A Caveat For Common Cursitors
There are literary precursors to the Caveat, including John Awdeley's The Fraternity of Vagabonds (1561), of which Harman was aware. It was written in a period when government in England was increasingly concerned with the perceived problem of “masterless men”. Solutions were being sought to the issue of the able-bodied poor. In 1563 the Statute of Artificers was passed “to banish idleness”. Poor Laws were under review, and a plethora of laws passed against vagrancy, in which the punishments ranged from whipping to branding. In 1559 there was a proposal from a committee (the Privy Council) to restore an act of 1547 that provided for slavery as a punishment.
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