I have loved watching Goodman in various mini series and it was so interesting to read this book after watching Tudor Farm and Tudor Monastery!

As always, Goodman has delivered a thoroughly fun account on what could have been a very dry subject! I love Goodman's previous works, and had high expectations for this one. My expectations were met and surpassed! It's always obvious that the author loves the work that she's doing, and she is able to transfer that love through her words, helping those who read it to feel some semblance of that same adoration. I can't wait for Goodman's next!

Whilst this book does have some laugh out loud funny moments in it, especially the archaic insults, I didn't think it made for the best general reading material. I do, however, think this would be an invaluable source for any writer or historian looking into the Elizabethan era.

The author has done quite a lot of intensive research on her subject matter and little is left out in this book. If you are looking for a good source of information and insights into how to be a bit unruly in the bygone era, this book will offer you everything you are looking for and more.

I thought it was fun and loaded with facts and tidbits that I want to use for later purposes. I'd definitely recommend it to other authors.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher, provided through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Buttons! Who knew that women wearing them was once viewed as a mockery of God’s law. Or that maids wearing starched ruffs sent up a crescendo of outrage at this subversion of the social order. Yet it seems that youth choosing their clothes with an eye and purpose of separating themselves from and upsetting their parents is nothing new under the sun.

One thing guarantied to irritate people then and now is smoking. Spitting has gone in and out of fashion, views on sex have changed but in interesting ways since this time (as in the medieval age) still viewed a healthy sexual relationship between married people as something to be desired – but sex outside marriage was sinful. Bathing was not often done but not because people didn’t want to be clean but because they did. And healthy too as with all those miasmas drifting about, one could catch almost anything if the skin were washed! Much better to keep it covered up with well washed linen that whisked all foulness away. Start talking about menstruation though and you’ll still stop all conversation and be thought crude and shocking.

Amusing, entertaining and informative, I have learned a lot from this book and will probably view historicals with a slightly different eye from now on. B+

In depth, incredibly fascinating, and very well researched. A delight for anyone interested in Elizabethan life and history buffs.

tl;dr: Fun read for popular history buffs interested in the title's very specific time period.

How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England is an utterly charming work of popular history that focuses on good manners--or lack thereof. Lots of examples from etiquette guides of the time, which are fascinating, and some details of what those who bent convention faced through court cases. I ended up liking those the best-- they were so interesting! Is this groundbreaking? No. Is it fun for those who like historical pop culture? You bet!

I strongly suspect that How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England: A Guide for Knaves, Fools, Harlots, Cuckolds, Drunkards, Liars, Thieves, and Braggarts, by Ruth Goodman, was born from all of the research Goodman did that didn’t make it in to her previous book, How to Be a Tudor. Goodman packs this book full of advice from etiquette books, seasoned with cases of bad behavior that ended up going to court. I wish there had been more of the court cases because I found them fascinating and because they’re much better indicators of what people were actually doing instead of what they are told they ought to do.

How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England contains chapters on swearing, mockery, table manners, dress, bodily functions, drinking and more. In each chapter, Goodman breaks elements of (bad) behavior down into specific no-nos. For example, the chapter on mockery contains all sorts of advice about how different people stood or walked, immediately followed by tales of how people would parody the way a soldier strutted or a minister “halted.” In the chapter on violence, Goodman quotes an etiquette manual for young men and boys that tells them to be many but to avoid murdering people. Then Goodman recounts a series of stories of violence that would be farcical except for all the manslaughter.

The best parts of this book, for me, were the small slices of life provided by the court cases. Goodman gives us the names of these briefly infamous Elizabethans (and Jacobeans, since this book also covers the early Stuart era), their shenanigans, and the insults that caused them. Etiquette manuals are interesting in their own right. They’re full of complicated instructions for how to do just about anything, from dressing to blowing one’s nose in the morning to how to bow to anyone on the social spectrum. But the court cases appeal to my overdeveloped sense of schadenfreude by showing us how it all fell apart in real life. No one can be on their best behavior all the time, after all.

Goodman’s angle in showing us Elizabethan manners in terms of actively pissing people off perfectly serves its purpose of showing readers just how complex it all was. I was a bit lost at times as she described the various styles of bowing or the correct way to stand because I wasn’t sure which joints we were supposed to bend. But by looking at good behavior through bad behavior, I got a very clear sense of how Elizabethan society might function day-to-day. I also learned that I would be spotted as a time traveler in an instant because I would probably slip up and tell someone to sneeze into their elbow if they didn’t have a handkerchief (considered disgusting) while being appalled by people spitting all over the place (this grosses a lot of Americans out). Readers of social histories will enjoy this a lot, I think.

Looking for an explanation of language and Elizabethan lexicon? Ruth Goodman gives us an intricate breakdown of how terms that seem innocent and plain now were once high insults. Before reading this book, I never really thought about how many terms were intended to be insulting towards women. Like so many phrases we use without thinking, How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England really forces the reader to pause and reflect.

How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England is a wonderful, hilarious historical compilation of manners, curses, insults and anecdotes of unsavoury behavior. The images included help explain the exact nature of gestures, and the author has generously captioned the pictures with lines like:

"Swiss mercenaries were famous across Europe for their military prowess and their extravagant clothing and strutting."

"This city miss with her body weight held well forward and head held high is all ready to go 'tripping' along"

"Besides passing out and vomiting, drunkards were easy prey to a host of other vices, from gambling, smoking and fighting, to making fools of themselves through the medium of dance."

In addition, sources for the plethora of illustrations are listed at length, and there is a lovely, if a bit sparse, bibliography. So enjoyable! This book is directly up my alley in my wheelhouse...