travels to England;
visits Elizabethan London, where he needs to learn the pronunciation of English;
converts a silver ingot into coins;
lodges in a half-timbered inn;
goes to the Globe;
has a good time;
in a slum district, is offered cheap sex with a young virgin by her mother;
is appalled but learns that the girl:
is all for it;
will be better of as a prostitute than as a domestic servant;
would probably not even be employed as a servant because of class antagonisms;
would prefer Havig to someone older and less healthy;
would neither understand nor accept if he offered her financial help without any return;
like her whole society, has no concept of an age of consent.
For four years of Meg's life, she and Havig, who poses as a Dutch diplomat, live together which means that he pays the rent in advance and occasionally visits from the twentieth century where he must travel from France to London. Eventually, she marries a journeymen and Havig gives them a wedding present and checks that their life is alright for the next decade.
Like Pum in the Time Patrol series, Meg was fortunate to meet a time traveler. Everard also visits Elizabethan London but we know of this only through a reminiscence. See Careers In Space And Time here.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And I believe it was during his time with Meg that Havig discovered that mutants like him could not have children with non-time travelers.
Yes, laws and customs were crude and semi-barbaric in the England/Europe of circa AD 1590. Laws about rape barely covered the basics, never mind such refinements as statutory rape and ages of consent.
Sean
In point of fact, though, Elizabethans did not consider a woman sexually mature until her late teens (puberty was a bit later then than it is now, usually by about 2 years).
There were plenty of underaged prostitutes and so forth, but that was considered skanky/kinky in about the same way we do; people were harder-edged about inflicting suffering then, because they were operating closer to the margin, but everyone knew it was a Bad Thing.
People generally didn't assume adult social roles until about the same ages as today, though circumstances could force you to do so earlier.
Frex, a craftsman would be an apprentice for 7 years in most trades, starting in their early teens -- you'd become a journeyman in your early 20's, and probably not a "master-craftsman" for another five or more years.
"Apprentice boys" were notoriously rowdy and irresponsible -- it was a fairly precise analogue to our use of "teenager".
In a rural context, most people would leave home in their teens, spend a decade or so working as a "servant" (full-time live-in employee) and then marry and settle down in their 20's.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
I sit corrected! It's a mistake to go TOO far in underrating or criticizing past centuries.
Sean
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