Humour, Wit, & Satire of the Seventeenth Century

The seventeenth century in England was a time of extraordinary chaos: civil wars, plague, fire, and constant political upheaval. And through it all, people told jokes. This anthology gathers the surviving jest-books, ballads, and anecdotes that made their contemporaries laugh, offering an unfiltered window into how ordinary people coped with extraordinary times. The humor here is often bawdy, sometimes brutal, and frequently directed at the foibles of the powerful. You'll find drunkards, cuckolds, corrupt officials, and sharp-tongued wives. You'll find satire sharp enough to get a person hanged, and jests passed around alehouses. Much of it was too risqué for Victorian editors to reproduce fully, which is precisely why these voices have remained hidden for centuries. What emerges is a portrait of a society less refined than our own but no less hungry for laughter. The jokes puncture pomposity, celebrate bodily pleasures, and poke fun at the gap between how people live and how they pretend to live. If you've ever wondered what made Merrie England merrie, start here.