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- Title
‘I think myself honestly decked’: Attitudes to the Clothing of the Rural Poor in Seventeenth-Century England.
- Authors
TANKARD, DANAE
- Abstract
This article explores attitudes to the clothing of the rural poor in seventeenth-century England. It begins with an analysis of the representation of rural clothing in country themed ballads, showing how ‘homely’ country clothing was used to construct an image of a contented and industrious rural population. It then considers how such popular literary representations influenced the way that diarists Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn recorded their encounters with the rural poor. The final part of the article looks at attitudes of the rural poor to their own clothing, drawing on evidence from a range of documentary sources as well as the autobiographical writings of Edward Barlow. In contrast to the stereotypical depiction of the rural poor recorded by ballad writers and elite observers, the article will show that for the actual poor clothing could serve both as an expression of the ‘self’ and as a potent marker of social differences and moral and material inferiority.
- Subjects
RURAL poor; CLOTHING &; dress; POOR people's attitudes; PEPYS, Samuel, 1633-1703; EVELYN, John, 1620-1706; BARLOW, Edward
- Publication
Rural History, 2015, Vol 26, Issue 1, p17
- ISSN
0956-7933
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1017/S0956793314000211