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TY - ELEC
A1 - Campbell, James
ED - Jenstad, Janelle
T1 - Constables
T2 - The Map of Early Modern London
PY - 2020
DA - 2020/06/26
CY - Victoria
PB - University of Victoria
LA - English
UR - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/CONS1.htm
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ER -
RT Web Page
SR Electronic(1)
A1 Campbell, James
A6 Jenstad, Janelle
T1 Constables
T2 The Map of Early Modern London
WP 2020
FD 2020/06/26
RD 2020/06/26
PP Victoria
PB University of Victoria
LA English
OL English
LK https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/CONS1.htm
Programmer, 2018-present. Junior Programmer, 2015-2017. Research Assistant, 2014-2017. Joey Takeda was a graduate student at the University of British Columbia in the Department of English (Science and Technology research stream). He completed his BA honours in English (with a minor in Women’s Studies) at the University of Victoria in 2016. His primary research interests included diasporic and indigenous Canadian and American literature, critical theory, cultural studies, and the digital humanities.
Data Manager, 2015-2016. Research Assistant, 2013-2015. Tye completed his undergraduate honours degree in English at the University of Victoria in 2015.
Research Assistant, 2002–2003. Student contributor enrolled in
Director of Pedagogy and Outreach, 2015–present. Associate Project Director, 2015–present. Assistant Project Director, 2013-2014. MoEML Research Fellow, 2013. Kim McLean-Fiander comes to
Janelle Jenstad is Associate Professor of English at the University of Victoria, Director of
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Dramatic character in
First Baron Burghley.
King of England, Scotland, and Ireland
Dramatic character in
Dramatic character in
Dramatic character in
Queen of England and Ireland
Dramatic character in
Writer.
King of England and Ireland
Queen of Scotland
Actor and playwright.
Lawyer and landowner.
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Constables were a form of law enforcement devised to replace an earlier
system of two count or officer of
the stable
(
Constables were ideally supposed to come from the yeoman class, but because
these men were tradesmen and small landowners, they usually refused to
serve. The end result was that constables were generally chosen from the
fourth and lowest class of people. Poor and usually uneducated, they
constitute a real historical basis for the comic bumbling of Shakespeare’s
three famous constables:
In London, constables were chosen to serve the wards and parishes they lived
in, since there was no citywide police system. In
‘Mary, syr,’ sayd he, ‘I am Constable for fault of a better, and was commaunded by the Iusticer to watch’(qtd. in Evans 428). Many men chosen for the job refused it, however, as suggested in
Escalus. Come hither to me, Master Elbow; come hither, Master Constable. How long have you been in this place of constable?Elbow. Seven year and a half, sir.Escalus. I thought, by the readiness in the office, you had continued in it some time. You say, seven years together?Elbow. And a half, sir.Escalus. Alas, it hath been great pains to you. They do you wrong to put you so oft upon’t. Are there not men in your ward sufficient to serve it?Elbow. Faith, sir, few of any wit in such matters. As they are chosen, they are glad to choose me for them. I do it for some piece of money and go through with all.
Since no one wanted the job, those who accepted it were often inadequate for
the watch. In
Another example of the real-life inadequacy of Elizabethan law enforcement is
a letter dated 10 August 1586, from plumps
(qtd. in Evans) of ten to
twelve men huddled together in towns he passed through, but he assumed they
were doing so because it was raining. When he came to a town and saw another
of these groups when it wasn’t raining, he recognized that they must be
members of the watch and asked them what they were doing. The men replied
that they were looking for three young men. When
After the Restoration of