Book of the Week: The Art of Provocation - How to Respond to a Renaissance Insult

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Historian Ruth Goodman's stories about life during the Tudor era will make people appreciate modern hygiene more.

There are always those who tirelessly repeat that everything was not so before. People were more tolerant and respectful. Nobody scattered insults and did not do obscenities. Debauchery and crime were suppressed in the bud by high moral standards. For those who believe in it, the historian Ruth Goodman has prepared an excellent answer in the form of the book “The Art of Provocation. How they were pushed into crimes, drunk and justified debauchery in Renaissance Britain.

The author is primarily interested in social life and home life. Together with fellow historians, Goodman has directed several documentaries for the BBC, which recreate the life of the farm during the Tudor era, the celebration of Christmas in the Victorian era and the everyday life of the pharmacy in the mid-19th century.

In his works, the author shows how in the past people ran a household, started families, quarreled with neighbors and took a shower in pubs after a hard day's work. This is the first book by Ruth Goodman to be translated and published in Russian, and it has become a welcome joy for all who are mesmerized by the Renaissance. However, one should not expect from her stories of great deeds and impeccable ceremonial or of a careful attitude towards culture and exalted speeches:

Welcome to the age of bad behavior. Forget the stories of the great and the good: this is the story of far from ideal people and their flaws.

Ruth Goodman "The Art of Provocation"

The rules that reigned in England in the XVI-XVII centuries are touched upon here only to show how they were violated. The author did not powder the facts with powdered sugar. Each chapter of the book describes the vices inherent in people - abusive speech, ridicule, rude gestures, violence, nasty habits and disgusting body hygiene. And all this is flavored with pictures and engravings of that time for greater clarity.

Then it was considered quite customary to shout out to a person, for example, that he had a turd in his teeth (a turd in your teeth). And in the book Goodman explains where the insult, so wild for our century, came from. And he also teaches, using the example of the inhabitants of England in the 16th century, how you can wittily respond to someone's aggressive offer to kiss his ass.

However, the author notes that a certain sophistication was still present in those days. For example, when a man wanted to accuse a woman of being too frivolous, he could not use vulgar words, but floridly hint that her husband was a cuckold, or write a funny rhyme. And sometimes even words were not needed for this - even a special kind of bow could serve as an insult.

Whether we like it or not, this behavior has been common to people at all times. And if we are to study history, then completely, and not only those moments that are shown in romantic films about kings. And Goodman's book is also worth reading in order to be sincerely happy for yourself. It is enough to get acquainted with all the delights of feminine hygiene of that time to appreciate modern progress.