Adultery in Early Stuart England
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Veronika Christine Pohlig ___________________________ Adultery in Early Stuart England ________________________________________ Dissertation am Fachbereich Philosophie und Geisteswissenschaften der Freien Universität Berlin 2009 Erstgutachterin: Frau Prof. Dr. Sabine Schülting Zweitgutachter: Herr Prof. Dr. Dr. Russell West-Pavlov Datum der mündlichen Prüfung: 03.07.2009 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Prof. Ann Hughes, whose enlightening undergraduate seminar at Keele University taught me the fundamentals of historic research, and first sparked my interest in matters of gender and deviance, thus laying the basis for this project. I wish to express my gratitude towards the Graduiertenkolleg Codierung von Gewalt im medialen Wandel for giving me the opportunity to work with a number of amazing individuals and exchange ideas across disciplinary boundaries, and also for providing the financial means to make travelling in order to do research for this project possible. Special thanks goes out to the helpful staff at Gloucestershire Archives. Above all, I am greatly indebted to Prof. Sabine Schülting for providing the warm intellectual home in which this project could thrive, and for blending munificent support with astute criticism. I am most grateful to have benefited from her supervision. I wish to extend my most heartfelt thanks to Maggie Rouse, Sabine Lucia Müller, Anja Schwarz, Judith Luig, and to Kai Wiegandt for their insightful comments on various parts of this dissertation in various stages, but, more importantly, for unerring support and motivation. These were also given most generously by my brother-in-law, Matthias Pohlig, who read the manuscript with a keen historian's eye and provided invaluable feedback at a crucial stage of its genesis. Thanks to Peter, Jon and Sebastian for brightening cloudy days. This dissertation could not have been written without the encouragement and unflagging support of my family. I doubt words can convey my gratitude, most especially to my husband Joachim Pohlig: thank you for being there and for being you. NOTE ON THE TEXT Quotations from printed and manuscript sources retain the original spelling, grammar and punctuation. However, in quoting from legal manuscripts, “th” has been substituted for “y” where appropriate and abbreviations have been spelled out. When quoting original plays, the original subdivision into acts and scenes has been kept. Where no individual scenes were marked, a reference to the act in which they occur has been provided. Secondary texts are consistently cited in author-date short format in order to make the footnotes clearer and shorter, i.e. more accessible. However, it seemed expedient that more substantial information than short citation be given for primary texts. Therefore, full bibliographical references in original spelling are provided for primary texts at first mention in each of the seven chapters. In subsequent occurrences titles have been shortened and their spelling has been modernised. Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION____________________________________________________________1 1.1. Why Study Early Stuart Adultery?..................................................................................1 1.2. How to Study Early Stuart Adultery................................................................................7 1.2.1. Court Records..........................................................................................................8 1.2.2. Prescriptive Texts...................................................................................................16 1.2.3. Fictional Texts and Performances..........................................................................18 2. APPROACHING EARLY MODERN MARRIAGE AND ADULTERY______________________28 2.1. Insecurities Surrounding Marriage................................................................................28 2.2. Performing Marriage – Witnessing Marriage ...............................................................34 2.3. Marriage and Adultery: Norm and Transgression.........................................................37 3. NEIGHBOURHOOD I: NEIGHBOURS AS WITNESSES ______________________________44 3.1. Neighbourhood and Neighbourliness............................................................................45 3.1.1. Thou Shalt (Not) Bear (False) Witness..................................................................53 3.2. Gossip and Slander........................................................................................................64 3.2.1. Witnessing Gone Wrong........................................................................................67 3.2.2. Gossip Gone Wrong...............................................................................................74 3.2.3. Sexual Reputation and the Double Standard ........................................................83 3.2.4. Gossip, Slander and Adultery: Conclusions .........................................................86 3.3. Mocking Practices ........................................................................................................87 3.3.1. Mocking the Cuckold ..........................................................................................90 3.3.2. Mocking the Adulteress.......................................................................................109 3.3.3. Mockery and Adultery: Conclusions...................................................................116 4. NEIGHBOURHOOD II: NEIGHBOURS AS GUESTS AND FRIENDS____________________119 4.1. Cornerstones and Boundaries of Neighbourliness: Charity, Hospitality, Friendship..120 4.2. Male Friendship Facilitates Adultery..........................................................................126 4.3. Male Hatred Facilitates Adultery, Female Friendship Saves Marriage.......................142 4.4. Jealousy Suspends Neighbourliness and Destroys Marriage......................................150 4.5. Friendship as a Model for Marriage? .........................................................................154 4.6. Neighbourliness v. Marital Duties: Conclusions.........................................................157 5. HOUSEHOLD I: SPACES OF ADULTERY_______________________________________159 5.1. Household: Enclosure or Theatre?..............................................................................160 5.2. The Centre Inside: The Marital Bed............................................................................182 5.3. Thresholds I: Doors.....................................................................................................186 5.4. Thresholds II: Walls.....................................................................................................199 5.5. Outside: Public (Outdoor) Spaces ..............................................................................219 5.6. Adulterous Domesticity: Conclusions.........................................................................233 6. HOUSEHOLD II: DOMESTIC AFFAIRS________________________________________237 6.1. Domestic Hierarchies .................................................................................................240 6.1.1. Marriage: Equality v. Hierarchy..........................................................................242 6.1.2. Husbandly Authority: Duties Before Privileges..................................................247 6.2. Wife-Taming................................................................................................................267 6.3. Husband-Taming.........................................................................................................281 6.4. Adulterous Business: Horn of Plenty or Horn of Cuckoldry? ..................................312 6.5. Conjugal Hierarchies, Household Economy, and Adultery: Conclusions...................331 7. STAGING ADULTERY IN EARLY STUART ENGLAND: CONCLUSIONS________________336 7.1. Adultery and Domestic (Gender) Hierarchies.............................................................336 7.2. What Motivated Adultery?..........................................................................................342 7.3. Damage Repair - ‘Unmaking’ Adultery?.....................................................................343 7.4. (Why) Was Adultery Funny?.......................................................................................346 7.5. Neighbourhood – Theatre?..........................................................................................347 7.6. Adultery and Neighbourhood Hierarchies ..................................................................349 BIBLIOGRAPHY____________________________________________________________352 APPENDIX________________________________________________________________382 1. Deutsche Zusammenfassung..........................................................................................382 2. Erklärung........................................................................................................................387 3. Lebenslauf......................................................................................................................388 1. Introduction 1.1. Why Study Early Stuart Adultery? This study received its first impulses roughly ten years ago. They derived from the two vantages of social history and literary studies. Reading John Ford’s ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore I was struck by the immediacy and pathos with which it had obviously been