520 Class 10
¶CITIZEN ROMANCE
THE KING AND THE COBBLER
Primary Reading: Dekker, The Shoemaker’s Holiday
Secondary Reading: Browse the introduction to
Smallwood and Wells’s edition.
Other References: The Shoemaker’s
Holiday has been well studied, as a quick search of the MLA
International Bibliography will show. Of particular interest to us
are the pair of essays by historian Paul S. Seaver and literary/textual
critic David Bevington in The Theatrical City, and
Harris’s essay on
Ludgate Time.Whitney suggests that The Shoemaker’s Holiday satirizes Sir John Spencer (Lord Mayor in 1594-95) and gives a summary of the tension between city and theatres immediately prior to 1599. Straznicky argues that the play
purposely conserves a state of discord(358). Christensen and Arab (in different ways) offer readings of the gender politics of the play. Note! These references are for information only. I may draw upon them in my discussion, but do not expect you to read them.
Discussion Questions:
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Money is always changing hands in The Shoemaker’s Holiday. Rose pays Sybil to find information about Lacy (II.i); Ralph gives Jane a gift before going to war; and Firk withholds information until he receives coins in return, saying
but give me your angel; your angel shall tell you
(IV.iv) as though money literally talks. Indeed, it appears that everyone and everything in London can be bought — all except Jane, whoonly gives
(IV.i), much to Hammon’s repeated astonishment (V.ii). What, then, is the picture one gets of the economy of London from The Shoemaker’s Holiday, and does it accord with other portrayals we have encountered? (KK) -
Whether legitimately or through subterfuge, characters in The Shoemaker’s Holiday frequently switch classes and receive different treatment because of it. Lacy is able to camouflage his rank completely as he dresses down to a Dutchman and fools everyone, with the other shoemakers deciding to
leave the gross work to Hans
(III.i); Eyre, on the other hand, becomes Lord Mayor but still speaks mostly in prose, belying his former position — something that did not seem as out of place when he was briefly disguised as an Alderman (III.i). Do you think that the portrayal of upward mobility in the play takes itself seriously? Or, in other words, is there evidence in The Shoemaker’s Holiday to undercut the idea that anyone is able to become Lord Mayor of London? Is the play humorous entirely because of its implausibility, or is there a set of genuine beliefs underlying its action? (KK) -
This play opens with a dialogue between the Earl of Lincoln, a gentleman, and Mayor Oatley, a citizen of London. The two agree that the blossoming romance between their respective children must be stopped. In the formal hierarchy of the period, gentlemen are technically superior to citizens. Twenty-first century readers might expect the citizen to champion his daughter’s relationship with the young noble in an effort to elevate her — and his own — social standing. However, this is not the case in the play. In Scene 1, what attitudes does Mayor Oatley express regarding the gentry? How are the tensions between him and Lord Lincoln treated throughout the play and especially in its conclusion? (BB)
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Notwithstanding his assertion in
The Epistle
that The Shoemaker’s Holiday has no purpose but mirth, does Dekker’s Lacy plot, when juxtaposed with the Ralph and Jane Damport plot, critique class inequality? The apprentice Ralph Damport is separated from his new bride to do his military service in France. Because of his obedient service he is maimed, and almost permanently separated from Jane through remarriage. The noble youth, Lacy, deserts and is ultimately pardoned by the king. Given his status, if Ralph had evaded service, would the King have been as gracious to him as he is to Lacy? Wouldn’t Ralph too, like Lacy, have desertednot [for] a base want of true valour’s fire / Gap in transcription. Reason: Editorial omission for reasons of length or relevance. Use only in quotations in born-digital documents.[…] but love’s desire
(21.56-57)? If there is a critique of class inequality in this play, are there other examples? Alternately, how does Dekker affirm the value of hierarchical class distinctions? Does Dekker both affirm and critique class hierarchy? (BB)
References
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Citation
Arab, Ronda A.Work, Bodies, and Gender in The Shoemaker’s Holiday.
Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England. Ed. John Pitcher, Robert Lindsey, and Susan Cerasano. Vol. 13. New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2000. 182–212. Print.This item is cited in the following documents:
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Citation
Bevington, David.Theatre as Holiday.
The Theatrical City: Culture, Theatre and Politics in London, 1576–1649. Ed. David L. Smith, Richard Strier, and David Bevington. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995. 101–116. Print.This item is cited in the following documents:
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Citation
Christensen, Ann C.Being Mistress Eyre in Dekker’s The Shoemaker’s Holiday and Deloney’s The Gentle Craft.
Comparative Drama 42.4 (2008): 451–480. doi:10.1353/cdr.0.0035.This item is cited in the following documents:
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Citation
Dekker, Thomas. The Shoemaker’s Holiday. Ed. R.L. Smallwood and Stanley Wells. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1979. The Revels Plays.This item is cited in the following documents:
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Citation
Harris, Jonathan Gil.Ludgate Time: Simon Eyre’s Oath and the Temporal Economies of The Shoemaker’s Holiday.
Huntington Library Quarterly 71.1 (2008): 11–32.This item is cited in the following documents:
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Citation
Seaver, Paul S.The Artisanal World.
The Theatrical City: Culture, Theatre and Politics in London, 1574–1649. Ed. David L. Smith, Richard Strier, and David Bevington. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995. 87–100. Print.This item is cited in the following documents:
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Citation
Straznicky, Marta.The End(s) of Discord in The Shoemaker’s Holiday.
Studies in English Literature 36.2 (1996): 357–372. doi:10.2307/450953.This item is cited in the following documents:
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Citation
Whitney, Charles.The Devil his Due: Mayor John Spencer, Elizabethan Civic Antitheatricalism, and The Shoemaker’s Holiday.
Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England 14 (2001): 168–185.This item is cited in the following documents:
Cite this page
MLA citation
520 Class 10.The Map of Early Modern London, Edition 6.6, edited by , U of Victoria, 30 Jun. 2021, mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/TEN1.htm.
Chicago citation
520 Class 10.The Map of Early Modern London, Edition 6.6. Ed. . Victoria: University of Victoria. Accessed June 30, 2021. mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/TEN1.htm.
APA citation
The Map of Early Modern London (Edition 6.6). Victoria: University of Victoria. Retrieved from https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/editions/6.6/TEN1.htm.
, , & 2021. 520 Class 10. In (Ed), RIS file (for RefMan, RefWorks, EndNote etc.)
Provider: University of Victoria Database: The Map of Early Modern London Content: text/plain; charset="utf-8" TY - ELEC A1 - Jenstad, Janelle A1 - Klemic, Kane A1 - Barber, Benjamin ED - Jenstad, Janelle T1 - 520 Class 10 T2 - The Map of Early Modern London ET - 6.6 PY - 2021 DA - 2021/06/30 CY - Victoria PB - University of Victoria LA - English UR - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/TEN1.htm UR - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/xml/standalone/TEN1.xml ER -
TEI citation
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Personography
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Janelle Jenstad
JJ
Janelle Jenstad is Associate Professor of English at the University of Victoria, Director of The Map of Early Modern London, and PI of Linked Early Modern Drama Online. She has taught at Queen’s University, the Summer Academy at the Stratford Festival, the University of Windsor, and the University of Victoria. With Jennifer Roberts-Smith and Mark Kaethler, she co-edited Shakespeare’s Language in Digital Media (Routledge). She has prepared a documentary edition of John Stow’s A Survey of London (1598 text) for MoEML and is currently editing The Merchant of Venice (with Stephen Wittek) and Heywood’s 2 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody for DRE. Her articles have appeared in Digital Humanities Quarterly, Renaissance and Reformation,Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Early Modern Literary Studies, Elizabethan Theatre, Shakespeare Bulletin: A Journal of Performance Criticism, and The Silver Society Journal. Her book chapters have appeared (or will appear) in Institutional Culture in Early Modern Society (Brill, 2004), Shakespeare, Language and the Stage, The Fifth Wall: Approaches to Shakespeare from Criticism, Performance and Theatre Studies (Arden/Thomson Learning, 2005), Approaches to Teaching Othello (Modern Language Association, 2005), Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate, 2007), New Directions in the Geohumanities: Art, Text, and History at the Edge of Place (Routledge, 2011), Early Modern Studies and the Digital Turn (Iter, 2016), Teaching Early Modern English Literature from the Archives (MLA, 2015), Placing Names: Enriching and Integrating Gazetteers (Indiana, 2016), Making Things and Drawing Boundaries (Minnesota, 2017), and Rethinking Shakespeare’s Source Study: Audiences, Authors, and Digital Technologies (Routledge, 2018).Roles played in the project
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Janelle Jenstad is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:
Janelle Jenstad is mentioned in the following documents:
Janelle Jenstad authored or edited the following items in MoEML’s bibliography:
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Jenstad, Janelle and Joseph Takeda.
Making the RA Matter: Pedagogy, Interface, and Practices.
Making Things and Drawing Boundaries: Experiments in the Digital Humanities. Ed. Jentery Sayers. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 2018. Print. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
Building a Gazetteer for Early Modern London, 1550-1650.
Placing Names. Ed. Merrick Lex Berman, Ruth Mostern, and Humphrey Southall. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana UP, 2016. 129-145. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
The Burse and the Merchant’s Purse: Coin, Credit, and the Nation in Heywood’s 2 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody.
The Elizabethan Theatre XV. Ed. C.E. McGee and A.L. Magnusson. Toronto: P.D. Meany, 2002. 181–202. Print. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
Early Modern Literary Studies 8.2 (2002): 5.1–26..The City Cannot Hold You
: Social Conversion in the Goldsmith’s Shop. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
The Silver Society Journal 10 (1998): 40–43.The Gouldesmythes Storehowse
: Early Evidence for Specialisation. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
Lying-in Like a Countess: The Lisle Letters, the Cecil Family, and A Chaste Maid in Cheapside.
Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 34 (2004): 373–403. doi:10.1215/10829636–34–2–373. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
Public Glory, Private Gilt: The Goldsmiths’ Company and the Spectacle of Punishment.
Institutional Culture in Early Modern Society. Ed. Anne Goldgar and Robert Frost. Leiden: Brill, 2004. 191–217. Print. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
Smock Secrets: Birth and Women’s Mysteries on the Early Modern Stage.
Performing Maternity in Early Modern England. Ed. Katherine Moncrief and Kathryn McPherson. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007. 87–99. Print. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
Using Early Modern Maps in Literary Studies: Views and Caveats from London.
GeoHumanities: Art, History, Text at the Edge of Place. Ed. Michael Dear, James Ketchum, Sarah Luria, and Doug Richardson. London: Routledge, 2011. Print. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
Versioning John Stow’s A Survey of London, or, What’s New in 1618 and 1633?.
Janelle Jenstad Blog. https://janellejenstad.com/2013/03/20/versioning-john-stows-a-survey-of-london-or-whats-new-in-1618-and-1633/. -
Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. Ed. Janelle Jenstad. Internet Shakespeare Editions. U of Victoria. http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/Texts/MV/.
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Stow, John. A SVRVAY OF LONDON. Contayning the Originall, Antiquity, Increase, Moderne estate, and description of that Citie, written in the yeare 1598. by Iohn Stow Citizen of London. Also an Apologie (or defence) against the opinion of some men, concerning that Citie, the greatnesse thereof. With an Appendix, containing in Latine, Libellum de situ & nobilitate Londini: written by William Fitzstephen, in the raigne of Henry the second. Ed. Janelle Jenstad and the MoEML Team. MoEML. Transcribed.
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Benjamin Barber
BB
Benjamin Barber is a PhD student at the University of Ottawa. His recently completed MA research at the University of Victoria analyzed the role of mimetic desire, honour, and violence in Heywood’s Edward IV Parts 1 and 2 and Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. Barber’s current research explores the influence of Shakespearian protagonists on Lord Byron’s characterization of Childe Harold and Don Juan. He has articles forthcoming in Literature and Theology (Oxford UP) and Contagion: Journal of Violence Mimesis and Culture (Michigan State UP). He has also contributed an article to Anthropoetics: The Journal of Generative Anthropology (UCLA).Roles played in the project
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Transcriber
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Benjamin Barber is mentioned in the following documents:
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Martin D. Holmes
MDH
Programmer at the University of Victoria Humanities Computing and Media Centre (HCMC). Martin ported the MOL project from its original PHP incarnation to a pure eXist database implementation in the fall of 2011. Since then, he has been lead programmer on the project and has also been responsible for maintaining the project schemas. He was a co-applicant on MoEML’s 2012 SSHRC Insight Grant.Roles played in the project
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Kane Klemic
KK
Student contributor enrolled in English 520: Representations of London at the University of Victoria in Summer 2011. MA student, English.Roles played in the project
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Author
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Kane Klemic is mentioned in the following documents:
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Sir John Spencer
Sir John Spencer Sheriff Mayor
(d. 1610)Sheriff of London 1583-1584. Mayor 1594-1595. Member of the Clothworkers’ Company. Husband of Alice Spencer. Father of Elizabeth Compton. Knighted between 27 May 1595 and 16 June 1595.Sir John Spencer is mentioned in the following documents: