Chapters in this book

1. Prelim pages i
2. Table of contents v
3. Preface vii
4. Manners, norms and transgressions 1
5. Ipomedon and the elusive nature of blunders in the courtly literature of medieval England 25
6. Unrestrained acting and norms of behaviour 51
7. Blunders and (un)intentional offence in Shakespeare 75
8. The discourse of manners and politeness in Restoration and eighteenth-century drama 101
9. “This Demon Anger” 121
10. A medical debate of “heated pamphleteering” in the early eighteenth century 141
11. Transgressions as a socialisation strategy in Samuel Richardson’s The Apprentice’s Vade Mecum (1734) 165
12. Variations from letter-writing manuals 183
13. Impoliteness in Blunderland 213
14. “Collect a thousand loyalty points and you get a free coffin” 247
15. “Meaning you have been known to act rashly” 271
16. Name index 295
17. Subject index 297