Rogue literature

Rogue literature is a literary genre featuring heroes who are on the wrong side of the law. The protagonist is often a thief, a vagrant, or someone who cheats or coasts through life by taking advantage of others. This form of literature became widely popular in Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It was often written as a first-person confessional and sold in cheap pamphlets. The characters were often everyday people, which contributed to its appeal. Rogue literature is related to Spanish picaresque literature, which historians believe included the first novels featuring heroic rogues, a format that quickly rose in popularity across Europe. Some of the more familiar examples of the genre include The Adventures of Robin Hood and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Brief History

Rogue literature was named by nineteenth-century scholars studying the genre. It takes its name from the word "rogue," which is of uncertain etymological origin. By the sixteenth century, "rogue" was being used to refer to a dishonest man, a thief, or a vagrant. By the Elizabethan era (1558–1603), the word often included the implication that there was a playful or an appealing aspect to the person, much like Errol Flynn's portrayal of the title character in the 1938 film The Adventures of Robin Hood. While some of the protagonists in rogue literature were charming in some way, however, most were portrayed as dark and dangerous individuals.

Although rogue literature was popular throughout Europe during this time, literary experts generally consider the Spanish novels known as picaresque literature to be the first examples of rogue fiction. "Picaresque" comes from the Spanish word picaro, which means "rogue." The anonymously published 1554 Spanish novel Lazarillo de Tormes is usually cited as the first in the genre. In it, a poor young man named Lazaro describes his life and struggles under a succession of various bosses, all of whom are of dubious character. Many experts refer to all literature with rogue heroes as picaresque literature regardless of its country of origin.

After these novels began in Spain, small pamphlets, thin booklets, and broadsheets—single-page publications—portraying rogue characters spread quickly throughout Europe. Most claimed to be first-person accounts of lives of thievery, deceit, and cheating. Their supposed portrayal of the seedy underbelly of society gave people a glimpse into a life that was very different than their own, which made them very appealing. Some experts have likened this literature to contemporary supermarket tabloids, which provide alleged glimpses into scandals and tragedies in celebrity lives.

Rogue literature continued to be popular throughout the seventeenth century, although the type of rogues portrayed changed somewhat. During the latter part of the seventeenth century, for example, the genre began to feature fewer common street rogues and more individuals who used their underhanded skills to rebel against repressive government policies or personalities. These Robin Hood-like rogues refrained from stealing or tricking common folk and instead used cunning deception to bring down those who were abusing the public through financial or political authority.

Overview

Rogue literature as a genre originated in the 1500s and continues in various forms in the twenty-first century. The earliest forms featured extremely sensationalized portrayals of criminals and their lifestyles. However, in the broadest sense, any literature featuring a rogue or criminal as the main protagonist fits into the genre.

When the genre developed, the main motive for its publication was profit. The pamphlets that contained it were popular because people had an almost insatiable appetite for their content, and they were cheap and widely available. Publishers made their money by quickly printing and distributing many new titles. As a result, little attention was paid to the quality of the writing, and many authors were unnamed. The writing featured wildly colorful language intended to shock readers along with characters that were one dimensional rather than fully developed.

The main characteristic of rogue literature was its focus on a main character who was a rogue or a criminal. Many were written as first-person confessionals, purportedly authored by the rogue as an autobiographical account of their life of crime. While most rogue fiction featured male protagonists, there were some notable female rogues as well. One of the best-known female rogues was Long Meg of Westminster, who most historians agree was based on British innkeeper Margaret Barnes, who lived in the mid-1500s and was accused of running a house of prostitution.

It can be difficult to fully define rogue literature for several reasons. One is that the cheap, mass-produced literature of this period often crossed genres. Rogue lead characters appeared in satires, comedic tales, romances, and poetic ballads, all of which were also popular at the time. Jest books—books that included a series of jokes and a list of some type, often a list of criminal behaviors—also featured rogue characters. Another reason the genre is difficult to classify is that it was not called rogue literature at the time. Instead, it was included in other genres such as romances and satire until literary historians in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries created the rogue literature classification.

Significance

At the time they were published, many rogue literature pamphlets and broadsheets were seen as providing the public with cautionary information. The thought was that by reading these, people could learn how to avoid falling victim to the scams and trickery of rogues and thieves. Pamphlets published specifically for this purpose were sometimes called cony-catching or coney-catching literature, after the slang word for "a rabbit." British author Robert Greene (1558–1592) was especially known for this type of rogue literature.

Most rogue literature was simply inexpensive entertainment for the segment of the population interested in sensationalized crime and punishment stories, much like the true crime shows that are popular in contemporary times. The genre in its original form died out in the mid-seventeenth century as the British Civil War (1642–1651) caused printers to divert paper used to print rogue literature to the war effort. However, the rogue as main character continues to be popular in contemporary literature, movies, and video games.

Rogue literature was a form of inexpensive entertainment tailored specifically to the lower class. Because of this, many contemporary historians see the surviving examples as a glimpse into what life was like for lower-class people during the Renaissance Europe. Not all historians share this viewpoint, however. Because rogue literature was produced cheaply for a profit and written for shock value, it likely contains exaggerations and hyperbole, rather than reflections of true life. Much like contemporary movies and video games that feature charming criminal lead characters, Renaissance rogue literature should be seen as simple entertainment.

Bibliography

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“A Caveat for Common Cursetors, 1567.” British Library, www.bl.uk/collection-items/a-caveat-for-common-cursetors-1567. Accessed 17 Nov. 2022.

Clark, David. “‘A Company of Rogues’: Richard Head and the Irish Picaresque.” Journal of Irish Studies, 17 Mar. 2019, www.estudiosirlandeses.org/2019/02/a-company-of-rogues-richard-head-and-the-irish-picaresque/. Accessed 17 Nov. 2022.

Giraldi, Richard. “What's a Picaresque? The Top 5 Novels.” Publishers Weekly, 20 July 2012, www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/53090-what-s-a-picaresque-the-top-5-novels.html. Accessed 17 Nov. 2022.

Jonah Miller. “Review of Roguery in Print: Crime and Culture in Early Modern London, (review no. 2383).” Reviews in History, reviews.history.ac.uk/review/2383. Accessed 17 Nov. 2022.

Landrum, Robert. “Roguery in Print: Crime and Culture in Early Modern London.” Seventeenth Century News Online, Spring/Summer 2021, www.proquest.com/openview/5e1a81c264b0303aee40b82a46d56f98/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=40229. Accessed 17 Nov. 2022.

Liapi, Eleni. “Writing Rogues: Cheap Print Representations of Deviance in Early Modern London.” Core, Sept. 2013, core.ac.uk/download/pdf/19909555.pdf. Accessed 17 Nov. 2022.

Relihan, C. “The Narrative Strategies of Robert Greene's Cony-Catching Pamphlets.” Cahiers Élisabéthains: A Journal of English Renaissance Studies, Apr. 1990, journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/018476789003700105?journalCode=caea. Accessed 17 Nov. 2022.