Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices From a Medieval Village

The Middle Ages spanned the period from the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 5th century through the Renaissance Period, which began around the 15th century. Although popular culture focuses on a few specific aspects of this era—such as the society of high lords and ladies and the supposed valor of their knights—the realities were quite different for the humble peasants and “villeins”—feudal tenants—who were beholden to the lords and obligated to pay them in exchange for the privilege of farming the land. Because Schlitz took issue with the inaccuracies in mainstream society’s portrayal of the Middle Ages, she penned Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! in an attempt to introduce students to the many intricate social realities of this era. 

The text is therefore rife with details and references that are designed to realign young readers’ expectations of what is “normal” during this era. For example, when Taggot is contemplating the possibility of seeing Hugo again, she notes, “It seems a long life— / I may live fifty years, and not see him again” (9). While the overt focus of the verses remains on Taggot’s romantic thoughts, the finer details are designed to emphasize the fact that a person’s life expectancy was much shorter in the medieval period, and Schlitz’s characters then proceed to provide an extensive list of reasons as to why this might have been.