EARLY MODERN SCRIBBLING

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Life in Tudor and Stuart England was not all gloom and doom, even if few today would forsake their modern conveniences and travel back in time in a one-way trip. People still enjoyed themselves and tried to find happiness among the hardship and misery they were forced to endure.

Some recreational activities haven’t changed; people socialised at the pub, played sports, and went to the theatre. Other forms of leisure are indicative of quite severe cultural differences — watching a public execution or taking a quick trip to see the bear-baiting was common in the early modern period.

Another outlet for entertainment was cheap print literature. Cheap pamphlets, which would only set a reader back a penny or two, promised exciting stories of exhilarating adventures or emotional poetry. Other books were more light-hearted, such as jest books packed full of humorous anecdotes and side-splitting jokes.

Recreational spaces and activities could also become the sites of culture wars and conflicts between different groups of people, however. The puritans waged a long-lasting war against alehouses during the 16th and 17th centuries, deeming them the “nurseries of all vice and wickedness”. In reality, people did not visit pubs to devise evil plots, but rather to have a refreshing drink and make merry conversation with their friends.