ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: PURGATIVE TEXTS: RELIGION, REVULSION, AND THE RHETORIC OF INSURGENCY IN EARLY MODERN ENGLAND Nora J. Bellows, Doctor of Philosophy, 2004 Dissertation directed by: Professor Donna B. Hamilton Department of Eng lish Language and Literature In this dissertation I explore the ways that writers of early modern religious and social polemic used humoral language in order that their texts were not only rhetorically powerful, but also served as efficacious humoral re medies in the form of “physic” or medicinal “cures.” Specifically, I consider several examples of religio - political tracts that label themselves as “purgatives.” Each of the treatises I examine claims to diagnosis and treat either the diseased individual and/or the distempered body politic. Both Stephen Gosson (School of Abuse 1579) and Martin Marprelate (Marprelate tracts 1588-9) label themselves as physicians or sugeons. Gosson offers his tract as curative medicine for an effeminate, phlegmatic body politic. Marprelate himself is a “mirror” of the deformity in the body politic and his text/body a “cure.” The three defenses of women —Jane Anger’s Her Protection for Women (1589), Esther Sowernam’s Esther hath Hanged Haman (1617), and Constantia Munda’s Worming of a madde dogg (1617)—represent written words as purges for the male writers they are answering. And, finally, The Lady’s words have a potentially transformative effect on Comus in Milton’s A Masque. Central to this project is the notion that words have humoral valences as do all substances that “issue” from the body. Through speech and writing people conveyed the very substance of their souls according to early modern physicians and religious leaders, whose treatise addresses the connection betw een the state of a person’s body, soul, and words. Words, like the people who spoke them, could be “hot,” bilious, choleric. The solution offered by the purgative text is the power to flush the body of corruption. Because textual arguments can carry humoral valences, they are not merely rhetorically persuasive, but potentially transformative on every level. Analyzing the humoral language in early modern polemic changes the way we are compelled to read similar language in other literary and non-literary texts, deepening our understanding of what it means to “change” a person’s mind. PURGATIVE TEXTS: RELIGION, REVULSION, AND THE RHETORIC OF INSURGENCY IN EARLY MODERN ENGLAND By Nora J. Bellows Dissertation submitted to the Facu lty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2004 Advisory Committee: Professor Donna B. Hamilton, Chair Professor Jane Donawerth Pro fessor Jeanne Fahnestock Professor James D. Greenberg Professor Marshall Grossman © Copyright by Nora J. Bellows 2004 In memory of Emily Hammond Bellows, 1903 - 1993 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many people whose shadows and steps cross and criss -cross this document, without whose support and conversation these pages might not have been written, and certainly not in the form they now take. I am deeply indebted to my teachers: Donna Hamilton always told me the truth, on every draft, every idea, and for that I am very grateful. Her energy and guidance have been solid rocks in a sometimes very shifting field. Jane Donawerth tirelessly read everything I sent to her when she did not need to, pushing me with her pointed, challenging comments. She approached each draft with fresh eyes —I know first hand how difficult that is! Her generosity with her students astonishes me. My conversations with Jeanne Fahnestock were invaluable, helping me to push this material in a direction I had not imagined, and now I cannot imagine it any other way. Marshall Grossman’s comments on “the Ladies chapter” were, as always, generous, detailed, tough, provocative. I am grateful to Spencer Benson, the director of the Center for Teaching Excelllence, for giving me time and space to work in spite of the fact there was much to do in the Center. Jim Greenberg is a light in my life, a beloved mentor, and I am honored and grateful that he agreed to be on the committee for this dissertation. I would not be writing these words had not my parents instilled in me the importance of education, and my mother, Jean Larson, a love of finding things out and the desire to get a Ph.D. If I have inherited her warmth, her quirky, tenacious spirit, and the desire always to do better, and do more, I am very very lucky. My father, William J. Bellows, his insistence on my happiness, and his always solid, loving advice, has given me great comfort. I must thank Chrissy for her enthusiastic support. And ther e are many others who were unstinting supporters in hours of need. I am iii grateful to my colleagues at the Center for Teaching Excellence Rupa Ravindran, Cynthia Shaw, and Peggy Stuart for picking up the slack left when I was out of the office laboring over these pages. I must thank the ladies at the knit shop for being ready with their words of encouragement: BG, Amy, Heidi, Lou, Lovey, Margie, Sally, Wendy. Extra special thanks and kisses to Mindy and Savilla for telling me I could, and I should. Sue G dovin kept reminding me that no one can take the degree away once it’s in hand and how right she was. Phyllis Jeffers told me over and over I could “go girl!” Erin Kelly was always ready with overwhelming compliments and advice, both personal and Renaiss ance, whenever I needed it. Her generosity is embedded in these pages in untold ways. Ryan Claycomb and I talked deeply about many things, some of which have touched this project. David Eubanks, my colleague and friend, generously read the introduction and offered most thoughtful comment. But he helped in other ways concrete and important: he collated the pages as they printed out the day I submitted, told me when to go home, was always ready with a smile and a word of encouragement. I’m not sure how to thank my friends at the Avalon—dancing on Thursday nights was a respite from hard work, but it’s so much deeper than that. Brendan Coffey many times watched my cats and watered my plants when I went to Texas to write. And he kept me in his prayers, wh ich means more to me than I can ever adequately express. Ted Elser’s love and steady lead have changed my life more than he will believe, and more than I can tell him. James Rhym called me when I needed a break those last days of intense writing: his beautiful photographs (e - mailed) and his wonderful conversation brought me back to myself. Sandman was there at the very beginning of this whole process, reading my work, cooking dinner for iv me, being just about the most wonderful person I’ve ever met, and I am sorry he is not nearby to see it completed. Misha brought the concise eye of the engineer to some of these pages, and they are better for it. More than that, though, I will ever be thankful for the love and support he offered so generously and daily through this process, his constant reminders to work from a position of abundance instead of scarcity have helped me enourmously —though he didn’t always think so. Those wonderful, quiet hours we spent sitting next to each other in the Engineering TA offic e at UT Austin working allowed for the deep reflection this project demanded. And the beautiful computer upon which this document was completed —how can I thank you enough, Misha? My Uncle Paul and my Aunt Jan Larson have been tremendously influential and ever fostered my efforts, in teaching, scholarship, all things intellectual, offering wisdom, love, counsel, and much needed assistance of a more material sort in these last months of writing. My cousin Meredith has been a sweet, loving presence, reminding me always what it means to be a Bellows. The legacy of my grandmother, Emily Hammond Bellows, is not easily measured. She taught me how to tell a story, and made me want to write them down. I wish she were here to see me finish. My beautiful nephew, Julian Paul Bellows, brought the clarity that is afforded a young man of six years, telling me that if I didn’t like it, “take it out, Noni—you’ll never be happy if you don’t,” and he was right, of course. Thank you, Julian. And my dear sister, Laura J. Bellows. These words are too too slender to enclose her contribution to these pages: our conversations and her own scholarly work have deepened my understanding of this material in uncountable ways. Her fierce love and intrepid spirit are ever an inspiration. But that’s the least of it. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements .........................................................................................................iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................ vi List of Figures ...............................................................................................................vii Introduction “Some thin gs help nature evacuate by their sweetness or fair language: The Purgative Force of Religious Polemic ....................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 “You neede not goe abroade to be tempted”: Stephen Gosson’s School of Abuse as an Anti -Marriage Tract ...................................... 17 Chapter 2 Exposing the Body ‘Out of Joynt’: The Martin Marprelate Contoversy ....................... 73 Chapter 3 Stretching the Veins of Their Brains and the Lists of Their Modesty: Chastity, Conscience, and New ‘Social Practices’ in Women’s Defenses of Women and Milton’s Comus ..................................................................................................... 133 Conclusion “wherein divers gross Errors and Corruptions. are discovered, censured, and refuted. .”: Talking Cures and Textual Physic .................................................... 223 Selected Bibliography of Primary Works: ................................................................... 227 Selected Bibliography of Secondary Works: ..............................................................