Masters and Servants in English Renaissance Drama and Culture : Authority and Obedience

I have not modernized, although I have made slight changes in cases of manifest error. First editions of S.T.C Drawing upon archival material as well as drama, popular verse and pamphlets, this' book reads representations of masters and servants in relation to key Renaissance preoccupations. Apprentices, journeymen, male domestic servants, maidservants and stewards, Mark Thornton Burnett argues, were deployed in literary texts to address questions about the exercise of power, social change and the threat of economic upheaval. In this way, writers were instrumental in creating servant "culture", and spaces within which forms of political resistance could be realized. Drawing upon archival material as well as the drama, popular verse and pamphlets, this book reads representations of masters and servants in relation to key Renaissance preoccupations. Apprentices, journeymen, male domestic servants, maidservants and stewards, Burnett argues, were deployed in literary texts to address questions about the exercise of power, social change and the threat of economic upheaval. In this way, writers were instrumental in creating servant'cultures', and spaces within which forms of political resistance could be realized. Drawing upon archival material as well as the drama, popular verse and pamphlets, this book reads representations of masters and servants in relation to key Renaissance preoccupations. Apprentices, journeymen, male domestic servants, maidservants and stewards, Burnett argues, were deployed in literary texts to address questions about the exercise of power, social change and the threat of economic upheaval. In this way, writers were instrumental in creating servant 'cultures', and spaces within which forms of political resistance could be realized Front Matter....Pages i-xii Introduction....Pages 1-13 Apprenticeship and Society....Pages 14-53 Crafts and Trades....Pages 54-78 Carnival, the Trickster and the Male Domestic Servant....Pages 79-117 Women, Patriarchy and Service....Pages 118-154 The Noble Household....Pages 155-191 Back Matter....Pages 192-225 Cover 1 Content 8 Acknowledgements 10 Abbreviations and Conventions 12 Introduction 14 1 Apprenticeship and Society 27 2 Crafts and Trades 67 3 Carnival, the Trickster and the Male Domestic Servant 92 4 Women, Patriarchy and Service 131 5 The Noble Household 168 Bibliography 205 Index 230