ABSTRACT
Every merchant in London lived with the fear of debt. Apprentices lived with the fear of ill treatment by their masters. But merchants also experienced other emotional states, or passions as they were known at the time: excitement, regret, hopefulness, anger, envy, pride and a host of other emotions, some of which we recognize and some of which no longer resonate. 1 We can reasonably assume that medieval and early modern people felt these emotions, even if it is difficult to uncover evidence of them in the writings left behind. There is now a growing body of empirical work that suggests that emotions exist in a universal potential state and that these are arranged by cultural groups into systematically different emotional practices. 2 Historians, therefore, ask how emotions were culturally construed and what meaning they had to people at the time. They look to what the expressions of emotions are doing in particular times and amongst particular groups. What social information did the emotion of fear or dread convey to the wider community? What could anger legitimately lead you to do? Who benefited when fear was introduced into a court case or when an apprentice criticized their master’s behaviour by drawing attention to the dread they supposedly felt at his conduct?
