Starting from the notion of street culture, and from the vast corpus of sensational crime news in early modern England, this paper concentrates on some anonymous writings – short narratives, pamphlets, and ballads – circulating in London between 1583 and 1618, and representing murder as a powerful form of female subversion. Invaluable sources of information on English popular life, as well as on its moral codes, they show that the cases of women killers in domestic contexts were immediately given resonance, and that they were instrumentally used to reinforce social pressure and control. A Briefe Discovrse Of Two most cruell and bloudie murthers, committed bothe in Worcestershire (1583), A true discourse of a cruel and inhumaine murder, committed upon M. Padge of Plymouth, the 11th day of February last, 1591 (1591), The Bloudie Mother, or the most inhumaine Murthers (1609), and Deeds against Nature and Monsters by kinde (1614) are only some of the pieces of popular literature which will be considered, and which show that women’s choice to kill their husbands, lovers and children was their ultimate responses to oppressive moral judgment and constraints. Although, in fact, they were educated according to the strictest Christian precepts, and were considered dependent and passive by nature, they were apt to use violence to express their innermost needs, or hide their transgressions. Yet, women offenders were much fewer than men. Taking cues from the latest scholarly research in the field, the proposed paper will show that their cases – particularly those connected with petty treason and infanticides – were always paid special attention, and that there was no coincidence between crime figures and the level of popularity of that branch of cheap printed literature. Both attractive title pages and sensational narrative tones were instrumental in increasing readership, and served not only to convey ideals of morality, godly order, and doctrinal orthodoxy, but especially to reinforce the bases of (pre-) patriarchal society. Starting from significant passages in the above-mentioned texts, this paper will concentrate on women’s household violence as a form of escapism from oppressive moral norms, or a preconceived idea of coverture and will finally show how street culture and punishment were utilized to annihilate deviant gendered behaviours.

"Sundrye strange and inhumaine Murthers": Female Subversion and Punishment in Early Modern Crime News

D'Amore Manuela
2016-01-01

Abstract

Starting from the notion of street culture, and from the vast corpus of sensational crime news in early modern England, this paper concentrates on some anonymous writings – short narratives, pamphlets, and ballads – circulating in London between 1583 and 1618, and representing murder as a powerful form of female subversion. Invaluable sources of information on English popular life, as well as on its moral codes, they show that the cases of women killers in domestic contexts were immediately given resonance, and that they were instrumentally used to reinforce social pressure and control. A Briefe Discovrse Of Two most cruell and bloudie murthers, committed bothe in Worcestershire (1583), A true discourse of a cruel and inhumaine murder, committed upon M. Padge of Plymouth, the 11th day of February last, 1591 (1591), The Bloudie Mother, or the most inhumaine Murthers (1609), and Deeds against Nature and Monsters by kinde (1614) are only some of the pieces of popular literature which will be considered, and which show that women’s choice to kill their husbands, lovers and children was their ultimate responses to oppressive moral judgment and constraints. Although, in fact, they were educated according to the strictest Christian precepts, and were considered dependent and passive by nature, they were apt to use violence to express their innermost needs, or hide their transgressions. Yet, women offenders were much fewer than men. Taking cues from the latest scholarly research in the field, the proposed paper will show that their cases – particularly those connected with petty treason and infanticides – were always paid special attention, and that there was no coincidence between crime figures and the level of popularity of that branch of cheap printed literature. Both attractive title pages and sensational narrative tones were instrumental in increasing readership, and served not only to convey ideals of morality, godly order, and doctrinal orthodoxy, but especially to reinforce the bases of (pre-) patriarchal society. Starting from significant passages in the above-mentioned texts, this paper will concentrate on women’s household violence as a form of escapism from oppressive moral norms, or a preconceived idea of coverture and will finally show how street culture and punishment were utilized to annihilate deviant gendered behaviours.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11769/18965
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