Praise and Paradox
Merchants and Craftsmen in Elizabethan Popular Literature

A searching critique of the popular Elizabethan literature that praised merchants, industrialists and craftsmen.

Laura Caroline Stevenson (Author)

9780521522076, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 22 August 2002

268 pages
21.7 x 14.1 x 1.9 cm, 0.382 kg

Praise and Paradox explores the relationship of language, literary structure, and social ideology in the popular Elizabethan literature that praised merchants, industrialists and craftsmen. Part I defines a canon of 296 popular vernacular works, relates the increasing popularity of tales about tradesmen to the development of the English economy and the expansion of the Elizabethan audience, and discusses the social origins of the popular authors. Part II is concerned with the change of the merchant's literary image from that of a greedy usurer to that of a 'businessman in armour' who defended his monarch on the battlefield and entertained princes at lavish banquets. Part III discusses the change in the literary image of the craftsman, who ceased to be a clown or a rebel and became a 'gentle craftsman' who fought bravely on the battlefield when necessary but was happier in his humble shop, where he sang, danced, and courted pretty girls.

Acknowledgements
Prefactory note
Introduction: praise and paradox
Part I. Elizabethan Popular Literature: 1. Elizabethan popular literature and its economic context
2. The popular Elizabethan authors
3. The popular Elizabethan audience
Part II. The Business in Armour: 4. Principal citizens and chief yeomen
5. The merchant as usurer: a stock image in decline
6. The merchant as knight, courtier and prince
7. Lessons in diligence and thrift
Part III. The Gentle Craftsman: 8. Clown and rebel: the craftsman as one of 'the fourth sort of people'
9. The gentle craftsman in Arcadia
Appendices
Index.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1]