ABSTRACT
Despite its crude scatological humor, Gammer Gurton’s Needle presents Mid-Tudor socio-economic concerns by addressing such issues as poverty, unruly vagabondage, and clerical incompetence. However, none of the past critical endeavors have been invested in the relationship between the loss of the needle and the geographical mobility of the Bedlam beggar, Diccon. This article aims to associate the displacement of the lost needle with the wandering idle vagrant, Diccon, whose idleness allows him to spread destructive rumors in the alehouses he frequents. His unruly vagrancy destabilizes the economic foundation of the society and grows into a potential threat to the Commonwealth, just like the lost needle that loses its economic productivity by pricking Hodge’s buttocks.
KEY WORDS: Gammer Gurton’s Needle, vagrancy, idleness, commodity, labor
摘 要
姑且不論其粗糙且淫穢不堪的幽默,《葛根婆婆的繡 花針》一劇藉由對貧困、無法掌控的流浪漢問題及神職人員 的無能等議題之探討,反映出對都鐸王朝中期社經情狀之 關注。但是,在過去並沒有文學批評家探討過繡花針的遺 失和離開瘋人院流浪的乞丐狄肯地理上移動性的關連。本 論文的主要目的在於探討繡花針的遺失和流浪漢狄肯地理 移動性的關連,尤其是狄肯的失業賦閒使他能夠利用他經 常閒逛的小酒館來散佈具有破壞性的謠言。正如看似遺 失,卻插在葛根婆婆學徒哈吉屁股上的繡花針一樣,狄肯 失控的流浪生活,破壞了社會經濟安定的基礎,對都鐸王 朝中期的英國構成潛在的威脅。
關鍵詞:《葛根婆婆的繡花針》、流浪、失業賦閒、商品、 勞力
