In this informative and entertaining study, Friedman (English, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, emeritus) examines the literary and artistic distancing of peasants in late medieval
literature and art. Through many cogent examples, he notes the ways in which the lower classes were presented as slovenly, socially unacceptable and sexually rapacious. Friedman finds these
representations in literary forms such as the pastourelle, the bergerie, the serenilla and especially in satiric poems based on these forms. He believes that this reflects a fear of the urban
middle class of being infiltrated by those beneath them on the social ladder. Even aristocrats feared diluting their blood by marrying someone with less breeding but more money. If peasants
could wear the clothing of their masters and ape them in other ways, how could the social order be maintained? Friedman's social commentary is placed in the late Middle Ages but is relevant
today. Clothing and behavior are still markers of "good breeding" and fiction still abounds with stories of Eliza Doolittles who manage to fool society into accepting them as one of the elite.
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