God speed the plough
Subtitle: the representation of agrarian England, 1500-1660
By: Andrew McRae.
Series: Past and present publications
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 335
Subjects: English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism.; Pastoral literature, English -- History and criticism.; Agriculture -- England -- History -- 16th century -- Historiography.; Agriculture -- England -- History -- 17th century -- Historiography.; Literature and society -- England -- History -- 16th century.; Literature and society -- England -- History -- 17th century.; Rural conditions in literature.; Country life in literature.; Agriculture in literature.; Farm life in literature.; England -- In literature.
Description: This book presents a fresh view of crucial processes of change, offering through an inter-disciplinary analysis new insights into both the history and the literature of the land in early modern England.

In the period 1500 to 1660 the practices and values of rural England were exposed to unprecedented challenges. Within this context a wide variety of commentators examined and debated the changing conditions, a process documented in the pages of sermons, pamphlets, satiric verse and drama, husbandry and surveying manuals, chorographical tracts and rural poetry.

The analysis of these text in God speed the plough explores changing patterns of representation. The book argues that important movements revised preexistent assumptions about agrarian England and shaped bold new appreciations of rural life. While Tudor moralists responded to social crises by asserting ideals of rural stability and community, by the seventeenth century a discourse of improvement promoted vitally divergent notions of thrift and property.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 300-318) and index.