22:
381:
outcome in
Swetnam's favour. True to his word, Atticus condemns his daughter to death; Lisandro is sentenced to exile. In the aftermath of the debate, Swetnam surprisingly makes romantic advances to "Atlanta." To his servant Swash, Swetnam reveals that he is in the grip of lust rather than love; but the effect is highly comic all the same. In his pursuit of "Atlanta," Swetnam exposes himself to the revenge of the Sicilian women; they capture him, imprison him, and force him to recant and repent his bigotry against them.
351:(The play's two opening scenes create an obvious conflict in chronology: the dramatist postulates a future, post-England Swetnam, but tosses him into 1570s Sicily. Yet such anomalies are only too common in English Renaissance drama. For extreme examples of historical anomalies and chronological conflict, see
424:
In the main plot, Lorenzo and Iago stage a pretended execution of
Leonida. When Lisandro sees a mock-up of her supposedly severed head, he stabs himself in a suicide attempt; his guards, fearing punishment, flee, and Lorenzo and Iago secure his wounded body and nurse him back to health. In the play's
335:
The king also has a daughter, the beautiful and spirited
Leonida. Yet Atticus is displeased with her: the scions of the great royal houses of Europe have come to seek her hand in marriage, but she has imperiously refused them all. The king calls her "wanton, coy, and fickle too;" he decides to punish
376:
tradition, the penalty they face is death. Yet at their trial, both of the accused accept blame for the infraction and exonerate the other. The judges complain to the king that they cannot decide; the king decrees that the matter will be resolved by a debate or disputation on the question of whether
343:
The second scene introduces
Swetnam and his servant Swash, the play's clown. The conceit is that Swetnam has been driven out of England by the public's righteous indignation over his anti-female slanders; he has moved to Sicily and taken to calling himself Misogynos. (The play provides the earliest
429:
on the theme of repentance; Atticus is affected, emotionally and psychologically, by the masque, and expresses his own repentance over his course of action. Once that change of heart has been achieved, Lorenzo, Leonida, and
Lisandro can reveal themselves. Nicanor's villainy is exposed, and he too
380:
Swetnam/Misogynos is delighted to take the male side in the dispute; the women's side is taken by
Lorenzo, who has disguised himself "like an Amazon." The debate is vigorous, and Lorenzo-alias-"Atlanta" does well; but the judges are all male, and Nicanor uses his corrupting influence to turn the
371:
Princess
Leonida's current suitor is the prince of Naples, Lisandro; when Leonida is restricted from seeing him, he decides to take the bold step of masquerading as her confessor, Friar Anthony, to see her. His ardor and persistence create an impression on the young princess, and he wins her
440:
The play's status as a pro-feminist, proto-feminist, or quasi-feminist text has earned it an ever-growing body of commentary, analysis, and criticism from modern scholars. Some attention has focused on the degree to which the play is or isn't a feminist work; critics have noted that
324:, where the royal court is a grim and somber place: King Atticus is mourning the death of his eldest son and heir, Lusippus, and the prolonged absence of his second son Lorenzo. In the middle of the opening scene, news arrives that Lorenzo is missing after fighting in the
109:, which had a more "elite" clientele. But the crowds of apprentices who made up a large portion of the company's audience were outraged at the move. The private theatres' ticket prices were five or six times higher than the public theatres' admission fees. (In the
228:
The play's subplot deals with
Swetnam, who is brought to trial before a court of women for his offences against the gender and ends up recanting his bias. The play's main plot, a story of political intrigue and courtly love, derives from a novel by
203:
Beyond the confines of the drama, there was an abundant literature on the subject. Swetnam's tract was only one in a long series of similar attacks on women. Countervailing defences of women were less common, though not unknown; examples include
76:
and its positive and genteel attitude toward women. The Red Bull had a reputation as the roughest and rowdiest of the theatres of its day, and at least one source suggests that some women avoided it. According to a contemporaneous doggerel,
104:
Conversely, Queen Anne's Men may have chosen the play to appeal to the "up-scale" new audience they wanted to serve. In 1617, the Queen Anne's company moved from the open-air, "public" Red Bull to the enclosed "private" theatre the
367:
Meanwhile, the missing prince, Lorenzo, has returned clandestinely to Sicily; he wants to spy out local conditions and corruptions, unhindered by his fame and high position. Only the loyal courtier Iago is aware of his presence.
161:
by "Constantia Munda" (both also 1617). The pseudonyms are thought to represent other female authors, making this polemical response to
Swetnam a rare cluster of early 17th-century works written by women. The play
69:; the most likely date for the first performance is considered to have been in late 1618 or 1619. The play was not reprinted in its own era (in fact, not until 1880); but it was revived onstage around 1633.
448:
The play was produced in 2004, in what is believed to be its US premiere, by the Airmid
Theatre Company (www.airmidtheatre.org) as part of the Play Outside festival in New York City.
430:
repents; in the spirit of the moment, the king forgives him, and urges him to "live honestly." Leonida and Lisandro can now engage to marry, and Lorenzo is the new crown prince.
300:
have been proposed as candidates. (A "Thomas Drewe" acted with Queen Anne's Men in the years 1616–19; but it is not certain that Drew the actor, and Drue the playwright of
336:
her by restricting her social access, and puts her in the custody of his senior courtier, Nicanor. Nicanor quickly reveals himself to be both the play's villain and its
384:
The play takes a specific approach to Swetnam's bias, judging his low opinion of women as a reflection of his own low quality as a human being. As Iago puts it,
348:.") Once in Sicily, however, he has fallen back into his old habit of traducing women, and is becoming notorious in his new country just as he was in his old.
125:
riot of 1617, the 'prentices damaged the Cockpit badly enough to delay its opening, and the Queen's Men had to remain at the Red Bull until repairs were done.
372:
affection. But Nicanor catches the two of them together. The young couple are put on trial for violating the king's command; in the classic
549:
Spellings modernized. The last two lines refer to the common belief among Europeans that Muslims thought that women had no souls.
35:
644:
615:
The Later Jacobean and Caroline Dramatists: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama.
425:
final scene, the disaffected court party, including Lorenzo, Iago, Leonida and Lisandro, and Queen Aurelia, stage a
649:
137:
The play was one item, and apparently the final one, in a controversy that erupted in 1615 with the publication of
445:
subordinates its polemical concerns to its subplot, while the main plot deals with high-flown romantic love.
97:
Perhaps the Red Bull audience mellowed with time; or perhaps it was never as narrow and mean as reputed, as
659:
174:
252:
242:
177:
on what can be called, very broadly, the gender question. Earlier plays in this subgenre would include
664:
325:
251:.). De Flore's novel was popular, and had been published in English translation five times between
25:
Swetnam, the Woman-hater, arraigned by women, printed by William Stansby for Richard Meighen, 1620
182:
129:
may have been the kind of play the company intended for their projected new home at the Cockpit.
255:
and 1586. It has been argued that the play also shows specific debts to earlier dramas, notably
145:
Swetnam's work attracted abundant attention, and provoked three responses in defence of women:
121:
was sixpence.) The young men were being priced out of their basic entertainment. In the famous
21:
276:
The tone of de Flores' novel is strongly chivalric, a trait that carries over into the play. "
187:
654:
353:
293:
218:
The Worth of Women: Wherein is Clearly Revealed Their Nobility and Their Superiority to Men
198:
8:
340:: though an old man himself, he wants to marry Leonida and so become king after Atticus.
178:
118:
62:
39:
600:
578:
Maids and Mistresses, Cousins and Queens: Women's Alliances in Early Modern England.
166:
shows internal signs of being the final response to Swetnam in the relevant period.
42:, an anonymous comedy that was part of a controversy during the 1615 – 1620 period.
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were the same person.) Heywood is regarded as the best candidate for the author of
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is remarkable for the unusually high moral tone it adopts with regard to women."
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491:"Melastomus" means "black mouth," indicated the "foul-mouthed" Swetnam.
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345:
205:
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In one key respect, the Red Bull Theatre was an odd venue for the play
264:
61:. The title page of the quarto states that the play was performed by
54:
288:
No external evidence indicates the identity of the play's author;
426:
321:
143:
The Arraignment of Lewd, Idle, Froward, and Unconstant Women.
504:(1616) is sometimes considered another response to Swetnam.
328:(1571), and is feared to be either dead or captured by the
631:
Chapel Hill, NC, University of North Carolina Press, 1935.
585:
The New Woman: Her Emergence in English Drama, 1600–1730.
571:
Swetnam the Woman-Hater: The Controversy and the Play.
419:
But that he's of the Turk's opinion: they have none.
622:
Debating Gender in Early Modern England, 1500–1700.
153:(1617), and two works published under pseudonyms—
117:was a penny, while the minimum for the "private"
636:
617:Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1978.
540:Louis Wright, quoted in Logan and Smith, p. 212.
620:Malcolmson, Christina, and Mihoko Suzuki, eds.
573:Lafayette, IN, Purdue University Studies, 1969.
613:Logan, Terence P., and Denzell S. Smith, eds.
45:
610:Vol. 14; Manchester, privately printed, 1880.
407:Has been altogether amongst whores and bawds,
629:Middle-Class Culture in Elizabethan England.
377:men or women are the morally weaker gender.
308:: "the language, dialogue, and clownery" of
241:), written c. 1495 (The same novel provided
605:Swetnam the Woman-Hater Arraigned by Women.
564:Female Replies to Swetnam the Woman-Hater.
409:And therefore speaks but in's own element.
399:Altogether upon the excrement of the time;
31:Swetnam the Woman-Hater Arraigned by Women
415:Begets in him despair; and despair, envy.
405:Reputation of all women; his acquaintance
417:He cares not to defame their very souls,
20:
576:Frye, Susan, and Karen Robertson, eds.
401:And being swol'n with poisonous vapours
637:
580:Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1999.
413:Because no female can affect the same,
403:He breaks wind in public, to blast the
113:, the cheapest ticket to the "public"
101:suggests in his edition of the play.
312:are all typical of Heywood's style.
435:
173:is one of a long-running series of
13:
344:known use in English of the term "
92:And not there show their garters.
53:was first published in 1620, in a
14:
676:
624:London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.
393:Whose breeding has been like the
411:His own unworthy foul deformity,
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566:Bristol, Thoemmes Press, 1995.
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516:
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467:
458:
235:Historia de Aurelio e Isabella
223:
132:
86:Of drovers, carriers, carters;
1:
556:
283:
522:Logan and Smith, pp. 210–11.
464:Logan and Smith, pp. 211–12.
7:
315:
245:with plot material for his
46:Performance and publication
10:
681:
601:Grosart, Rev. Alexander B.
157:by "Esther Sowernam" and
645:English Renaissance plays
175:English Renaissance plays
597:London, J. Murray, 1894.
513:Logan and Smith, p. 211.
451:
261:The Arraignment of Paris
159:The Worming of a Mad Dog
155:Esther Hath Hang'd Haman
38:era stage play from the
650:Plays by Thomas Heywood
587:New York, Twayne, 1954.
583:Gagen, Jean Elisabeth.
302:The Duchess of Suffolk,
278:Swetnam the Woman-Hater
183:The Taming of the Shrew
171:Swetnam the Woman-Hater
164:Swetnam the Woman-Hater
151:A Muzzle for Melastomus
141:'s anti-feminist tract
51:Swetnam the Woman-Hater
16:Jacobean era stage play
422:
95:
26:
562:Butler, Charles, ed.
386:
188:Beaumont and Fletcher
90:Will shun the benches
79:
24:
354:The Faithful Friends
210:Protection for Women
660:Feminist literature
595:The Jacobean Poets.
320:The play is set in
119:Blackfriars Theatre
40:English Renaissance
569:Crandall, Coryll.
482:Grosart, p. xxxvi.
473:Grosart, p. xxxiv.
239:Grisel y Mirabella
88:But honest wenches
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627:Wright, Louis B.
608:Occasional Issues
326:Battle of Lepanto
199:The Woman's Prize
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665:Feminist fiction
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169:More generally,
67:Red Bull Theatre
63:Queen Anne's Men
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237:(also known as
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59:Richard Meighen
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317:
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290:Thomas Heywood
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231:Juan de Flores
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214:Moderata Fonte
139:Joseph Swetnam
134:
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123:Shrove Tuesday
84:Is mostly full
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82:The Red Bull
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50:
49:
30:
29:
28:
18:
655:1610s plays
390:He's a man,
360:The Old Law
298:Thomas Drue
233:called the
224:Plot source
212:(1589) and
133:Controversy
639:Categories
557:References
374:fairy tale
346:misogynist
284:Authorship
206:Jane Anger
57:issued by
395:Scarrabee
265:John Lyly
316:Synopsis
270:Endymion
220:(1600).
36:Jacobean
443:Swetnam
310:Swetnam
306:Swetnam
127:Swetnam
107:Cockpit
74:Swetnam
65:at the
603:, ed.
427:masque
322:Sicily
296:, and
55:quarto
452:Notes
338:senex
34:is a
357:and
263:and
253:1556
196:and
186:and
267:'s
259:'s
216:'s
208:'s
190:'s
149:'s
641::
593:.
364:)
332:.
292:,
273:.
397:,
362:.
201:.
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