Commensality, Sociability, and The Roaring Girl

Abstract

Abstract:This article examines the spaces of commensality represented in Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker’s The Roaring Girl. It discusses the expansion of the public dining scene in early modern London and nature of different establishments such as taverns, ordinaries, and alehouses. It highlights the impact of these spaces on patterns of sociability and on the construction of social identity, as well as the frequent association of victualling houses and playhouses within the cultural geography of the time. Whereas discussion of the play’s attitude toward the social upheaval of Jacobean society has frequently focused on Moll’s transvestism and the intersection of gender and class hierarchies, I show how the play’s portrayal of public dining both upholds and upends the traditional organization of society. This, in turn, celebrates the opportunities for sociability and self-fashioning at the Fortune playhouse, where The Roaring Girl was staged.