Rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars : a new gallery of Tudor and early Stuart rogue literature exposing the lives, times, and cozening tricks of the Elizabethan underworld

The Elizabethan age was one of unbounded vitality and exuberance. Nowhere is the color and action of life more vividly revealed than in the rogue books and cony-catching (confidence game) pamphlets of the sixteenth century. This book presents seven of the age's liveliest works: Walker's Manifest Detection of Dice Play; Awdeley's Fraternity of Vagabonds; Harman's Caveat for Common Cursitors Vulgarly Called Vagabonds; Greene's Notable Discovery of Cozenage and Black Book's Messenger; Dekker's Lantern and Candle-light; and Rid's Art of Juggling. From these pages spring the denizens of the Elizabethan underworld: cutpurses, hookers, palliards, jarkmen, doxies, counterfeit cranks, bawdy-baskets, walking morts, and priggers of prancers. In his introduction, Arthur F. Kinney discusses the significance of these works as protonovels and their influence on such writers as Shakespeare. He also explores the social, political, and economic conditions of a time that spawned a community of renegades who conned their way to fame, fortune, and, occasionally, the rope at Tyburn. Introduction A manifest detection of diceplay (1552) / Gilbert Walker The fraternity of vagabonds (1561) / John Awdeley A caveat for common cursitors vulgarly called vagabonds (1566) / Thomas Harman A notable discovery of cozenage (1591) / Robert Greene The black book's messenger (1592) / Robert Greene Lantern and candle-light (1608) / Thomas Dekker The art of juggling (1612) / Samuel Rid Textual commentaries and notes An Elizabethan glossary. Presenting seven works from the Elizabethan age including Dekker's Lantern and Candle-light and Rid's Art of Juggling, this book discusses these and other Elizabethan ""protonovels"" and assesses their influence on writers such as Shakespeare. Reprint. Originally published: Barre, Mass. : Imprint Society, c1973.