THE ARTISAN IN ELIZABETHAN

LITERATURE

INTRODUCTION

Attention in this essay is devoted to individuals and types rather than to organizations. For a complete understanding of the craftsman or craftswoman, however, brief mention must be made of the medieval and Renaissance guilds.

As may be seen from the bibliography, much has been written on the history of guilds. A few words, therefore, are all that need be said here of the craft guilds. Originating from the beginning of the 11th to the middle of the 13th century, the craft guilds attained their greatest power in the 14th and 15th centuries. Formed for self-defense against barons, they protected themselves not only by co-operation, but also by self-criticism, since defective workmanship or dishonest trading on the part of any members of the guild would injure the reputation of the rest.

In the 14th century the old idea of fraternity gradually died out, and the guilds became powerful commercial and civic organizations. Toward the end of the reign of Edward III were established the following merchant companies, called the twelve great livery companies: mercers, grocers, drapers, fishmongers, goldsmiths, skinners, merchant-tailors, haberdashers,

salters, ironmongers, vintners, and cloth-workers. They are interesting in that the Lord Mayor of London was chosen from their ranks and in that from their number several famous capitalists and philanthropists emerged. These were Simon Eyre, draper, founder of Leadenhall, Thomas Gresham,1 builder of the Royal Exchange, and Richard Whittington, mercer, founder of Whittington College.

Instances of government interference in affairs of trade, of some interest and importance, may be studied in the acts of the Privy Council. A good illustration is the Statute of Apprentices, 1563. It compelled certain poor persons to work for arbitrarily assigned wages termed "reasonable wages." There were restrictions on the hiring of a man from another parish. Working hours were regulated so as to gain the best effects of daylight, night work being forbidden as not conducive to good workmanship. Technical education was provided for apprentices, and the proportion of these to journeymen was regulated. Artisans might apprentice only the sons of freemen; shopkeepers and merchants might apprentice only the well-to-do.

English apprenticeship probably started in the 13th century. Toward the end of this century the records become more numerous. By 1300, London records were kept of the enrollment of apprentices; in the country this system was adopted later. It involved a youth's binding himself to a master craftsman by indenture; i. e., by contract for a definite term, usually seven years, Gresham was a mercer, according to The Dictionary of National Biography, and Hazlitt's Livery Companies, p. 182; he was a grocer, according to Heywood's If you know not me. Dunlop and Denman: English Apprenticeship and Child Labor, p. 18.

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with certain agreements. In the 15th century the recording of the contract was emphasized. There was also a proviso that apprentices must be twenty-four at the end of their term, and must remain single until that time. The length of the term varied: the goldsmiths, inasmuch as their craft involved much dexterity and skill, insisted upon a ten-year period; certain of the lesser trades were satisfied with less than seven years.

A feature of the system which is very important, but sometimes overlooked, is the personal relation between the master and the apprentice, and frequently between the latter and the mistress and fellow-apprentices and journeymen. Not only in the shop, but also in the home and in his private life did the apprentice come under the care and discipline of the master. He was supplied with food, lodging, clothes, and education, not only in the craft, but also, to some extent, in reading and writing. He ate with his fellows at the master's table, was strictly guarded and watched as to his outside amusements, being forbidden, in accordance with the terms of his indenture, to frequent taverns, to play dice or cards, or to be guilty of any incivility. The aim of the system was to furnish a skilled workman and an upright citizen.

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The master, in turn, was obliged to clothe, feed, and instruct the apprentice in the proper manner, or he was liable to be fined. (Guild officers went on rounds of inspection, a supervision which became especially prominent in the 16th century.) The master had a 'Dunlop, p. 55.

A master was fined for improperly clothing his apprentice. Clode: History of the Guild of the Merchant-Taylors, p. 521.