The Concept of Male Honour in Seventeenth Century England
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THE CONCEPT OF MALE HONOUR IN SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND BY ELIZABETH ANN FOYSTER The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF PH.D. IN HISTORY TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM. 1996 r- . 15 AUG 1996 THE CONCEPT OF MALE HONOUR IN SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND ELIZABETH ANN FOYSTER University of Durham Ph.D. Thesis 1996 Abstract The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate the importance of honour to men as a value and power system in seventeenth century England. It compares literary and fictional sources which prescribed how men could achieve honour, with the church court records of Durham and the court of Arches to show how some men chose to put these ideas into practice. Chapter two examines the different sexual and non sexual components of male honour. It discusses the extent to which ideas of male honour differed between social classes and how far the concepts of honour changed over time. Chapter three shows that displaying sexual honour was vital to the acquisition of manhood for men of all social classes. It is argued that male honour was dependent upon men sexually controlling their wives, daughters, and female servants. The desire to maintain this sexual honour meant that insults upon a wife's sexual reputation were often interpreted by men as slurs on their honour. Hence chapter four shows that there may have been male as well as female honour at stake when wives fought defamation suits in the church courts after sexual slander. Chapter five argues that loss of male sexual honour could have profound consequences on men's lives within and outside the household. Men could experience their loss of honour both materially and emotionally. It was the fear of loss of honour which could lead men to adjust their behaviour within their homosocial and heterosexual relationships, as chapter six outlines. Some men became suspicious of the intentions of their male friends, and in their jealousy attempted to restrict their wives' freedoms. The chief dilemma for men was that once they became convinced that their honour had been compromised by their wives' behaviour, there was no easy course of action which they could adopt to restore honour. Both legal and extra legal actions held pitfalls. The thesis concludes that a system of male honour which rested on female behaviour could never prove secure or enduring, and that men were very likely to seek a revision of the meanings of male and female honour, if this could secure their authority in the household and in wider society more effectively. Although the system of male honour which this thesis examines was not confined to the seventeenth century, it is argued that this century saw both its apogee and the beginnings of its decline. ii CONTENTS Acknowledgements iv Preface v Abbreviations vi Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Defining male honour 1 1.2 Sources for the study of male honour 7 Chapter 2 The Pattern and Context of Male Honour 29 2.1 The gentry and honour 29 2.2 Gossip 38 2.3 From gossip to slander 48 2.4 The subject of slander and the content of male reputation 53 2.5 Conclusions 61 Chapter 3 Manhood and Sexual Reputation 62 3.1 Manhood 62 3.2 Male reason and the dangers of love 63 3.3 The making of marriage 72 3.4 Sexual reputation in marriage 77 3.5 The dilemma of control 87 3.6 The honourable householder 99 3.7 Conclusions 106 Chapter 4 Men, Women and Sexual Defamation 107 4 1 The double sexual standard 107 4.2 The circumstances of sexual slander 120 4.3 The costs of legal action 130 4.4 Conclusions 135 Chapter 5 The Consequences of Dishonour 136 5.1 Introduction 136 5.2 Scolding wives 137 5.3 Community reactions to male dishonour 142 5.4 Occupation and office 154 5.5 Paternity 162 5.6 Conclusions 168 Chapter 6 Defending Male Honour 170 6.1 Introduction 170 6.2 Male friendships 170 6.3 Jealousy: fictional evidence 177 6.4 Jealousy: a case study 186 iii Chapter 7 Responding to Male Dishonour 189 7.1 Introduction 189 7.2 Responding with legal action 190 7.3 Non-violent alternatives to legal action 201 7.4 Responding to dishonour with violence: men v. men 208 7.5 Responding to dishonour with violence: men v. women 213 7.6 Responding to the scolding wife 224 7.7 Choosing not to respond to male dishonour 227 7.8 Conclusions 231 Conclusion 233 Bibliography 243 iv Acknowledgements The research for this thesis was funded by a two year British Academy Studentship, and a one year Durham University Studentship. It is research which would not have been begun without the encouragement of Anthony Fletcher, who as a supervisor has always found time to provide much valued support, discussion, and detailed attention to my work. He has been an inspiring teacher of the historian's craft. I am very grateful for the specialist help of the staff at the Department of Archives and Special Collections and Palace Green Library in Durham. In particular I would like to thank Margaret McCollum, Linda Drury, Joe Fewster, and Beth Rainey for sharing with me some of their expertise of early modern records. I am also grateful to Alison Roberts, Colin Gorman and Hilda Guy. Their smiling welcome, interest in my research, attention to my needs, and breadth of knowledge were so important to me. I am convinced that Durham offers a uniquely special and unparalleled research environment. I owe particular thanks to Tim Stretton whose faith from the start in my ability to do this research has meant much, and who has painstakingly read and commented upon many of the drafts of this thesis. For suggestions of reading, and the loan of unpublished material I am also grateful to Jeremy Black, Miranda Chaytor, Richard Cust, Brian Gibbons, Margaret Harvey, Matthew Johnson, Subha Mukheiji, Pete Rushton, Garthine Walker, and Helen Weinstein. The friendship of Helen Berry, Sue Lambley, Heloise Lampert, Sophia Mavropoulou, Jane Roscoe, and Jo Story has been of vital support, and I continue to value. I would also like to thank the staff at the School of History and Welsh History at the University of Wales, Bangor for their welcome over the last few months. Finally, I owe the greatest debt to Keith Bartlett and my mum, Margaret Foyster for their unfailing love and encouragement which has sustained, encouraged and enabled me to complete this PhD. I hope this thesis would have made my dad Michael Foyster proud. Preface For ease of comprehension all spellings have been modernised in this thesis except for the titles of printed primary sources. Punctuation and capitalisation have not been modernised. The year is taken to begin on 1st January for all court records. The numbers of cases for the Court of Arches are those given in the J. Houston, Index of the cases in the records of the Court of Arches in Lambeth Palace Library, 1660-1913 (London, 1972). The dates of ballads where given are taken from the editors notes to The Roxburghe Ballads (W. Chappell ed. vols.I-III; and J.W. Ebsworth ed. vols.IV-IX), or from the catalogue compiled by H. Weinstein of The Pepys Ballads (R. Latham ed., Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College vol.II, Part i). These dates are based on the date the ballads were printed or registered with the Stationers Company, or on known biographical details of their authors, printers, or publishers. All dates of ballads given are approximate and should be treated with caution, however, since a ballad could be in oral circulation or in illegal printed circulation long before it was officially printed, published, and registered. The dates of Renaissance plays are taken from the chronological table in A.R. Braunmuller and M. Hattaway (eds), The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama (Cambridge,1990). The dates of Restoration plays are taken from the editor's notes to each edition. All dates of plays refer to the earliest known performance or first edition. A full list of plays consulted can be found in the bibliography. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without her prior consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. vi Abbreviations DDR.V. Durham consistory court deposition book CA. Court of Arches Ee Court of Arches personal answer Eee Court of Arches deposition Roxburghe W. Chappell, (ed.),The Roxburghe Ballads vols. I-III, (London,1871-1880), and J.W. Ebsworth, (ed.), The Roxburghe Ballads vols. IV-IX, (London, 1883-1899) Pepys W.G. Day, (ed.), The Pepys Ballads (facsimile, 5 vols., Cambridge, 1987) Pepysian Garland H.E. Rollins, (ed.),A Pepysian Garland: Black Letter Broadside Ballads of the Years 1595-1639 (Cambridge,MA,1971) Euing The Euing Collection of Broadside Ballads, introduction by J. Holloway, (Glasgow, 1971) Shirburn A. Clark, (ed.), The Shirburn Ballads (Oxford, 1907) M.P. Martin Parker, ballad author, (d.1656?) CHAPTER ONE : INTRODUCTION 1.1 Defining male honour: Honour,. .is so near a neighbour unto man's life, that he is ever accounted cruel to himself, that is careless of his Reputation.. .for dishonour is more to be feared than death, and Honour more to be desired than life.' Over the past twenty years historians have come to recognise that "considerations of honour, good name, and reputation were of central importance" in early modern England.2 They have studied the concept of honour by looking at the records of the church courts where honour was disputed or defended.