| This project examines the strained relationship between older and younger people in the Renaissance. The substantial socio-economic changes in sixteenth and seventeenth century England---the end of Elizabeth's long reign, burgeoning capitalism, the accelerated growth of the City, and the dissolution of sensibility---made already tense elder-youth relations even more strained. Elders were profoundly disturbed by young people's potential to disempower them, and youth demanded authority at a time when usually little was permitted them. In the midst of the discord that followed, texts of all kinds---from ballads to pamphlets, and from conduct books to plays---took a position, either with elders or youth, offering each group solutions to the problem of generational conflict.Dramatic texts aimed at elders include Shakespeare's King Lear and 2 Henry IV and Jonson's The Staple of News. Lear suggests to older people that a model of parent-child obligation that relies upon blatant parental absolutism will result in disaster. It offers instead a model that appears to be more mutual, though in actuality it naturalizes fathers' control over their children. 2 Henry IV and Staple, along with advice books written by elders, seek to quell older people's anxiety that children would pursue their own ambitions without concern for their elders. These texts provide a comforting fantasy: the ability to reach beyond the grave to continue to shape one's children and reassert one's power.Texts that advised youth include Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and Middleton's A Mad World, My Masters, which articulate the frustration that comes with being on the brink of adulthood but being denied full adult status. Merchant gives voice to the complaints of young people who feel burdened by the power dead fathers possess over them. Mad World illustrates the central problem with inheritance: only one group---the old or the young---can possess power at a time, something that youth complain leaves them dependent for too long. These texts and the behavior of early modern English youth, including apprentices, suggest that performance, writing, and collective action are key to youth's ability to gain agency and authority. |
