Oral and Literate Culture in England, 1500-1700

by Adam Fox

Oral and Literate Culture in England, 1500-1700 explores the rich oral culture of early modern England. It focuses upon dialect speech and proverbial wisdom, "old wives' tales" and children's lore, historical legends and local customs, scurrilous versifying and scandalous rumor-mongering. Adam Fox demonstrates the extent to which this vernacular world was fundamentally structured by written and printed sources over the course of the period.

512 pages, Paperback

First published November 9, 2000

About the author

Adam Fox, Canon, was the Dean of Divinity at Magdalen College, Oxford. He was one of the first members of the "Inklings", a literary group which also included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Between 1938 and 1942 he was Professor of Poetry. Later he became Canon of Westminster Abbey and he is buried there in Poet's Corner. He was also Warden (Headmaster) of the famous Radley College.

During his time at Oxford, he wrote his long poem in four books "Old King Coel". It gets its name from King Cole, legendary British father of the Roman Empress Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine. As Professor of Poetry, Fox advocated poetry which is intelligible to readers, and gives enough pleasure to be read again. This was important to him because poetry which is not re-read will not be understood properly, and will therefore be irrelevant. This advocacy can be understood as a criticism against some forms of modern poetry.

Although not considered one of the most important "Inklings", Fox's works are still of interest, particularly those concerning Christianity and Platonism. In his 1945 Plato for Pleasure, he tried to introduce the general public to Plato. Fox wished to make Plato well known among the English Classics once again and hoped that people would study the platonic dialogues, as well as the plays of Shakespeare. His biography of William Ralph Inge, the famous theologian, philosopher and Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, is still regarded as an important text and was awarded the 1960 James Tait Black Memorial Prize soon after its publication.

Reviews

[Lauren Albert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting and readable account of the relationship between oral, written and print culture in England from 1500-1700. Fox writes that "[t]he conclusion to be drawn from all of this evidence is that the written word, in both manuscript and print, penetrated to a far deeper level in society and circulated in much greater quantities than was once imagined. This was both cause and effect of the fact that many more people than has ever been suspected could read it to some degree for themselves. Ironically, by approaching early modern England from the perspective of its oral culture, this book has helped to demonstrate just what a literate and textually orientated society it was." But he also often returns to the important point that written and print culture did not destroy oral culture--they all fed into and out of each other. I've copied the table of contents below so you can see how many interesting things he discusses--you get a real sense of the culture from his discussions of everything from old wives' tales to libelous ballads.

• Introduction: the Oral and the Literate
• 1 - Popular Speech
• 2 - Proverbial Wisdom
• 3 - Old Wives' Tales and Nursery Lore
• 4 - The Historical Imagination
• 5 - Local Custom, Memory, and Record
• 6 - Ballads and Libels
• 7 - Rumour and News

[Robert Ferro]

An absolutely fascinating and undoubtedly well-researched account of many key points in English history. The lasting impact of oral on written and then of written on print is made undeniably clear and is unthinkably potent in its effect even in the present day.

Fox weaves not only a clear tale of historical cause-and-effect but of history as a living system.