Table Of ContentTHE NEW MIDDLE AGES
BONNIE WHEELER, Series Editor
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edited by Gavill R. G. Hambly edited hy Barbara Stevens()11 and
CYllthia Ho
The lithits '>lNature in the iVfiddle Age.':
l:,'n,\Zil,\Zing VI/ords: ihe Culture C!.(Reading in the
011 HOCCilCcio's PoetiljJhysics
Later Middle Age.'
by Gregory B. Stcl1le
by Lmrd Anltower
PreSCHct> and PrescHtation: vl/omcH in the Robes and Honor: The II,Iedieval Hl()rld d
Chinese Litcrati Tradition
ImJcstiture
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The Lost Love Letters (?f Hcloisc mui Abclard:
Representing Rape in A1edieval and Earl}'
PcrccjJtioflS C!.(Diillo,\.?ue in Twe!fth-Century Francc
J.\dodern Literature
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edited by Elizabeth Robertsoll alld
Llruferstanding Scholastic i'hought with FOUCilUlt Christine M. Rose
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For Her Good l:.:stilte: '1 hc Lfk (1 in thc J.\diddlc Ages
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lilieabeth de Durgh
Palucla Sheingorn
hy Franccs A. Undcrhill
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ConstrurtioHS (?f f;VidowJwod ami Vilginitl' in rite
Ocu.lar Desircs
Aiiddlc Agcs
by Sllzannah Biernoff
edited by Cilldy L. Carlsoll and Angela
Jane Weisl Listen, Daug/uer: The ,')perulu1l1 Vilginum and
he Fonniltion (1 Religious VI/01l1ffl in the
II,IotherJwod ami AIothering in Anglo-Saxon
iVfiddle Ages
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edited hy Constant J. Mews
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Scienre, the Singular, and the Question (!f Theology
Listcning to Hcloisc: Thc Voicc (:(a by Richard A. Lee, Jr.
Twe!fth-Century Hl()f/1!1n
edited hy Bonnie Wheder Gender in Debare.fro1l1 the Early II,Iiddle Ages to the
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The Postwlonial Middle Ages edited by Thelrna S. Fenster alld
edited hy J dlrey J erOllle Cohen Chre A. Lees
Chaurcr's Pardoner and Gender The()r},: n)dies d AJIllory's Morte Darthur:
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Queering I\Iedieval Genres
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Sacred Plare in Early I\Iedieval
1350-J500
by Kathleen Karnerick ~\';eojJlahmisnt
by L. Michael Harringtoll
Ahsent ~\,'amlfives, J.\dllnuscript icxtUillity, and Literilry
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Struaure in Lt1te A1edieval England
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C!wurer's jobs
Creating C01l11l1unit}' with r:ood and Drink
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Represeruations dEarly Byzmuine E1l1presses: T1l1age
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ISilhel La Cah)!iCil, Queen (:F Cilstile: CritiCiil .c:ssays Visual Culture and the Gel11wn A1iddle Ages
edited by David A. BorucilOtt edited hy Kathryn Starkey and Horst Wenzd
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Sa1l1e-Sex Desire in the r:oufteenth Century duQuesnay Adams, Volu1l1es 1 and 2
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Portraits dI\Iedieval vVomen: r:amil}', I\Iarriage, r:alse r:ables and Exemplary Truth: Poetic5 and
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Eloquent Virgins: r:rom Therla to joan dArr l:,'cstatic ihlflsji.)nnation
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The Persistence d A1edievalis1l1: Sacred and SemlaI' in A1edieval and Earl}' A10dern
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Cilpetillfl v[/ontcn i'olkcin!s J.\dodcrn J.\diddlc Ages
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(Ir
a Dark Age Productions in Britain, 1350-1500
hy Paul Edward Dutton hy Kdlie Rohertson
THE LABORER'S TWO BODIES
LITERARY AND LEGAL
PRODUCTIONS IN BRITAIN,
1350-1500
Kellie Robertson
*
THE LABORER'S TWO BODIES
© Kellie Robertson, 2006.
Softcover reprint 01 the hardcover 1st edition 2006 978-1-4039-6516-5
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
Illustrations VI
Abbreviations vn
Acknowledgcments Vin
Introduction: Keeping Paradise 1
1 The Laborer's Two Bodies 13
2 Chaucer and the Enforcement of the Labor Statutes 51
3 The Ideology of COlmnon Profit: Rebels, Heretics,
Merchants 78
4 Corporeal Style: Representing the Gentry Household 119
5 "Let God Work!": Drama and Rebellion
in Fifteenth-Century East Anglia 153
Epilogue: Vagrant Tünes 183
Notcs 194
Bibliography 251
Index 271
ILLUSTRATIONS
1.1 Christ of the Trades (St. Breaea's, Breage, Cornwall) 5
1.1 Arehbishop Courtenay's earter (Lambeth
Plaee Library, MS Reg. Courtenay, f. 337v) 23
1.2 Plowing. Luttrell Psalter (British Library, Additional MS
42130, f. 170r) 27
1.3 Beneh end depieting sowing (Holy Trinity Chureh,
Blythburgh, Suffolk) 29
1.4 Beneh end of a figure in stocks (Holy Trinity
Chureh, Blythburgh, Suffolk) 30
1.5 St. Walstan on rood sereen (St. Catherine's,
Ludham, N orfolk) 34
2.1 Frontispieee to the Kclmscott Chauccr (Courtesy
of the Friek Fine Arts Library, University
of Pittsburgh) 75
ABBREVIATIONS
CCR Calendar of the Close Rolls. 3 vols. London: HMSO,
1949-54.
CP Common Plea Roll (De Banco Roll)
CPMR Calendar of Plea ami Memoranda Rolls of the City of L.mdon,
ed. AH. Thomas. 6 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1926-61.
CPR Calendar (?f Patent Rolls Preserved in the PRO, 1232-1509.
52 vols. London: HMSO, 1891-1916.
EETS Early English Text Society
KB King's Bench Roll (Coram Rege Roll)
Knighton Knighton's Chronicle, 1337-96, ed. and trans. G.H. Martin.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
MED Middle English Dictionary, ed. S.M. Kuhn andJ. Reidy. Ann
Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1975-2002.
OED Oxford English Dictionary
PL Paston Letter., ami Papers, ed. Nomlan Davis, 2 vols. Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1971-76.
PRO Public Record Office
RP Rotuli Parliamentorum, ed. J. Strachey, 6 vols. London,
1767-77.
SR Statutes (f the Realm, 1101-1713, ed. A Luders et al. ,
11 vols. London, 1810-28.
STC A Short Title Catalogue (f Books Printed in England, Scotland
and Ireland and (?f English books Printed Abroad, 1475-1640,
ed. AW. Pollard and G.R. Redgrave, 2nd ed. London: The
Bibliographical Society, 1976.
In citing from manuscripts, I have silently introduced modem orthography
for "thorn" and "yough," modern punctuation, and modern capitalization
of proper names.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
T
his book about labor was made possible by the labors of many teachers
and friends. It is with great pleasure that I recognize their work for the
"cO1mnon profit." My principal debt is to Marie Borroff who, while she
does not find here the dissertation that she directed, will (hopefiilly) recognize
the habits of thought that she encouraged over many years. I am deeply
grateful for the time that she spent tuming me into both a medievalist and
a te ach er. Paul Strohm read the manuscript in its entirety and offered
lllllnerous suggestions. His intellectual generosity to other scholars is leg
endary, and his personal encouragement of this project has been unwaver
ing. A perceptive and sensible reader, he bravely banished the teml
"subjectivity" wherever he ran across it. I only wish I had sufficient time
and ability to make better use ofhis suggestions.
I have tried to acknowledge in my arguments the debts of gratitude
I owe to previous scholars whose work on the literary and material labors
of the Middle Ages has made my own possible. It is appropriate here to call
attention to those medieval scholars who have contributed to a lively
conversation that I aspire to join: Christopher Baswell, Jeffrey Jerome
Cohen, Andrew Cole, Tom Hahn, Bmce Holsinger, Sarah Kelen, Maura
Nolan, Larry Scanlon, and Fiona Somerset. I look forward to continuing
this conversation in the years to come.
The fomlative direction and encouragement of this project has a
(perhaps embarrassingly) long genealogy. Vance Smith and Michael Uebel
were responsible for introducing an overeager undergraduate to the profes
sion and, therefore, are responsible for whatever place I have since found
therein. For intellectual companionship that began in New Haven but has
continued to thrive long after we all have left, I owe much to Susan Lopez
Bailey, Dan Belgrad, Michele Martinez, and Ramie Targoff. My time at
the University ofLeeds was made conducive to research through the joint
efforts ofDenis Flannery andJonathon Hope, friends always equipped with
a Jamesian bon mot and a lesson in historicallinguistics. I am grateful to the
many friends and colleagues who have made my time teaching medieval
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IX
literature at the University ofPittsburgh rewarding and stimulating: Renate
Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Mary Briscoe, Nancy Glazener, Jim Knapp, Peggy
Knapp, Marianne Novy, Derrick Pitard, Mariolina Salvatori, Johnny
Twyning, Eileen Vandergrift, and Bruce Venarde. A special thanks is
reserved for Kathy Newman andJennifer Trainor, who have sustained me
over the years, offering moral support and goodwill over long walks and
many cups of decaffeinated coffee. My parents, Bob and Martha
Robertson, along with my brother, Keith Robertson, have supported my
intellectual endeavors, no matter how long they took or where they took
me. Their love and indulgence is much appreciated.
This book has been written with support provided by the National
Endowment for the Humanities as weIl as the University of Pittsburgh's
Faculty of Arts and Sciences. An earlier version of chapter 2 was published
in Studies in the Age of Chaucer; I am indebted to its editor, Frank Grady, for
pennission to incorporate this material into the present book. I also happily
acknowledge the patient assistance of the staff of the British Library, the
Lambeth Palace Library, the Public Record Office, and the Cambridge
University Library.
Most of aIl, I wish to pay tribute to my best and my most gentle reader,
Michael Witmore. He has visited damp churches in out-of-the-way places,
listened to long disquisitions on fifteenth-century corn harvests, read many
drafts of the same material, and has done so with unflagging interest or at
least patience. I am deeply grateful for his perpetual good humor and his
ability to remind me that persuasion is (almost) always better than
hectoring. This book is dedicated to him.
