BEGGS-DISSERTATION.Pdf

RISKY BUSINESS: THE DISCOURSE OF CREDIT AND EARLY MODERN FEMALE PLAYWRIGHTS BEFORE DEFOE A Dissertation by COURTNEY BETH BEGGS Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY August 2010 Major Subject: English Risky Business: The Discourse of Credit and Early Modern Female Playwrights Before Defoe Copyright 2010 Courtney Beth Beggs RISKY BUSINESS: THE DISCOURSE OF CREDIT AND EARLY MODERN FEMALE PLAYWRIGHTS BEFORE DEFOE A Dissertation by COURTNEY BETH BEGGS Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved by: Chair of Committee, Margaret J.M. Ezell Committee Members, Mary Ann O’Farrell James M. Rosenheim Robert J. Griffin Head of Department, M. Jimmie Killingsworth August 2010 Major Subject: English iii ABSTRACT Risky Business: The Discourse of Credit and Early Modern Female Playwrights Before Defoe. (August 2010) Courtney Beth Beggs, B.A., University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma; M.A., Bowling Green State University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Margaret J.M. Ezell This dissertation shows that early modern female playwrights were shaped by and helped to shape commercial literary marketplaces that were increasingly affected by the rise of credit, shifting exchange values, and unstable notions of trust, interest, and economic motivation. By looking at how their plays appropriated and responded to financial language present in popular forms of publications such as pamphlets, ballads, and accounting guidebooks, we find that female playwrights understood the discourse of credit in ways that were particularly important for female readers and theatergoers and employed it in their writing for the stage. My study illustrates how their plays represent credit as always inherently tied to the potential risk involved in the “business” of being a woman on the marriage market, a mother with a fortune to pass on, or a widow with a business to maintain. In this project, I analyze the city comedies of Aphra Behn, the pseudonymous Ariadne, Mary Pix, and Susanna Centlivre and conclude that their works constitute a narrative bridge between the financial discourse that appears before them in iv conduct books and advice manuals of the Restoration and after them in the eighteenth- century novel. Making these women and their London comedies a focal point, we can see how they employed the period’s financial discourse to highlight the problems associated with broken promises, counterfeit wills, and the supposed power of contract. My research demonstrates how these playwrights and their works play a critical role in accounting for the trajectory of financial discourse in eighteenth-century culture and literature prior to the “birth” of the English novel. “Risky Business” moves beyond a discussion of female investors or money in literature and, instead, offers a more nuanced understanding of the ways women writers were impacted by the rise of paper credit outside of and prior to fiction. The research presented in this project offers a new account of the way early modern female readers, writers, and theatergoers, were influenced by an increasingly complex financial discourse, a more detailed understanding of the relationship between economic and literary history, and a new way of conceptualizing the commercial female playwright. v For my family vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work is a direct result of the credit extended to me by invaluable friends, family, mentors, and colleagues. The Texas A&M English Department funded several trips to conferences, at which I was able to share portions of my dissertation, a research trip to England, and a non-teaching fellowship over a summer, which allowed me time to focus on this project. Financial support I received from the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research granted me the opportunity to conduct research at the British Library and present my work at national and international conferences. The Women’s Studies Program at Texas A&M also awarded financial support for my work, for which I am grateful. To know one’s research, writing, and intellectual participation are encouraged at the departmental and college level and across disciplines is a rewarding benefit, and I am thankful to have enjoyed it during my time as a graduate student at Texas A&M. I would also like to thank my committee members for their time, assistance, and the invaluable feedback they have offered over the past years. Robert Griffin has pointed me in helpful directions throughout the research process. Jim Rosenheim ensured that my attention to historical context was ever present, and his friendship and collegiality was always a refreshing advantage to working with him. Mary Ann O’Farrell has, from the beginning, asked difficult questions and insisted upon quality answers. Because of this, both my writing and thinking about literature are better than they ever would have vii been without her. Her willingness to ask about things other than the dissertation has been appreciated more than she can know. A special space must be given to my advisor, Margaret J.M. Ezell. As I have said to many colleagues over the years, she is what I want to be when I grow up. She allowed me the time and space to explore a genre that was previously outside my comfort zone and gave me the assistance I needed to conduct the relevant research successfully. She read my writing at all stages, no matter how rough, and encouraged me at every step, until I eventually believed that I could, indeed, write a dissertation. Her willingness to share her own experiences of writing, research, and the importance of doing the work that one believes is needed (regardless of whether or not others share this belief) inspired me on more than one occasion. For her time, her feedback, and her guidance, I am ever grateful. The stress of writing a dissertation was certainly lightened by the presence and support of friends Sarah Peters, Dana Lawrence, and Amy Montz. Their conversation, wit, and understanding sustained me in the busiest and most difficult times. Finally, I thank my family, to whom this work is dedicated. I owe an enormous amount of thanks to my mother, Meredith Townsend, who offered help in too many ways to list. My daughters do not realize what they have contributed, but they are indeed a driving force in everything I do. Their patience and willingness to “hold on just one more minute” while I completed a note, a last page of reading, or a simple thought is appreciated. My husband, Thomas Nester, held down the fort while I presented my work at several conferences and conducted research across the pond. For this, as well as for viii his constant support and complete understanding of the physical, emotional, and intellectual energy it takes to write a dissertation, I offer my deepest and most sincere thanks. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. iii DEDICATION .......................................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ......................................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................... ix CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: GENDER, GENRE, AND GESTURES IN ECONOMIC AND LITERARY HISTORY ........................................ 1 Why Women Writers? ..................................................................... 5 Why Drama? ................................................................................... 7 The Financial Revolution: From the Bank of England to the South Sea Bubble ....................................................................................... 12 II “DEBTOR AND CREDITOR MADE EASY”: FINANCIAL DISCOURSE AND THE LANGUAGE OF CREDIT, 1670-1725 .... 18 Conclusion ....................................................................................... 59 III “YOU WOMEN HAVE ALL A CERTAIN JARGON”: THE LANGUAGE OF CREDIT IN THE COMEDIES OF APHRA BEHN ................................................................................................... 67 Broken Promises: Verbal Credit in The Rover ............................... 74 Interest: Emotional Credit vs. Ready Money in The Second Part of The Rover ................................................................................... 88 “The Necessary Vice”: Paper Credit in The City-Heiress .............. 104 Conclusion ...................................................................................... 117 IV ARIADNE, MARY PIX, AND IDEAL VENTURES ......................... 124 “Safely then She Ventures”: Ariadne’s Risk-Free Investment…… 128 The Different Widows: Mary Pix and the Business of Mothering ....................................................................................... 147 x CHAPTER Page Conclusion ...................................................................................... 159 V THE “NEW” ECONOMIC (WO)MAN?: SUSANNA CENTLIVRE AND THE PROMISE OF “BLACK AND WHITE”………………. 168 The Gamester and the New Economic Subject ............................. 175 Love at a Venture: Marriage as Speculative Investment ............... 186 “Make me mistress of my fortune”: Money, Marriage, and Liberty in A Bold Stroke for a Wife ............................................................

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