Charlie Fenton’s Reviews > How to Behave Badly in Renaissance Britain > Status Update

Not quite as good as her last book How to be a Tudor but still an interesting read nonetheless.

‘People shouted one set of insults at their female foes and another, quite different set of words at their male enemies; there were rude gestures employed by both sexes but others that were used primarily by men, such as thigh slapping, or the hands-on-hips stance and finger wagging that were the preserve of women. Fighting, as we have seen, was also highly gender specific’

‘Cleanliness and control were never more valued than when eating. Before you even entered the room it was considered polite to spend a few moment tidying yourself up and adjusting your attire - and washing your hands was absolutely essential. Attention to the cleanliness of fingernails was required and hair was to be combed. Those clean hands were to be kept as clean and grease-free as possible throughout‘

‘Imagine the scene then: a young man full of martial pride, striding along, head held high, shoulders back, with a wife swaggering gait, turning heads as he goes, tailed at a distance by a woman with a wooden spoon and a gang of boys all wagging their hips from side to side, almost falling backwards from the extremity of their lean, elbows as pointy as can be, gales of laughter echoing down the street.’

‘Another added advantage was that lack of legal redress we mentioned earlier. Calling someone a cuckold verbally could provoke a case for slander, but following them around making the gesture for all to see was perfectly legal, and if they tried to thump you for it, why, that was assault!’

‘Laura Gowing found 2,224 defamation cases that were brought to court in and around London between 1572 and 1640. In a city with around 100,000 inhabitants this represents a steady trickle of around 30-40 a year... Using language offensive enough to provoke legal retaliation, spoken where there were witnesses sufficient to support a case, was clearly not a rare occurrence in Renaissance Britain.’

‘Mary Goatee and Alice Flavell were arguing in the London street outside their respective houses when Mary went for ‘kiss my arse’; quick as a flash, Alice retorted: ‘Nay, I will leave that for John Carre’ - implying not only that Mary had an illicit lover, but that he was a subservient and perverted one, and Mary was a low-value whore.’

Very few history books make me laugh, I certainly wasn’t expecting this