By analyzing and contextualizing the polarized discourses on coffee and coffeehouses in post-1652 England, this dissertation argues that the divisive worldviews of the English population at this critical historical juncture shaped the contentious reception of coffee. Countless scholarly efforts dealing with seventeenth-century coffeehouses, those of London in particular, have helped explaining the rapid growing popularity of coffee and the establishments in which it was consumed, the coffeehouse. Building upon exiting literature, this work advances a new approach to shed light the interconnection between social and cultural anxieties, paradoxes and contradictions in seventeenth-century English society, and the contradictory discourses surrounding the rise of coffee in England. My project demonstrates that pervasive anxieties about the rise of religious heterodoxy, the ambiguous dispositions of the English people towards the Ottoman Turks, and the ever-present concerns surrounding the tenuous state of patriarchal manhood collectively helped to both encourage and discourage interactions with the Islamic practice of coffee drinking in coffeehouses. Coffee and coffeehouses came from the Ottoman Empire, the land of the presumed Turks. One sector of society, the optimists, embraced the exotic novelty from the Islamic world and participated enthusiastically in a custom shared with their Turkish, Arab and Persian counterparts since the early sixteenth century. Conversely, the pessimists vilified the adoption of cultural and dietary practices from a non-Christian society; they condemned the enthusiasts' cosmopolitanism as a sign of disloyalty that would only deepen discord in the nation. Indeed, they proclaimed the craze for the Turkish-imported habit as a sign of degeneration, threatening not just Englishmen's religiosity, but also their manliness. Coffee and coffeehouse came from the Ottoman Empire, the land of the presumed effeminate Turks at that. Intimate intermingling with this imported novelty thus compromised England's identity and even sovereignty. By relying upon a borderlands approach that is inspired by gender analysis, this dissertation seeks an alternative theoretical path to explain the controversy and contention swirling around a new drink and novel spaces of sociability among a populace dislocated by years of religious, political and cultural turmoil.

In seventeenth-century England, pursuits of knowledge were shaped by two seemingly paradoxical, yet interwoven beliefs: a persistent belief in the devastating effects of the Fall on human reason, and a growing trust in human ability to sharpen understanding and pierce the seemingly impenetrable. This dissertation explores how writers of works of physiognomy, shorthand, astrology and secret history simultaneously presented human conjecture and intuition as limited and flawed but also capable of providing ordinary people with access to privileged information. The authors of these “do-it-yourself” manuals made distinctions between God’s secrecy and human secrecy and provided tips on how each could be tapped. Physiognomy inspired constant searching for hidden sources of insight; shorthand encouraged the sense that there was often more than met the eye; astrology emphasized the usefulness of uncertainty. Secret histories suggested that the very skills which the practices of physiognomy, shorthand, and astrology honed could be used to unveil the secrets of carnal monarchs, ministers, and royal mistresses. Over the course of the seventeenth century, the limits of attainable knowledge – and who could reliably present and access it – were being defined and redefined. To leading philosophers and political figures, human uncertainty necessitated the weighing of probabilities and the idealization of transparent, empirical and elite approaches to information. I argue that to writers of physiognomy, shorthand, astrology, and secret history, it reinforced the notion that arcane knowledge could be accessed by anyone. Such writers variously suggested that information that mattered to people’s daily lives depended upon personalized, conjectural and intuitive approaches to knowing. In short, secrets that were once divine and impenetrable were actually up for grabs. / Graduate / 2019-09-10

This thesis focuses on the flourishing music-publishing industry in England in the second half of the seventeenth century, and examines its relationship to and influence on the activities of professional musicians. Music publishing as a commercial entity developed in England during this period, particularly, but not exclusively, through the endeavours of the Playford family. By placing the printed music books within the social and cultural contexts in which they were produced, this thesis explores the consequences of printing on the musical text, understanding the purposes for which the printed book was created and how different functions of print affected the musical texts that they contained. A detailed examination of the printed music sources sheds light on how publication (including posthumous publication) related to the image and status of the composer, and draws attention to the interaction between public music-making, compositional activity and music publishing during this period. Through an investigation of the contemporary printed outputs of five case-study composers - William Lawes, Henry Lawes, Matthew Locke, Henry Purcell and John Blow - this thesis explores the individual nature of the composers' relationships with the printed music book trade and how their contemporary printed outputs relate to their overall compositional output. This is followed by a detailed analytical study of specific compositions by the five case-study composers, examining both contemporary manuscript and printed sources, in order to determine to what extent the commercial print market influenced professional musical creativity. Different versions of compositions of certain genres, particularly secular vocal works, were disseminated via print as opposed to manuscript, and these alternative versions appear to have been instigated by both composers and stationers. This approach to examination of contemporary sources calls for the contextual consideration of sources and the musical texts within them.

Excerpt: It was the sixties—albeit the 1660s—a time for tricksters, rakes, subversive women and sexual energy on the stage. It was a time of fun for those with the means to partake of it. The “good old days” are, of course, always better from a distance, but writers on through the twentieth century found the Restoration an apt setting for their fictions about prostitution, political intrigue, and tragic or comic historical events, especially for the cinema.

Broad changes in early-modern English society were often reflected in the community via a 'war of words'. A close investigation of the social circumstances of individuals and of the relationships between individuals who were caught up in verbal crime provides a detailed context or 'micro-history' of this phenomenon, which in turn sheds light on the socio-economic changes occurring in the Northwest during this period. Since crimes associated with speech increased fourfold between 1580-1680, an investigation of the symbolic domain of speech is important to an understanding of early-modern society. This includes an investigation of chiding, cursing and scolding. In this thesis, the sources of female power in the early-modern community are examined, as well as the dynamics of ill-will behind female verbal crime. Such crimes are researched from manuscripts of proceedings in the local church courts and quarter sessions, which often provide insights into the popular politics of early-modern towns. By examining such texts, we may access a 'micro-history' of gossip that contributes to the debate over such micro-historical questions as gender, social politics and female social space. Networks of power and factional divisions with the community are revealed by exploring the attitudes of those involved in cases of female verbal crime, since individuals from every walk of life appeared in order to give evidence / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This study will demonstrate that the lay or "popular" medical practitioner played a major role in the provision of health care in seventeenth-century England. The medical "professionals" have generally been accepted as providing the most expert and "scientific" medical care (within the limits of contemporary knowledge), and, as such, have been the focus of attention for the majority of studies by medical historians. This study challenges traditional studies on the basis of geography, economic factors, religious influences and contemporary medical practices. The amorphous nature of seventeenth-century medical knowledge will be demonstrated to show the similarity between lay and professional medical treatment. To this end, female lay medical practitioners have been presented as a case study to illustrate the widespread nature and diversity of popular medicine and to assist in defining the role of the popular practitioner, a vital element within seventeenth-century health care. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

[Truncated abstract] The Ferrars are remembered as exemplars of Anglican piety. The London merchant family quit the city in 1625 and moved to the isolated manor of Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire. There they pursued a life of corporate devotion, supervised by the head of the household, Nicholas Ferrar, until he died in December 1637. To date, the life of the pious deacon Nicholas Ferrar has been the focus of histories of Little Gidding, which are conventionally hagiographical and give little consideration to the experiences of other members of the family, not least the many women in the household. Further, customary representations of the Ferrars have tended to remove them from their seventeenth-century context. Countering the biographical trend that has obscured many details of their communal life, this thesis provides a new, critical reading of the family's years at Little Gidding while Nicholas Ferrar was alive. It examines the Ferrars in terms of their own time, as far as possible using contemporary documents instead of later accounts and confessional mythology. It shows that, while certain aspects of life at Little Gidding were unusual, on the whole the family was less exceptional than traditional histories have implied; certainly the family was not so unified and unworldly as the idealised images have suggested. Moreover, the Ferrars were actively engaged in making those images, for immediate effect and for posterity. The Ferrars' identities, corporate and individual, and their largely textual practices of self-fashioning are central to the study. Other key concerns are the Ferrars' moral and religious ideals and practices, gender in the family, and intra-familial relationships. Evidence for the thesis is drawn from family documents dating from the early years of the seventeenth century to the time of Nicholas Ferrar's death. ... The Little Academy is considered first: in this unique dialogue circle, young women discussed morally edifying historical tales, offering them a textually-mediated experience of the world and working to reinforce conventional gender roles and religious values. The final three chapters pertain to the copious and little-studied family correspondence. A chapter that develops a theory of the functions of the family correspondence network is followed by one studying the affective relationships that the celibate sisters Mary and Anna Collet maintained through their letters with their unmarried uncle and spiritual mentor, Nicholas Ferrar. These chapters consider the identities as single people that all three developed through these relationships, within the maritally-focused framework of the Protestant family. The last chapter also concerns the lives of the unmarried, examining the relationships of single male adults and their roles in the family, focusing on the friendship of Nicholas Ferrar and his cousin Arthur Woodnoth. The thesis closes by reflecting on the fact that returning the Ferrars to their seventeenth-century context reveals their multi-faceted nature, comprising ideals and identities sometimes incongruous with one another, and certainly unaccounted for in the traditional narratives. It thus demonstrates the importance of the overall project of reconceiving the Ferrars? history, which forms an original contribution to the study of the social, cultural and religious history of early seventeenth-century England.

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This dissertation examines how the chaotic social space of post-civil war England inspired new ideas of the ideal social structure and its ability to create social and political stability. Focusing on three non-fiction prose tracts, Margaret Cavendish’s Worlds Olio (1655), Thomas Traherne’s Christian Ethicks (1675), and Gerrard Winstanley’s Law of Freedom (1652), I use the concept of “space-making,” or “how texts aided readers in producing the space in which they understood humanity to be living” (Sauter 47), to engage three distinct perspectives on social cohesion. I situate my study within the larger context of the scientific revolution, and what Michael Sauter calls the “spatial reformation,” whereby humanist thinkers embraced Euclidean geometry to “make” space in a manner akin to God. I argue that, through their writing, Cavendish, Traherne, and Winstanley structure theoretical space to control, guide, or influence how social beings relate to one another and to the state. In doing so they make social space heterogeneous. The authors create theoretical spaces in which alternatives to England’s social structure are outlined. These alternatives reflect the subjectivity and interests of the space-maker, and while each author wishes to establish social cohesion in post-civil war England, the spaces they create reveal unique perspectives on social responsibility, free will, and self-preservation, leading readers to question the benefits and drawbacks of social cohesion. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This dissertation examines three works of non-fiction prose by Margaret Cavendish, Thomas Traherne, and Gerrard Winstanley, all of whom were seventeenth-century writers. I examine the ways that social structure in post-civil war England in fact rejects the geometric premise popular among canonical natural philosophers that all space (including the spaces we inhabit as human beings) was homogeneous. Instead, I argue that homogeneous space is oppressive in a social context, while also acknowledging that heterogeneous social spaces (spaces that are divided and have distinct "parts") also tended to limit the free will of social actors, particularly those in the lower classes. I examine themes related to free will, self-interest, and subjectivity, specifically with respect to how these themes can both create or detract from social cohesion.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T14:16:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Nei da Silva.pdf: 516447 bytes, checksum: 6d666c266e984fe810adc14be330d706 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-10-07 / Secretaria da Educação do Estado de São Paulo / In seventeenth-century England, the saltpeter was one of the most studied materials, for its commercial value and the issues involving its origin and obtaining. At mid-century, the British dependence in saltpetre export took several science men to engage attempt in the studies and researchs on this material. Among these scholars, we will accent important studies groups worried about commonweal, as Samuel Hartlib and his associates; which would become the Royal Society of London; and, still, scholars as Benjamin Worsley , Robert Boyle and Thomas Henshaw / Na Inglaterra do século XVII, o salitre era um dos materiais mais estudados, por seu valor comercial e pelas questões que envolviam sua origem e sua obtenção. Em meados do século, a dependência inglesa na exportação de salitre levou vários homens de ciência a empenharem esforços nos estudos e pesquisas sobre esse material. Entre esses estudiosos, daremos ênfase a importantes grupos de estudo que se preocupavam com o bem-comum como foi o de Samuel Hartlib e seus associados; o do que se transformaria na Royal Society de Londres; e, ainda, o de estudiosos como Benjamin Worsley, Robert Boyle e Thomas Henshaw