Recreation in the Renaissance

88 Recreation in the Renaissance
states and in the Renaissance cities), followed by a wider focus on all
the rites of passage (births and marriages, as well as deaths). Then came
a control of conspicuous consumption, particularly concerned with
dress, in the form of both a critique of extravagance and a reinforcement
of hierarchic dress codes. Protectionist dress regulation, specifically
targeting foreign products, characterized a final stage. By that time
a discourse of political economy had become predominant in the field.
What is more relevant for us is the logic of the previous phases. They
involved, first, ‘the theological discourses surrounding the sin of luxury,
as a species of the major sin of pride’. Subsequently, luxury remained
the target, though of a secularized, increasingly economic critique.
‘Extravagance was conceived of as the wasting of resources that could
be more usefully and gainfully employed: the expenditure of both
income and time were the targets of the critique of extravagance.’ 36
In this context, the combined critique of luxury and idleness was the
philosophy behind the law-enforced moral regulation of popular culture
that was pursued on the borders of modernity. A series of sixteenthcentury
English statutes attempts to ban a list of unlawful games, which
predominantly fall within two categories: ball games selected because
of their unruliness; and dice and other games significant as opportunities
for gambling and drinking. The disciplining project of early Tudor
England comprised the attempt to substitute those games with archery,
as a compulsory edifying entertainment with obvious benefits for the
safety of the kingdom. If the concern with archery began to fade from
the middle of the sixteenth century, the same cannot be said for the
general governmental concern over the matter. Similar policies were
adopted by ruling élites throughout Europe, as is particularly evident in
the cities whose legislation was oriented by the Reformation. 37