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Wicked Words, Virtuous Voices

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Wicked Words, Virtuous Voices RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT GRONINGEN WICKED WORDS, VIRTUOUS VOICES The Reconstruction of Tragic Subjectivity by Renaissance and Early Restoration Women Dramatists Proefschrift ter verkrijging van het doctoraat in de Letteren aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen op gezag van de Rector Magnificus, dr. F. Zwarts, in het openbaar te verdedigen op donderdag 8 mei 2003 om 14.15 uur door Marguérite Christina Maria Corporaal geboren op 5 juni 1973 te Schöppingen, Duitsland Promotores: Prof. dr. H.E. Wilcox Prof. dr. B. Westerweel Beoordelingscommissie: Prof. dr. A.A. MacDonald Prof. dr. P. Smith Dr. M. Wynne-Davies To hear a tale with ears prejudicate, It spoils the judgement, and corrupts the sense; That human error given to every state, Is greater enemy to innocence… It will confound the meaning, change the words, For it our sense of hearing much deceives; Elizabeth Cary (1585-1639), The Tragedie of Mariam (1604-09), II, i, 401-08. In short, I think a Play the best divertisement that wise men have; but I do also think them nothing so, who do discourse as formallie about the rules of it, as if 'twere the grand affair of humane life…I dare to say I know of none that write at such a formidable rate, but that a woman may well hope to reach their greatest hights. Then for their musty rules of Unity, and God knows what besides, if they meant any thing, they are enough intelligible, and as practible by a woman. Aphra Behn (1640-89), preface to The Dutch Lover (1673). The conventions of the stage produce a meaning for the sign 'woman', which is based upon their cultural associations with the female gender…Constructing woman as subject…is the future, liberating work of a new feminist poetics. Sue-Ellen Case. "Towards a New Poetics" (1998). 145. Contents Preface xi List of illustrations xiii General introduction 1 i. “To make present what is absent”: Gender Studies and Historical Interpretation 1 ii. “Maides must be seene, not heard”: Recovering the Female Voice 6 iii. Tragedy and the Transgressive Female Voice 7 iv. Tragic Subjectivity: a Definition 11 v. Investigating "Wicked" Words 16 Part I. The Representations of Female Utterance in late Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-century England 19 Chapter 1. "Bashful silence is an ornament to their sex": the Desire for the Voiceless Female 21 1.1. "Never an unseemly word": Discourses on Female Utterance 21 1.2. Woman's Voice and the "meeting place for whores" 25 1.3. Writing "Wanton" Words 28 1.4. Conclusion of chapter 1 33 Chapter 2. Forging a Virtuous Voice: Women's Legitimisation of their Self-Expression 35 2.1. Religious Discourses and the Expression of Subjectivity 35 2.1.1. "Clean, unspotted conversation": Making a Virtue of Virginity 44 2.3. "That loving act of a loving mother": Maternity and the Female Voice 47 2.4. "I have set downe unto you (which are of mine owne sex)": Addressing a Female Audience 53 2.5. Conclusion of chapter 2. 54 Chapter 3. "Sorcery of thy tongue and eyes": Women’s Subjectivity in Renaissance and early Restoration Tragedy 57 3. 1. Elizabethan Tragedy: Arden of Faversham, Titus Andronicus and The Spanish Tragedy 58 3.1.1. Woman, Speech and Sexuality in Elizabethan Tragedy 58 3.1.2. Female Tragic Subjectivity on the Elizabethan Stage 59 3.1.3. The Elizabethan Tragic Closure 62 Jacobean Tragedy: Othello, The Duchess of Malfi, The Maid’s Tragedy, The Changeling 66 3.2.1. The "Begrimed" Tragic Woman of Jacobean Theatre 66 The Jacobean Tragic Woman and the Mystery of Meaning 69 3.2.2. The Jacobean Tragic Closure and Transcendence 73 3.3. Caroline Tragedy and Tragedy from the Civil War Period: ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, The Broken Heart, The Politician 76 3.3.1. Woman's "Magic Tongue" and English Drama, 1625-1649 76 3.3.2. Controlling the Female Tragic Subject 78 3.3.3. The Tragic Closure and Transgression 81 3.4. Early Restoration Tragedy: The Villain and The Rival Queens 83 3.4.1. "Blaspheming Tongues" and Innocent Voices on the Early Restoration Stage 83 3.4.2. Subjectivity and Gender in Early Restoration Tragedy 85 3.4.3. The Early Restoration Tragic Closure and the Issue of Memory 87 3.5. Tragic Female Subjectivity: A Conclusion 89 Part II: "Within these tombs enclosed": Women and Tragedy, 1570-1642 93 Introduction 95 Chapter 4. "Die Cleopatra then": Mary Sidney's The Tragedie of Antonie (1590-91) 105 4.1. "Philip's Phoenix": Mary Sidney as a Writer 105 4.2. The Tragedie of Antonie as a Translation 108 4.3. Cleopatra's "Sweet Voice" and Sexuality 110 4.4. "The alabaster covering of her face": Cleopatra's Sexual Purity 112 4.5. Maternity and Female Bonding in Sidney's Play 114 4.6. Gender and Subjectivity in The Tragedie of Antonie 115 4.7. "Ended I have as destiny decreed": Death and Autonomy 116 4.8. The Tragedie of Antonie and Contemporary Tragedies 120 4.9. Sidney's Play and the Genre of Closet Drama 123 4.10. Conclusion: Mary Sidney's Revision of Tragedy 127 Chapter 5. "Each word she said…shall be the food whereon my heart is fed": Elizabeth Cary's The Tragedie of Mariam (1604-09) 131 5.1. "Whenever conscience and reason will permit it": Elizabeth Cary as a Writer 131 5.2. The Tragedie of Mariam, the faire Queene of Iewry: a Textual History 133 5.3. Woman's "public voice" and Adultery 136 5.4. Cary's Negotiation of Female Sexuality 140 5.5. "Let all the stars be dark": Cary's Use of Religious Discourses 142 5.6. "Curse not my infants": The Role of Maternity in the Play 146 5.7. Women and Subjectivity in The Tragedie of Mariam 147 5.8. The Tragic Closure, Transcendence and Transgression 152 5.9. Cary's Play and Contemporary Tragedies 154 5.10. The Tragedie of Mariam as Closet Drama 157 5.11. Conclusion: Elizabeth Cary and her Precursor Mary Sidney 161 Part III: "Weel feaste your understandinges, Eares, & Eyes" Women andTragedy, 1642-1665 163 Introduction 165 6. "To talk of naked truth": Margaret Cavendish's The Unnatural Tragedy (ca. 1650) 171 6.1. "Steps to… fame's tower": Margaret Cavendish as a Writer 171 6.2. The Unnatural Tragedy: a Textual History 175 6.3. Cavendish's Criticism on the Voiceless Female 179 6.4. Domestic Debates and Spotless Speeches 181 6.5. Man's Blasphemy versus Woman's Religious Defence 183 6.6. Maternity and Female Communication in the Play 184 6.7. Empowering Wit, Disempowering Silence 185 6.8. The Tragic Closure, Autonomy and Memory 187 6.9. The Unnatural Tragedy and Contemporary Tragedies 190 6.10. The Unnatural Tragedy and the Tradition of Closet Drama 192 6.11. Conclusion: The Unnatural Tragedy and Tragic Plays by Female Precursors 195 Chapter 7. "My Ambition…is checkt": Katherine Philips's Pompey, a Tragedy (1663) 199 7.1. "Imaginations rifled": Katherine Philips as a Writer 199 7.2. Pompey, a Tragedy: a Performed Translation 205 7.3. Cleopatra's "busie wit" 209 7.4. The Issues of Honour and Virginity in the Play. 211 7.5. The Function of Biblical References in the Play 214 7.6. Maternity and Female Address in Pompey 216 7.7. Politics and Female Subjectivity 218 7.8. Cleopatra's Glorious Ending 222 7.9. Philips's Play and the Tragic Tradition 223 7.10. Conclusion: Katherine Philips as a Dramatist and her Female Precursors 225 Part IV: "I'm hither come, but what d'ye think to say?": Women and Tragedy, 1665-1680 227 Introduction 229 Chapter 8. "Will you to my discourse Vouchsafe an Eare?": Elizabeth Polwhele's The Faithfull Virgins (ca. 1670) 235 8.1. "Haunted with poetic devils": Elizabeth Polwhele as a Writer 235 8.2. The Faithfull Virgins: a Textual History 238 8.3. Isabella: Adulterous Villainess or Virtuous Victim? 239 8.4. The Female Characters and "vertue" 241 8.5. Nuns and "seraphin's": the Function of Religious Allusions 244 8.6. Misrepresentation and Miscommunication: Gender and Subjectivity in the Play 245 8.7. Tragic Closure: The Issue of Autonomy and Memorialisation 249 8.8. The Faithfull Virgins and Contemporary Tragedies 251 8.9. The Faithfull Virgins as a Play for the Public Stage 253 8.10. Conclusion: The Faithfull Virgins and Tragedies by Female Precursors 256 Chapter 9. "Their musty rules": Aphra Behn's Abdelaz'r, or The Moor's Revenge (1677) 259 9.1. "The noisy wit": Aphra Behn as a Writer 259 9.2. Aphra Behn as a Dramatist and Abdelaz'r, or The Moor's Revenge 264 9.3. Women and "amorous discourse" in the Play 269 9.4. Wanton Men, "sacred and …innocent" Women 274 9.5. The Function of Religious Discourses in the Play 275 9.6. Gender and Subjectivity in Abdelaz'r 276 9.7. Gender and Death in the Play 281 9.8. Abdelazer and Contemporary Tragedies 284 9.9. The Play as a Tragedy for Performance 286 9.10. Conclusion: Abdelazer and Tragedies by Female Precursors 288 Concluding Remarks 291 i. New Tragic Contexts 291 ii. New Perspectives on the Female Voice 294 iii. A Revision of Tragic Subjectivity 296 iv. Tragedy and the Next Generation of Women Playwrights: Some Reflections 299 Bibliography 305 Nederlandse Samenvatting 337 Preface xi Elizabeth Cary's The Tragedie of Mariam (ca. 1604-09) warns against prejudice which "spoils the judgement" (II,i, 402). Cary's plea against prejudice is not remarkable, for in late sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England it was widely assumed that women writers were prostitutes, and that their works were of a minor quality.
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