Voyant as a Distant Reading Tool: Tarlton’s Jests

What trends or issues do you see emerging across your jests? Do these trends have to do with the section in which the jests occur (e.g. Court, City, Country)?

The trends of the Jests I transcribed and the full text were largely the same. All the Jests featured Tarlton verbally and sometimes physically interacting with someone or something. A large amount of the Jests I transcribed (especially in the City Jests) featured beggars. This isn’t surprising because Tarlton would have encountered beggars in his usual business in the city. One major theme that is present in all the Jests is drinking. In the Court, Tarlton is drunk and interacts with other intoxicated court members. In the City, Tarlton frequents pubs and bars and drinks with the city folk. In the Country, Tarlton continues to encounter drinking. Drinking appears to be a central part of social life. Additionally, Tarlton’s Jests become increasingly daring and bold from the Court to the Country. This makes sense because Tarlton would have been at social and physical danger if he took a jest too far in court. However, in the City and especially in the Country, Tarlton could be nastier to people because he was of higher standing and had protection from the Queen.

Screenshot of Cirrus

Screenshot of Cirrus

Does a particular tool help you to think about an aspect of Tarlton’s relationship with people, actions, and/or events across the three sections?

While Rezoviz shows connections between Tarlton and places and people, Bubblelines portrays the frequency of mention of places, people, or actions throughout the Jests. For example, using Bubblelines I figured out that “beggar” (pink) and “master” (yellow) are used more in Country and City Jests respectively. Master is used a lot in the Country Jest and City Jests because the  countrymen and city folk would have referred to Tarlton as a master because he is seen as an important or prominent figure. Beggar is also used more in later sections because Tarlton would come across beggars in the city. A lot of the Jests that I transcribed involved or talked about beggars. Tarlton would have not seen beggars or have been called master in Court. In fact, Tarlton was the entertainment at Court and thus had a lower status than all the nobles at Court. Additionally the Queen is only mentioned in the Court Jests because she was of course at Court. Bubblelines is most helpful to see Tarlton’s interactions with things/people/places because it shows the frequency and thus shows what Tarlton was most likely to talk about or discuss across the Court, City, and Country Jests.

Screenshot of Bubblelines

Screenshot of Bubblelines

Screenshot of Rezoviz

Screenshot of Rezoviz

State a research question that you would like to consider using one of these approaches and show how you might undertake it. Do you think, after reading each of your jests and “revealing” them in Voyant, that text analysis is a good way for you to ask this research question? If yes, why? If no, why not?

My research question I would like to ask is how the political, social, and religious ambiguity of Elizabeth’s rule affect the general mindset of the populous? Additionally, did these ambiguities create or allow jesters and entertainers to become a respected form of entertainment? How did they shape popular humor? I am not confident that text analysis, in which our class has been using it, can help answer these questions. Maybe if I had access to a large number of primary works about entertainment in the Elizabethan time I could see some trends. However, looking only at a couple of pages of one work about one jester is not adequate to answer my questions. Nevertheless, text analysis provides a breadth of general information but the questions I have require a greater depth of understanding. Textual analysis may not help illuminate answers but it could possibly lead me down paths or help me look out for key words, people, and/or places in closer readings. Additionally, textual analysis could help illustrate a point I’m making but it is not the best place to reach a conclusion. Furthermore, since my questions cover broad topics, it would be hard to use textual analysis. For example, if my question was about bars in London textual analysis would be helpful because I can search bar names and places in London to see trends. However, I cannot search humor and expect to find useful results.