author
active 1559-1577 John Awdelay
A busy voice from Tudor London, this early printer and pamphleteer is best remembered for lively, curious works that captured the rough edges of everyday life. His writing helped preserve rare glimpses of rogues, slang, and popular street culture from the mid-1500s.
2 Audiobooks
The Rogues and Vagabonds of Shakespeare's Youth Awdeley's 'Fraternitye of vacabondes' and Harman's 'Caveat'
by active 1559-1577 John Awdelay, active 1567 Thomas Harman
Awdeley's Fraternitye of Vacabondes, Harman's Caueat, Haben's Sermon, &c.
by active 1559-1577 John Awdelay, Parson Haben, active 1567 Thomas Harman
About the author
Active between 1559 and 1577, John Awdelay—more often spelled John Awdely or Awdeley—was an English printer in London and a writer of popular, miscellaneous works. Older biographical sources also connect him with the names John Sampson and Sampson Awdelay.
He is best known for The Fraternitye of Vacabondes, a small but influential work describing wandering beggars, cheats, and their jargon. Because so much ephemeral printing from the period has been lost, his surviving pamphlets offer an unusually vivid look at the language and social margins of Tudor England.
Very little is known for certain about his personal life, but his reputation endures through the sharp, observant character of his printed work. For modern readers, Awdelay stands out as one of the early figures who turned the bustle of ordinary urban life into something worth recording.