Vagabond (person)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A vagabond is a (generally impoverished) itinerant person. Such people may be called tramps, rogues, or hobos. A vagabond is characterized by almost continuous traveling, lacking a fixed home, temporary abode, or permanent residence. Vagabonds are not bums, as bums are not known for traveling but preferring to stay in one location.
Historically, "vagabond" was a British legal term similar to vagrant, deriving from the Latin for 'purposeless wandering'.[1] Following the Peasants' Revolt, British constables were authorized under a 1383 statute to collar vagabonds and force them to show their means of support; if they could not, the penalty was gaol.[1] Under a 1495 statute, vagabonds could be sentenced to the stocks for three days and nights; in 1530, whipping was added. The assumption was that vagabonds were unlicensed beggars.[1]
By the 19th century the vagabond was associated more closely with Bohemianism. The critic Arthur Compton-Rickett compiled a review of the type, in which he defined it as men "with a vagrant strain in the blood, a natural inquisitiveness about the world beyond their doors." Examples included Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, William Hazlitt, and Thomas de Quincey.[2]
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[edit] In Literature
- William H. Davies The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp, a non-fiction narrative of his own tramping in the United States.
- Woody Guthrie Bound for Glory (book), an autobiography that includes his time travelling as a railroad hobo across the United States.
- Mark Twain Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The protagonists raft down the Mississippi River.
- Jack Shaftoe, one of the major characters in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, is a vagabond.
- Armand, out of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, is referred to as a vagabond.
- Belgarath, one of the lead characters in David Eddings' Belgariad series, is a vagabond.
- Kenshin Himura, the hero of Nobuhiro Watsuki's manga Rurouni Kenshin, was a samurai who turned to the life of a vagabond to atone for his sins when he was known as Hitokiri Battousai (Battousai the Manslayer). "Rurouni" is actually a term meaning "master-less wandering samurai."
- Goldmund, in Herman Hesse's Narziss and Goldmund, is described variously as a vagrant, a wastrel, and a vagabond.
- Ken Kuhlken The Vagabond Virgins (book), a woman Lourdes Garcia, trying to find her sister Lupe Garcia.
[edit] In Television
- The female ronin (master-less samurai) Ran from the anime Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran is entirely depicted as a vagabond, going where her adventures lead her.
[edit] In Movies
- Agnes Varda's 1985, documentary style movie Vagabond, originally titled Sans Toit Ni Loi, "Without Roof or Law", follows a young woman, Mona, during her last winter roaming through the South of France. Her story is pieced together by the recollections of those who met her in her last weeks.
- Used in Elton John's song "Can You Feel the Love Tonight," played in the Lion King.
[edit] In Music
- Diamonds & Rust (song) originally by Joan Baez and then later covered by Judas Priest and then again by Blackmore's Night, uses the word 'vagabond'
- Name of a song by band Greenskeepers, which was re-released in 2008 in connection with the game Grand Theft Auto 4
- The song Wherever I May Roam by Metallica uses the word 'vagabond'
- Whiskey Sams latest album is titled Vagabond
- The final song on Wolfmother's debut album is titled Vagabond
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Marjorie Keniston McIntosh (1998). Controlling Misbehavior in England, 1370-1600. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521894042.
- ^ Arthur Compton-Rickett (1906). The Vagabond in Literature. E. P. Dutton.
