Youth

UNIVERSITY

Although it was not often that the middling or lesser sorts attended university, the establishment nevertheless makes an appearance in the literature considered popular culture at the time. England’s two main universities, Cambridge and Oxford, were comprised of few members of the laboring poor, though “the fathers of many students came from a relatively humble station: husbandmen, clothworkers, glovers, and other tradesmen or craftsmen” (30). Students were almost always male and women very rarely attended university, even those from wealthy backgrounds (30). The difference between students from the higher class and those from humble backgrounds is found in what they went to the university to accomplish. While students from the gentry mainly went “to acquire polish and cultural accomplishments,” the working-class students worked hard toward earning their degrees so that they might take a career in the Church or some other institution outside of their previous realm of manual labor (30). Take, for example, the character of Tim in Thomas Deloney's A Chaste Maid in Cheapside. Tim is the son of Yellowhammer, a goldsmith, and therefore a member of the laboring class, albeit near the top. Time goes off to university to study classics and comes back home a changed person. He now gives off a pompous vibe and frequently speaks in Latin with his tutor, much to the annoyance of the lesser educated individuals around him who are at a loss for what the two are saying (like his mother, Maudline). Perhaps if you had gone to the university, you too might sound like Tim:

[III.ii]

Maudl. Why son, why Tim!
What, must I rise and fetch you? For shame, son!

Tim. Mother, you do entreat like a freshwoman;
'Tis against the laws of the university
For any that has answer'd under bachelor
To thrust 'mongst married wives.

Maudl. Come, we'll excuse you here.

Tim. Call up my tutor, mother, and I care not.

Maudl. What, is your tutor come? Have you brought him up?

Tim. I ha' not brought him up, he stands at the door:
Negatur. There's logic to begin with you, mother.

Maudl. Run, call the gentleman, nurse; he's my son's tutor. [Exit Nurse.]
[To Tim] Here, eat some plums.

Tim. Come I from Cambridge,
And offer me six plums!

Maudl. Why, how now tim?
Will not your old tricks yet be left?

Tim. Serv'd like a child,
When I have answer'd under bachelor!

Maudl. You'll never lin till I make your tutor whip you;
You know how I serv'd you once at the free-school
In Paul's church-yard?

Tim: O monstrous absurdity!
Ne'er was the like in Cambridge since my time;
Life, whip a bachelor! You'd be laugh'd at soundly;
Let not my tutor hear you! 'Twould be a jest
Through the whole university. No more words, mother. (27)

Tim is portrayed in a fairly ungrateful, egotistical light in this scene. It is clear that his education has gotten to his head and made him think that simply because he has gone to the university, he is somehow better than the people he left behind. This is perhaps a reflection of the attitudes of the middling and lesser sorts toward those who went to the university rather than entering the work force. Sure, Tim’s mother is proud of her son for coming so far in his studies, as she brags to his tutor, but it is difficult to dismiss the sentiment that comes across in Middleton’s writing that leaves Tim in an unfavorable light. That is, although the theme of upward social mobility is repeated throughout A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, Tim’s education is not treated as much with respect and admiration as it is with a sort of distancing from the other characters. Ever since he returns home from Cambridge, Tim is more concerned with speaking Latin with his tutor than he is with catching up with his family or getting to know his fiancé. Perhaps Middleton is trying to show how the university is a serious means of changing a person’s social status, no matter from which background they come. Even though Tim returns to the same household from whence he came, he never quite fits in anymore. Geographically, he remains in the household of a goldsmith but mentally, he will never return.

Yet do not focus your attention too much on this concept of university, as you do not want to get your hopes up for such an opportunity, only to be told that you must instead stay at home or go to work.

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