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date: 22 January 2021

Abstract and Keywords

Representations of hardy and vigorous rural workers were featured prominently in much Tudor literature. In 1485 Tudor life and economy were almost exclusively rural, wealth based on the acquisition and maintenance of land and property. The only substantial city in England was London, which did indeed grow significantly during the reign of the Tudors. By the end of the sixteenth century most writers either lived in or had access to London, where the major printing presses were housed. The rural labourer, who had once been an organic part of everyday life, assumed the status of a figure under threat who needed protection, the authentic link to a past that was disappearing before everyone's eyes. This article focuses on the texts that were written and published during the period.

Keywords: rural workers, labourers, Tudor life, rural life

Andrew Hadfield

Andrew Hadfield is Professor of English at the University of Sussex, Visiting Professor at the University of Granada, and Founding Director of the Centre for Early Modern Studies at Sussex. He is the author of a number of works on early modern literature, including Shakespeare and Republicanism (Cambridge University Press, 2005; paperback, 2008); Literature, Travel and Colonialism in the English Renaissance, 1540–1625 (Oxford University Press, 1998; paperback, 2007); Spenser's Irish Experience: Wilde Fruyt and Salvage Soyl (Oxford University Press, 1997); and Literature, Politics and National Identity: Reformation to Renaissance (Cambridge University Press, 1994). He has also edited, with Matthew Dimmock, Religions of the Book: Co-existence and Conflict, 1400–1660 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008); with Raymond Gillespie, The Oxford History of the Irish Book, Vol. III: The Irish Book in English, 1550–1800 (Oxford University Press, 2006); and with Paul Hammond, Shakespeare and Renaissance Europe (Cengage, Arden Critical Companions, 2004); and Literature and Censorship in Renaissance England (Palgrave Macmillan, 2001). He was editor of Renaissance Studies (2006–11) and is a regular reviewer for The Times Literary Supplement.

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