The Politics of Female Alliance in Early Modern England (Women and Gender in the Early Modern World)

2018 Best Collaborative Project from the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women In the last thirty years scholarship has increasingly engaged the topic of women’s alliances in early modern Europe. __The Politics of Female Alliance in Early Modern England__ expands our knowledge of yet another facet of female alliance: the political. Archival discoveries as well as new work on politics and law help shape this work as a timely reevaluation of the nature and extent of women’s political alliances. Grouped into three sections—domestic, court, and kinship alliances—these essays investigate historical documents, drama, and poetry, insisting that female alliances, much like male friendship discourse, had political meaning in early modern England. Offering new perspectives on female authors such as the Cavendish sisters, Anne Clifford, Aemilia Lanyer, and Katherine Philips, as well as on male-authored texts such as __Romeo and Juliet__, __The Winter’s Tale__, __Swetnam the Woman-Hater__, and __The Maid’s Tragedy__, the essays bring both familiar and unfamiliar texts into conversation about the political potential of female alliances. Some contributors are skeptical about allied women’s political power, while others suggest that such female communities had considerable potential to contain, maintain, or subvert political hierarchies. A wide variety of approaches to the political are represented in the volume and the scope will make it appealing to a broad audience. Introduction -- The politics of women's "domestic" alliances. Distaff power: plebeian female alliances in early modern England / Bernard Capp -- Between women: slanderous speech and neighborly bonds in Henry Porter's The two angry women of Abington / Ronda Arab -- The political role of the gossip in Swetnam the woman-hater, arraigned by women / Megan Inbody -- Virtual and actual female alliance in The maid's tragedy and The tamer tamed / Niamh J. O'Leary -- Failed alliances and miserable marriages in Katherine Philips's letters / Elizabeth Hodgson -- Women's alliances and the politics of the court. Performing patronage, crafting alliances: ladies' lotteries in English pageantry / Elizabeth Zeman Kolkovich -- Tyrants, love, and ladies' eyes: the politics of female-boy alliance on the Jacobean stage Roberta Barker -- Her advocate to the loudest: Arbella Stuart and female courtly alliance in The winter's tale / Alicia Tomasian -- Not sparing kings: Aemilia Lanyer and the religious politics of female alliance / Christina Luckyj -- The politics of female kinship. Shakespeare revises Juliet, the nurse, and Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet / Steven Urkowitz -- Crossing generations: female alliances and dynastic power in Anne Clifford's great books of record / Jessica l. Malay -- Exilic inspiration and the captive life: the literary/political alliances of the Cavendish sisters / Jennifer Higginbotham -- Afterword / Susan Frye and Karen Robertson Cover 1 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Editors’ Introduction 14 Part 1 26 1. Distaff Power 28 2. Between Women 45 3. The Political Role of the Gossip in Swetnam the Woman-Hater, Arraigned by Women 61 4. Virtual and Actual Female Alliance in The Maid’s Tragedy and The Tamer Tamed 81 5. Failed Alliances and Miserable Marriages in Katherine Philips’s Letters 99 Part 2 118 6. Performing Patronage, Crafting Alliances 120 7. Tyrants, Love, and Ladies’ Eyes 139 8. Her Advocate to the Loudest 159 9. Not Sparing Kings 178 Part 3 196 10. Shakespeare Revises Juliet, the Nurse, and Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet 198 11. Crossing Generations 220 12. Exilic Inspiration and the Captive Life 238 Afterword 260 Contributors 272 Index 276