3 ms·

> medieval Londoner The 17th century hardly classifies as "the middle ages".

• tialaramex 4y ago
  Right, by this point English is more or less the language we have today (the idioms are sometimes unfamiliar but we understand what's basically going on in Shakespeare's plays, which were written at about the turn of the century) and the Enlightenment is well under way. It's not obvious to me that there could not have been link boys in say, 15th century London, which really was still a medieval period - they just need a torch or maybe even a candle - but I didn't find records of such a thing. It's possible that wealthy people in 15th century London just would not venture out alone at night in numbers to justify this trade.