Primary Texts featuring Monstrous Women

Davis, Lloyd. Sexuality and Gender in the English Renaissance: An Annotated Edition of Contemporary Documents. New York: Garland Pub, 1998. 183-230. Print. 14 Apr. 2015.

            This book includes original documents from early modern England in which societal views are made clear on a variety of topics included under the gender and sexuality umbrella.  There are a variety of topics that these early modern pamphlets address. but most importantly for my area of study are the sections titled A Godly Form of Household Government: For the Ordering of Private Families and A Discourse of Marriage and Wiving.  Both of these texts support my claim that women were objectified as monstrous women by the patriarchy; examples of these negative stereotypes are found in this primary text, with the author of A Discourse of Marriage and Wiving, Alexander Niccholes, stating that choosing a wife is a difficult task for a man because “good wives are many times so like unto bad that they are hardly discerned betwixt” (216).  It is this sort of mindset that I argue was created to confine women to their traditional roles in society.  I believe these documents will provide an accurate representation of early modern marriage ideals and will serve as a source of comparison to what the majority of my sources say in their articles. 

Holinshed, Raphael. “The Source of Arden of Faversham in Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland.” The Tragedy of Master Arden of Faversham. Ed. M.L. Wine. London: Methuen, 1973. Print. 15 Apr. 2015.

            This book includes the Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland version of the story of Thomas and Alice Arden.  This is important because Holinshed’s account of the 1551 murder was published in 1587 and varies greatly from the 1592 production of The Tragedy of Master Arden of Faversham.  Referencing this text will allow me to compare and contrast this primary text to the dramatized play version of the event and account for the differences between each version.  Holinshed’s account differs slightly from the play, making it an essential source to my paper; his version of Thomas Arden’s murder portrays more accurately the behavior of those involved.  In fact, Holinshed’s portrayal of Thomas Arden suggests that the he was not as much of an excellent husband as the play suggests, a fact that could imply that the play was a type of propaganda meant to dramatize the evil nature of Alice Arden.  When compared to the play, Holinshed’s Chronicles demonstrates how the line between fact and fiction can easily blur.  It also demonstrates the way in which a domestic issue was brought to the forefront of news in early modern England.

Niccholes, Alexander.  “A Discourse of Marriage and Wiving.”  Sexuality and Gender in the English Renaissance: An Annotated Edition of Contemporary Documents.  Ed. Lloyd Davis.  New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1998: 213-231.  Print.  21 Apr. 2015.

            This piece of literature is helpful to my research paper because it contains contemporary documents on marriage and the way society viewed the institution of marriage.  The book features a few pamphlets written by Alexander Niccholes that focus intently on the extreme importance of a wife to a man and accompanied by the guidelines for choosing a good wife as well as a description of how a woman should behave once she has been married to a man.  He writes that choosing a good wife “is a matter of some difficulty, for good wives are many times so like unto bad that they are hardly discerned betwixt” (216).  Niccholes discusses how a proper wife should behave as well as how a man should go about choosing a good wife. This illustrates the way women were perceived by men in social institutions such as marriage.  Further, Editor Lloyd Davis provides commentary on the variety of relationships between husband and wife. This will provide my paper with background information regarding the dominating opinions of the patriarchy during the time period.

Parker, Martin.  A warning for viues,/ By the example of one Katherine Francis, alias Stoke, who for killing/ her husband… London for F.G. on Snow-hill: 1629. Magdalene College: Pepys 1.118-119.  Web. 19 Apr. 2015.

            This source is a Renaissance ballad that retells the story of the murder of Robert Francis by his wife, Katherine Francis.  Although the ballad does not discuss the Arden murder, it does demonstrate the consistency in the monstrous representation of women in the press during the Renaissance.  Katherine Francis is illustrated as enjoying the murder, with Parker writing that Katherine “long had thirsted for his blood,” an image that represents Katherine almost as a bloodthirsty vampire.  Further, the ballad seems to suggest that any woman who does not succumb to their husband’s will will become a murderer.  It is almost humorous in its depiction of evil women; I think this is important to note because while some men scrambled to maintain their masculinity, others hinted at the ridiculousness of society’s seeming fascination with the female criminal and husband murder.  I will use this ballad to discuss the representation of murderous women as a means for men to achieve an obedience from women but will also note the dramatization of the monstrous woman persona.

Below is Martin Parker's, "A Warning for Wives." (http://ebba.english.ucsb.edu/ballad/20049/image), enlarged so that some phrasing and images are more easily seen.