How to Behave Badly in Renaissance Britain
Published on 5. April 2018
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-1-78243-849-6 (ISBN)
Description
Historian and popular BBC TV presenter Ruth Goodman, author of How to Be a Tudor, offers up a history of Renaissance Britain - the offensive language, insulting gestures, insolent behaviour, brawling and scandal of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries - with practical tips on just how to horrify the Tudor neighbours.
From royalty to peasantry, every age has its bad eggs, those who break all the rules and rub everyone up the wrong way. But their niggling, anti-social and irritating ways not only tell us about what upset people, but also what mattered to them, how their society functioned and what kind of world they lived in.
In this brilliantly nitty-gritty exploration of real life in the Tudor and Stuart age, you will discover:
- how to choose the perfect insult, whether it be draggletail, varlet, flap, saucy fellow, strumpet, ninny-hammer or stinkard
- why quoting Shakespeare was very poor form
- the politics behind men kissing each other on the lips
- why flashing the inside of your hat could repulse someone
- the best way to mock accents, preachers, soldiers and pretty much everything else besides
Ruth Goodman draws upon advice books and manuals, court cases and sermons, drama and imagery to outline bad behaviour from the gauche to the galling, the subtle to the outrageous. It is a celebration of drunkards, scolds, harridans and cross dressers in a time when calling a man a fool could get someone killed, and cursing wasn't just rude, it worked!
'Ruth is the queen of living history - long may she reign!'
Lucy Worsley
From royalty to peasantry, every age has its bad eggs, those who break all the rules and rub everyone up the wrong way. But their niggling, anti-social and irritating ways not only tell us about what upset people, but also what mattered to them, how their society functioned and what kind of world they lived in.
In this brilliantly nitty-gritty exploration of real life in the Tudor and Stuart age, you will discover:
- how to choose the perfect insult, whether it be draggletail, varlet, flap, saucy fellow, strumpet, ninny-hammer or stinkard
- why quoting Shakespeare was very poor form
- the politics behind men kissing each other on the lips
- why flashing the inside of your hat could repulse someone
- the best way to mock accents, preachers, soldiers and pretty much everything else besides
Ruth Goodman draws upon advice books and manuals, court cases and sermons, drama and imagery to outline bad behaviour from the gauche to the galling, the subtle to the outrageous. It is a celebration of drunkards, scolds, harridans and cross dressers in a time when calling a man a fool could get someone killed, and cursing wasn't just rude, it worked!
'Ruth is the queen of living history - long may she reign!'
Lucy Worsley
Reviews / Votes
impeccable... [Goodman's] research is as comprehensive as the advice she metes out to those wishing to emulate the bad behaviour of their ancestors -- Tracy Borman * BBC History Magazine * Entertaining * History Revealed Magazine * This is a masterclass of bad behaviour... a lively romp through early modern British social history * Who Do You Think You Are Magazine * I absolutely love this book. Exuberant, absorbing . . . there's scarcely a detail of Victorian life Ruth has not tried. -- A. N. Wilson on 'How to be a Victorian' * Mail on Sunday * Shocking, exciting, wonderful. -- Clive Anderson on 'How to be a Victorian' * BBC Radio 4 * Most historians simply research the past; she lives it . . . This book is packed with delicious kernels of knowledge . . . all served up by the most delightfully eccentric author I've ever encountered. Seldom have I had so much fun reading history. Seldom have I learnt so much. -- Gerard DeGroot on 'How to be a Tudor' * The Times * A lot of fun, and like all the best history books shows that people in the past were as real as people today * MyShelf.com *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Illustrations
100 b/w illustrations and motifs throughout text
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 153 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-78243-849-6 (9781782438496)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Ruth Goodman
How to Behave Badly in Renaissance Britain
E-Book
04/2018
Michael O'Mara Books Ltd
€6.99
Available for download
Person
Ruth Goodman is a social historian and has presented a number of BBC series, including Victorian Farm, Wartime Farm, Tudor Monastery Farm and, most recently, Full Steam Ahead. She is also a regular expert presenter on The One Show. As well as the books accompanying her many series, she has written the critically acclaimed How to be a Victorian and How to be a Tudor. Ruth will be available for PR.