Rogues, Vagabonds and Beggars: from Laws to Rogue Books and Canting
This essay explores the Elizabethan underworld as described by Shakespeare’s contemporaries. In the backdrop of the laws introduced by Elizabeth I, this essay introduces the main criminal categories and characters living in late 16th-century London. These mysterious and sometimes charming characters...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
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Universitas Studiorum
2022-12-01
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| Series: | Open Journal of Humanities |
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| Online Access: | https://osf.io/dhz2x |
| _version_ | 1797979182886551552 |
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| author | Cristina Vallaro |
| author_facet | Cristina Vallaro |
| author_sort | Cristina Vallaro |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This essay explores the Elizabethan underworld as described by Shakespeare’s contemporaries. In the backdrop of the laws introduced by Elizabeth I, this essay introduces the main criminal categories and characters living in late 16th-century London. These mysterious and sometimes charming characters are depicted in a substantial number of prose texts whose aim was to inform and instruct ordinary readers, and above all magistrates, on the organization of the underworld so that criminals could be unmasked and their tricks brought to light. Dekker’s works, as much as Harman’s Caveat, Awdeley’s Vagabonds and Greene’s text on cozenage describe this milieu as a very well-structured social system, based on a strict hierarchy and on a complex linguistic code, Canting, which was meant to preserve the milieu from the outer world. Canting was made up of elements from different areas of the country, mingled in the biggest town of the kingdom, London, to which all vagabonds flocked. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T05:34:57Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9d99d14610b649b38e1825ed60684155 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2612-6966 |
| language | deu |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T05:34:57Z |
| publishDate | 2022-12-01 |
| publisher | Universitas Studiorum |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Open Journal of Humanities |
| spelling | doaj.art-9d99d14610b649b38e1825ed606841552022-12-22T14:25:33ZdeuUniversitas StudiorumOpen Journal of Humanities2612-69662022-12-011233510.17605/OSF.IO/63PJBRogues, Vagabonds and Beggars: from Laws to Rogue Books and CantingCristina Vallaro0Università Cattolica del Sacro CuoreThis essay explores the Elizabethan underworld as described by Shakespeare’s contemporaries. In the backdrop of the laws introduced by Elizabeth I, this essay introduces the main criminal categories and characters living in late 16th-century London. These mysterious and sometimes charming characters are depicted in a substantial number of prose texts whose aim was to inform and instruct ordinary readers, and above all magistrates, on the organization of the underworld so that criminals could be unmasked and their tricks brought to light. Dekker’s works, as much as Harman’s Caveat, Awdeley’s Vagabonds and Greene’s text on cozenage describe this milieu as a very well-structured social system, based on a strict hierarchy and on a complex linguistic code, Canting, which was meant to preserve the milieu from the outer world. Canting was made up of elements from different areas of the country, mingled in the biggest town of the kingdom, London, to which all vagabonds flocked.https://osf.io/dhz2xelizabethan underworldpeddler’s french and cantingjohn awdeley’s the fraternity of vagabondsthomas harman’s a caveat of common cursitorsvulgarly called vagabondsrobert greene’s a notable discovery of cozenagethomas dekker's the belman of londonjohn awdeleythomas harmanrobert greeneenglish literatureenglish languagethoms dekker |
| spellingShingle | Cristina Vallaro Rogues, Vagabonds and Beggars: from Laws to Rogue Books and Canting Open Journal of Humanities elizabethan underworld peddler’s french and canting john awdeley’s the fraternity of vagabonds thomas harman’s a caveat of common cursitors vulgarly called vagabonds robert greene’s a notable discovery of cozenage thomas dekker's the belman of london john awdeley thomas harman robert greene english literature english language thoms dekker |
| title | Rogues, Vagabonds and Beggars: from Laws to Rogue Books and Canting |
| title_full | Rogues, Vagabonds and Beggars: from Laws to Rogue Books and Canting |
| title_fullStr | Rogues, Vagabonds and Beggars: from Laws to Rogue Books and Canting |
| title_full_unstemmed | Rogues, Vagabonds and Beggars: from Laws to Rogue Books and Canting |
| title_short | Rogues, Vagabonds and Beggars: from Laws to Rogue Books and Canting |
| title_sort | rogues vagabonds and beggars from laws to rogue books and canting |
| topic | elizabethan underworld peddler’s french and canting john awdeley’s the fraternity of vagabonds thomas harman’s a caveat of common cursitors vulgarly called vagabonds robert greene’s a notable discovery of cozenage thomas dekker's the belman of london john awdeley thomas harman robert greene english literature english language thoms dekker |
| url | https://osf.io/dhz2x |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT cristinavallaro roguesvagabondsandbeggarsfromlawstoroguebooksandcanting |