CHAPTER II

THE ARTISAN AS SPECULATOR AND PHILANTHROPIST

This chapter represents the craftsmen more as they aspired to be than as they actually were, but it has historical significance, inasmuch as the Elizabethan age was one of speculation. A brief account of the history of the merchant-tailors will illustrate the aspiration of craftsmen from early times through the reign of James I to be considered merchants, a merchant being frequently a master-craftsman as well.1 The tailors were granted a charter, incorporated a company, and given the name of tailors or linenarmorers by King Edward I. As the company grew, it became a rich and powerful fraternity, taking the function of trading. Henry VII gave the tailors the title of "merchant-tailors," in recognition of their trading privileges. Their pride in the title is shown, in The Merchant-Tailors' Song; and in Lord Mayor shows that celebrate the election of a mayor who is a tailor, Henry VII is presented among the other kings free of that company, and his charter forming them a trading company is mentioned. Dekker artfully describes the aspiration of craftsmen toward world-wide trade, at the prosperous period of the accession of James I.

"Taylors meant no more to be called merchant-taylors, but 1 Whether or not a merchant was a master-craftsman, he frequently began as a manual worker, this applying sometimes even to the great merchant-adventurers.

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merchants, for their shops were all lead forth in leases to be turned into ships, and with their sheares (instead of a Rudder) would they have cut the Seas (like Leuant Taffaty) and sayld to the West Indies for no worse stuffe to make hose and doublets of, than beaten gold.""

The praise of altruistic craftsmen and civic officials from their ranks is to be found in Johnson's Nine Worthies of London. White, a merchant-tailor; Pritchard, a vintner and knight; and Sevenoake, a grocer, are instances.

The self-made man is a favorite subject in Deloney's fiction. A brief introduction to this important writer may now be given. He gives a well-rounded delineation of artisans. Himself a silkweaver, Deloney is entirely sympathetic; his very themes are those most pleasing to craftsmen: the rise of the industrious artisan, and especially the exploits of artisans in battle. There is extremely little of the darker aspect of city life, which appears in later literature; i. e., faithlessness within the home, and cheating and bitter rivalry within the shop. Instead, nearly everything is presented in a cheerful atmosphere. There is merry singing accompanying the work (and frequently, which is not the case at present, the songs glorify the work itself), Robin, a journeyman shoemaker, being an especial exponent of this. There is throughout a spirit of fraternity and co-operation. Comic byplots, though often coarse, are humorous, consisting generally of merry pranks. There is a certain amount of romance with the realism, a most successful instance being the love story of Crispine and Ursula. In Deloney's portraits of several energetic, competent, and proud women, he

2

The wonderfull yeare, 1603, Grosart, vol. I, p. 100.

anticipates an interest in, though a different treatment of, the craftsman's wife on the part of several Jacobean writers.

His three novels are Jack of Newbury, celebrating weavers; The Gentle Craft, in two parts, dealing with shoemakers; and Thomas of Reading, celebrating clothiers, all written between 1596 and 1600. Each novel is a collection of loosely connected stories, usually centering about craftsmen and craftswomen. The stories range from moral ones to coarse farces and horseplay. Taken all in all, there is much charm in the writer; he influenced literature dealing with crafts.

Jack of Newbury, 1596, depicts a historical figure, John Winchcomb, a clothier of the time of Henry VII and Henry VIII, who may have built the church vestry of Newbury. Deloney's treatment follows the main events of Winchcomb's life. He is first presented as an industrious and steady weaver's apprentice, who, at the death of his master, is intrusted by his mistress with the charge of all the workers for three years. She rejects three wealthy suitors, a tanner, tailor, and parson, and woos and weds Jack. Her aggressiveness contrasts with his passiveness, it being a common theme with Deloney to depict a man who is overruled by his wife. On the death of his wife, Jack becomes a rich and eminent clothier, afterwards marrying one of his own poor but industrious servants.

Jack often shows to his servants pictures of great men of humble descent, usually sons of craftsmen. To Jack's workers this serves as an example and an incentive to industry. Some of the pictures are as follows: King Agathocles of Sicily, a poor potter's son; Iphicrates, an Athenian general, son of a cobbler; Emperor

Aelius Pertinax, and Marcus Aurelius, sons of weavers; and Emperor Diocletian, son of a bookbinder.3

The novel presents some of the trials of the artisan as well as his success and festivities. The clothworkers present to the king a petition stating the difficulty of selling cloth, and requesting permission to traffic with foreign countries. Cardinal Wolsey, at that time Lord Chancellor, and a bitter foe to artisans, delays the granting of the petition. This is partly because of his hearing of a statement from Jack to the effect that the cardinal would never have his present position had his father (a butcher) been as slow in killing a calf as Wolsey is in granting poor men's suits. This reflection on the cardinal's low birth causes Wolsey to imprison the clothiers for a time. Their petition, however, is finally granted.

Not only the chief figures in Deloney's novels, but also some of the incidental persons are represented as rising from humble positions to eminence, partly through their own merits and partly through good fortune. An instance is in the story of Pert, a former draper, who is imprisoned because of his debts to several persons, including Jack. Jack, now a burgess for Newbury, sees Pert at work as a porter, and gives him capital to furnish a draper's shop again. He prospers, becoming sheriff and finally alderman.

Many disconnected stories abound, some of them dealing with horseplay and introducing popular well known individuals, such as Will Sommers, the court

'Similarly, in Heywood's If You Know not Me, You Know Nobody, Gresham and his friends are shown pictures of illustrious citizens who were formerly poor craftsmen. In this sentimental passage, tears of admiration are brought to their eyes, and ambition to be remembered after death is aroused.

fool. The unity of such a work as Jack of Newbury is to be found not in plot, but in the constant dealing with weavers and clothiers, and in the personality and influence of Jack.

In Thomas of Reading, also, we have a collection of many loosely connected stories, centering approximately about the following clothiers: Thomas Cole of Reading, Tom Dove of Exeter, Gray of Gloucester, William Fitzallen of Worcester, Sutton of Salisbury, Simon of Southampton, Hodgkins of Halifax, Cutbert of Kendall, and Martin Briam of Manchester. As the previously described novel, this one is full of antiquarian interest. It has apparently a greater proportion of fiction, although Cole is mentioned by historians; e. g., in Fuller's Worthies of England; Coates' History of Reading mentions him as a rich clothier. The novel treats certain clothing centers and popular clothiers that have become associated with these.

Certain interesting parallels to Jack of Newbury may be mentioned. There are several instances in which the clothiers entertain one of the royal family; e. g., on one occasion the two princes, William and Robert, and on another5 King Henry I, at Worcester, who "returned to London, with great joy of his Commons."

A somewhat more important parallel is one in which the clothiers make various requests to the king. One of these is that all cloth measures be standardized, a matter which is settled by the king's calling the length of his own arm a yard and the standard." Another

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Another tradition states that a yard was the length of another king's arm, that of Edward I.