Language More Foul In Elizabethan Street Theatre Than 21st Century TV, Reveals Historian

Science Daily | University Of Warwick ^ | 2003-10-16

[sourcery]

UK broadcasters are often accused of promoting obscenity through the increased use of bad language on TV. However, new research from the University of Warwick reveals that the language of public name-calling, or 'street theatre', in early modern England was full of foul sexual insults that are far more lewd than today's broadcast media - and women were the main offenders.

Professor Bernard Capp's book 'When Gossips Meet', tracks the history of poor and 'middling' women from the mid 1500s to the 1700s, to reveal that gossipmongering and heated public exchanges were weapons used by women to wield power and influence in a male dominated society where they were often excluded.

Public name-calling by women aimed to demoralise an adversary, trigger damaging gossip throughout the neighbourhood, and turn public opinion against the alleged offender.

Allegations usually attacked a female adversary's sexual reputation. Prostitution was viewed as far worse than fornication, and the charge undermined social as well as moral standing. Court papers reveal the term 'whore' as the most common insult over several centuries.

"Massive overuse inevitably weakened the impact of 'whore' as a term of abuse, but speakers were able to draw on a rich lexicon of synonyms, such as jade, quean, baggage, harlot, drab, filth, flirt, gill, trull, dirtyheels, draggletail, flap, naughty-pack, slut, squirt, and strumpet, generally heightened by adjectives such as arrant, base, brazenfaced, or scurvy."

Veneral disease, especially syphilis or 'the pox', also featured prominently in abusive language. Taunts such as 'burnt-arsed whore' and 'pocky whore' were familiar throughout the country. 17th century church court papers cite several examples of highly offensive abuse: "At Bury St Edmunds Faith Wilson told her neighbour in 1619 to 'pull up your muffler higher and hide your pocky face, and go home and scrape your mangy arse'."

Quarrels and allegations often took place before witnesses, and public confrontation was staged for maximum effect. Gossip helps maintain social control: when someone is gossiped about, they restrict their behaviour. This gave women some control over erring husbands, abusive employers or sexually disreputable women.

Professor Capp, from the University of Warwick, said: "Heated exchanges of foul language between women was a familiar part of life in early modern England, and commonly took place in open streets. The language of 'street theatre' was rather blunt and offensive- even by today's post watershed TV standard."

Just as gossip can build social bonds, it can ruin reputations. Archdeaconry court papers record several cases where family or Parish life were torn apart by slander and gossip.

"Joan Webb of Wittlesford, Cambs., was rumoured in 1596 to be worse than any whore, for allegedly paid men to have sex with her, giving them some cheeses, venison and a shirt. The stories prompted a man who has been planning to marry her to break off the match, giving her £5 'to be rid of her'."

Networks of close friends and neighbours or 'gossips' provided companionship, a social identity outside the home, and emotional and practical support during disputes with husbands or neighbours. But alienation caused by malicious gossip was a real threat as the social economy of friends was crucial for ordinary women, as small loans or acts of kindness for a neighbour eased the lives of the poor.

[wimpycat]

I highly recommend Samuel Pepys' diary for anyone interested in reading a first-hand account of 17th century English life (as well as Restoration politics, the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London in 1666) and the language of the time.

[Revolting cat!]

I just new that television was as bad in Shakespeare's time as it is in ours!

[mewzilla]

Click here for a link to an Elizabethan curse generator. The results are pretty pithy :)

[Little Bill]

My Aunt was doing family history research in Gloustershire, it seems that a Green dress and a swelled stomach was a preresquite for marrage, due to a lack of Priests in the West Country the Churches blessing came later.

My dear Aunt was schocked.

[bourbon]

"Joan Webb of Wittlesford, Cambs., was rumoured...to be worse than any whore, for allegedly paid men to have sex with her, giving them some cheeses, venison and a shirt."

What used to be foul strumpetry is now a hot date in Wisconsin.

[glorgau]

when someone is gossiped about, they restrict their behaviour

Unless your name is Clinton.

[owl]

"Joan Webb of Wittlesford, Cambs., was rumoured in 1596 to be worse than any whore, for allegedly paid men to have sex with her, giving them some cheeses, venison and a shirt. The stories prompted a man who has been planning to marry her to break off the match, giving her £5 'to be rid of her'."

Sounds like one of Hillary's past lives...

[Prodigal Son]

Thanks for the book tip.

[Burn24]

I've just started reading Pepys' diary.. it's fascinating for the historical record of everyday things, but the man was a machine! He appears to never think of anything but his money and his food, and his descriptions are so rote and soul-less. "and so to bed" at the end of each entry. I am wondering why he kept this diary at all.

[tiamat]

Revolting cat! wrote:

I just new that television was as bad in Shakespeare's time as it is in ours!

****************************************

But I betcha ol' Willie didn't get as many channels!

;-)

Tia

[wardaddy]

Quim was a fine word. Wench as well. English is but a poor imitation of foul language when compared to Spanish or Portugese. I love in Colombia where when you tell a man to "chupa" your "sheath" is worse than actually cursing. Jamaica too gets the nod for inventive cursing...to be sure.

[bourbon]

I knew this venezuleans dude in college who had an AL vanity license plate on his car which said "Verga." I think he had convinced the folks at the hwy. dept. that he wanted this plate b/c he liked odd meterological phenomena, when in reality he wanted the plate b/c it meant c**k (lit. "rod") in Lat. Am. Spanish.

I always liked that Venezuelan dude, but he was kind of a d!<k.

[wimpycat]

Just wait--it gets better. As his career advances and his finances improve, he has other things to talk about. I don't know why he wrote his diary (he wrote it in cipher and it wasn't deciphered until the early 1800's), but I'm grateful he did. He is known as one of the fathers of the great English Navy, he was a great Naval Administrator, but his diary provides some of the best accounts of the political goings-on of the time, as well as an up-close and personal look at the Great Fire of London and the Great Plague.

But other than that, he was so completely honest with himself, how he felt, his petty jealousies, his...well, I won't give the story away, LOL! It shouldn't be surprising, but it is surprising how we haven't changed much over the centuries. There's an amusing passage later on in the diary where he talks about receiving a pocket watch (a very new fangled gadget), and feeling silly because he kept taking it out and checking it to see what time it was every 15 minutes. But he also talks about attending executions, the plays he went to, and the churches, and critiques both the performances and the sermons.

I think it's funny the way he spelled, and also the way he's always talking about his body functions. I'm almost as intimately acquainted with his bowel habits as I am my own, LOL! When he mentions staying home because he was taking "physique", he's talking about taking laxatives. A good cleansing of the bowels was considered to cure many ills. Considering how they didn't get a lot of roughage in their diet and didn't drink water, it was probably a good idea.

[Question_Assumptions]

And the Roman Colosseum was far more violent than anything on modern television. So what's the point? Should television keep getting more and more violent, sexual, and vulgar until we are worse than any of our ancestors?

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Poor people have poor ways.

Thus it has always been and thus it ever will be.

[Burn24]

YES, he's always talking about dosing himself with this or that and his horrible skin diseases - boils, pustules, infections, etc!

Thanks for the encouragement - I'll keep at it!

[Ax]

Steve Heighway is a graduate of Warwick University. Steve was an outstanding winger for Liverpool FC in the early 1970s. He was also an Irish International, having been capped several times by the Irish FA.

[Burn24]

Just looked at your homepage (because I was impressed by your knowledge of Pepys). Wimpycat is identical to my beloved Wally, who I adopted from a parsonage in North London and brought to NY. Wally lived for 23 years, and I miss him to this day.

The alleycats of England are a wonderful breed.

[wimpycat]

I like anecdotal history in general and especially eyewitness accounts of how people actually spoke, lived, dressed, ate, slept, as well as their attitudes towards life and death, their scientific ignorance and superstitions, etc. Pepys' diary more than fits the bill.


(Poor Wimpy! I still miss him, too, even though we have a new cat who has really grown on us in a short time.)