written a celebration of one of history's most rambunctious periods, when derision was an art form."--Dust jacket.