Coming of age in Shakespeare's England frequently coincided with a prolonged period of household service or apprenticeship. A comic passage from The Merchant of Venice suggests that cultural fusions between the roles of servants and children would have been fertile sources for dramatic conflict and change. In this passage Launcelot Gobbo plays the master to his old, sand-blind father, then persuades his father to play the master by preferring him to Bassanio's service. Old Gobbo does this by helpfully declaring that his son “hath a great infection … to serve” (2.2.125–6). Eliding “affection” and “intention” through “infection,” he muddles motives which probably came into conflict when parents behaved like masters, either to other people's children or to their own. The following chapter emphasizes two disastrous coming-of-age stories: the tragedies of Hamlet and Coriolanus are deeply “infected” by relationships between young heros and servants. But even tragedies may represent some dimensions of service as potentially empowering. To show how young people might have survived through resources offered by service, this chapter supplements discussions of Hamlet and Coriolanus with briefer considerations of Cymbeline and King John.

A direct plunge into Hamlet could immediately stir up Old Gobbo's confusions and many more. To reduce these, I will begin with a survey of social practices linking youth to service. These practices develop with and prepare for the elisions between service, marriage, and friendship to be considered in following chapters.