Product Description

The Elizabethan world, so often recalled for its riotous love of life and bawdy sense of humour, was also a world of contrasts. The rich appeared enormously rich, indulging in extravagant luxuries, while the poor often languished in unthinkable squalour, turning to thievery and begging in order to survive. It is this complex network of beggars and thieves, vagabonds and rogues that inhabited the colourful underworld society of London's taverns, brothels and gambling dens that Salgado here investigates. Alongside these were those who sought their victims at the country fair and along treacherous highways. Gamini Salgado also describes those others who were part of the underworld scene; strolling players and minstrels, witches, alchemists and astrologers. He also examines the measures taken against those who were seen to be in need of correction of reform. The book contains sixty contemporary illustrations from manuscripts and pamphlets, bringing to life this fascinating sector of Elizabethan society.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #168083 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

About the Author
Gamini Salgado was born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and came to England to attend the University of Nottingham. He became an expert on D.H.Lawrence's poetry and on Elizabethan and Jacobean literature. He was appointed to the Chair of English at Exeter University in 1977. He died in 1985.

Customer Reviews

Why are there only five stars?
Voyeuristic? No, not at all, but this is a fascinating look at what life was like for the not so well off of 400 years ago. It's not peeping, maybe periscope peering would describe it better, Salgado uses hundreds of little vignettes (facts, not speculations) to make a kaleidoscope of Elizabethan life and outlook. Read in conjunction with Robert Roberts' The Classic Slum (5 stars again); both books share a gentle, non partisan irony, throwing pinches of salt on the slightest suspicious evidence, neither boring for a second despite prodigious amounts of information and statistics.
Even if you are not particularly drawn to the Elizabethan period, you will admire this book for its style, quiet erudition and humour in the description of a bleak reality.

A voyeuristic account by people of the time.
Salgado has researched contemporary accounts of the crimes and criminals of Elizabethan England and has written a rattling account of their lives and activities. He meticulously cross-references them with quotes from both fiction and non-fiction accounts.