Just
Above Thieves:
An Elizabethan Rank and File
by Mark Robert Blackmon
Elizabethan society, that in which Shakespeare lived, was a highly organized thing. Everything and everyone had their specific place on a chain that may seem curious to modern Americans whose country was founded on the principles of equality.
Our classifications of nature's objects today are based largely on the thought of 18th century Swedish taxonomist Carl Linnaeus who developed the seven-tiered system of kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species which so many of us were required to memorize in science class.
But for Elizabethans, the classifications were much smaller. The philosophy of the Great Chain of Being was the overarching philosophy of the time. Originally put forth by Aristotle and later expanded by many other philosophers, the Great Chain sought to order nature by placing all beings in ranked order. St. Thomas Aquinas was one of the leading exponents of the Great Chain and his theories shaped virtually all philosophic thought in the Elizabethan period. Herewith, his chain:
God
Angels
Kings/Queens
Archbishops
Dukes/Duchesses
Bishops
Marquises/Marchionesses
Earls/Countesses
Viscounts/Viscountesses
Barons/Baronesses
Abbots/Deacons
Knights/Local Officials
Ladies-in-Waiting
Priests/Monks
Squires
Pages
Messengers
Merchants/Shopkeepers
Tradesmen
Yeomen Farmers
Soldiers/Town Watch
Household Servants
Tennant Farmers
Shephards/Herders
Beggars
Actors
Thieves/Pirates
Gypsies
Animals
Birds
Worms
Plants
Rocks
Shakespeare's father, John, though he fell on hard times later in life, was a prosperous glover in Stratford-upon-Avon when Will was a boy. John rose to the rank of Bailiff (the equivalent of a modern small town mayor) and, as such, was accorded much respect. One only wonders what the back street gossip in Warwickshire must have been when young Will decamped to London to pursue a career in the theatre.
Perhaps it is William Shakespeare who ultimately disproved the viability of the Great Chain. After all, it is his name, one that would have been accorded less respect than a beggar, that history remembers. As ever, Shakespeare remains the exception to many rules.