People's pleasures

Long before the advance of urbanization there had existed a powerful and growing campaign, among men of influence and property, against many of the popular recreations and games of the English common people. Fear, dislike and hostility towards the pleasures of the common people were as old as fear of the common people themselves. The pre-industrial popular culture of fairs, communal violence, music, local festivities and the calendar of trade celebrations, had often, individually and collectively been regarded as a threat to stability and good order. There were, naturally enough, exceptions to such propertied distrust, notably when carnivals, mardi gras or charivari were tolerated and even encouraged as the permissible outlet for plebeian turbulence and boisterous collective pleasure-making. ¹