Download PDF How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England A Guide for Knaves Fools Harlots Cuckolds Drunkards Liars Thieves and Braggarts Audible Audio Edition Ruth Goodman Jennifer M Dixon a division of Recorded Books HighBridge Books

Product details Audible Audiobook Listening Length 10 hours and 57 minutes Program Type Audiobook Version Unabridged Publisher HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books Audible.com Release Date February 12, 2019 Whispersync for Voice Ready Language English, English ASIN B07N7KXZ8X

How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England A Guide for Knaves Fools Harlots Cuckolds Drunkards Liars Thieves and Braggarts Audible Audio Edition Ruth Goodman Jennifer M Dixon a division of Recorded Books HighBridge Books Reviews

• I haven't totally finished the book, but I did put it down long enough to write a review. I am finding the book both fascinating and entertaining. It isn't all fluff either. Ruth Goodman has a point to make and she makes it clearly. This is a book about everyday people, not the stuff of the grand histories. You get a real feel for what life was like for the common citizen. It's the sort of book where you say, "Oh! So THAT"S where that comes from...."
  
  Also for me, as I'm reading, I hear the words in Ruth's own voice, so familiar from her television programs. That same exuberance and zest for her subject comes through.
• Also sold under "How to Behave Badly in Renaissance Britain." This one is the American edition, Renaissance Britain is the British one.
• Reads like a text book but fun
• The best parts of history people really care about, written in a friendly, yet fact- packed manner. This is a keeper.
• Informative and easy to read. Fun for any one interested in how we came to use--and still use--language.
• The research was great!
• Bawdy is an adjective often associated with the Elizabethan era, but just what did it mean to “behave badly”? In her meticulously researched book, author Ruth Goodman explores all the many ways to give offense, deliberately or unintentionally, in the time of the Renaissance.
  Compared to our time, the Elizabethan era was a much more stratified society, and “people in positions of authority wanted to see social structures acted out in the behaviors around them.” They valued acknowledgments of reputation and status far more than we do and as a result had many more artificial conventions and obligatory small public performances of respect. It was not enough to bow or doff one’s hat to acknowledge someone’s status; the action must be performed according to a specific paradigm or it could be judged as offensive as omitting the action entirely.
  In such a society there were MANY ways to offend, either from ignorance or disdain or, as in the case of the Quakers, as a matter of principle. I had not realized that “thee” and “thou”, which had previously been used as the familiar pronouns between equals and intimates, had fallen into disfavor and tended to be signs of disrespect. The Quakers used it as a symbol that we are all equal in the eyes of God, which, of course, enraged many of their contemporaries.
  Giving offense was not necessarily without serious consequences. Even verbal insults could land you in court, and a woman might think twice about cursing a neighbor---if her curse was then followed by misfortune for her neighbor, she could be (and sometimes was) charged with witchcraft.
  Not everything has changed, and personal actions like spitting, blowing one’s nose, and farting also were considered behavior to be controlled. The standards were rather different, though. Spitting was considered healthy, and swallowing one’s spit was unseemly.
  The comprehensive exploration of requirements of Elizabethan society was both the strength and weakness of the book. It was amazing to read the requirements for a proper bow in various circumstances and even which hand should be used to hold your hat when you doff it, but at the same time I tended to say “Enough” before the author finished describing the elaborate details. Confirmed history buffs will probably binge-read this compendium of Elizabethan standards and how to flaunt them. Others will probably enjoy it more by picking it up and reading a chapter at a time and marveling at how times have changed ... and how they have stayed the same. I would love to see what a writer 400 years from now would say about the conventions of our own age.
  My thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for an Advance Review Copy of this book
• I’m sure that you’ve actually heard (or seen) the quote from Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, a Pulitzer Prize winning historian who said “well-behaved women seldom make history”. And yes, it is true – history would be a very dry and proper read were it not for the shock value, cleverness and abject disrespect shown by those who choose to flaunt convention, making their point of disagreement, using behavior that is far removed from the power-broker’s demands for propriety, speech or ‘respect’ shown by deed and act. In fact, Goodman herself states that “for it is those who push against the boundaries of cultural etiquette who most accurately define where the lines are drawn. It is easy to dismiss, for example, the role of bowing in the smooth running of society until you encounter the few who refused to make the gesture’. For it is the rebels and their willful disregard of customs of polite speech, manners and behavior that truly shows us the cracks in the power-brokers control of situations, people and governments.
  
  Full of lively and lovely bits of phrasing, explanations of the rise and demise of words used to insult, the actual deleterious effect that the word arse or even fool had in the day – and how those words, and accompanying gestures, posturing and even refusal of acknowledgment went far further in undermining both the sense of self and the reputation of the besmirched. With a guide to combining insults for greater effect, how to drawings for gestures, and various examples taken from legal proceedings and news items – this is a book for the purely curious (me), to those looking to author stories set in the era. Research is impeccable and Goodman’s writing style could easily become addicting clear explanations with examples, instances and even some humor added – this is a little gem of a title that if you are planning on an examination of Shakespeare, or simply want to amuse yourself with some new trivia – you’ll want to have it.
  
  I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via Edelweiss for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review all conclusions are my own responsibility.