SPARE RIBS: The Conception of Woman in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

Author(s): MICHAEL W. KAUFMAN

Source: Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol. 56, No. 2 (Summer 1973), pp. 139-163
Published by: Penn State University Press
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SPARE RIBS:
The Conceptionof Womanin the Middle Ages
and the Renaissance

MICHAEL W. KAUFMAN

That remindsme of theold joke about the

femalesoul.Question,Have womena soul?
Answer,Yes. Question,Why?Answer,in
orderthattheymaybe damned.
-Samuel Beckett,Malloy

ARE VERY MUCH persuaded by historicalformulas.

The Enlightenment'sinvention of the Dark Ages still
evokes the image of brutishand benightedforcessystematically
reducingcivilizationtobarbarism.Not surprisingly, one popular
conclusionis thatmedieval women were uniformlysubjugated.
Such a judgment can not properly be said to have originated
at a specifictimeor place, but seems to have emerged as society
moved furtheraway from the Middle Ages. The persistence
of this mythof medieval woman's abject subordinationis par-
tiallyattributableto what maybe termedthe "masculine histori-
cal rationalization,"which assumes that modern women are
much betteroffwhen compared withthe miserablelot of their

Mr.Kaufmanhastaughtcoursesin Shakespeare,Renaissancedrama,Eng-
lish drama,and moderndrama at CornellUniversity. In the fall he will
of New York at Albany.He
move to a new post at the State University
has publishedessayson Shaw, Pinter,Ibsen, O'Casey, and Black theatre.

139

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140 SOUNDINGS

forebears, and itscorollary, the"maleargumentfromprogress,"

whichconcludesthat men are much more enlightenednow
whencomparedwiththe barbaricpracticesof theirancestors.
The more we get ourselvesto believethe sexual injusticesof
the "Dark Ages,"the morewe are able to persuade ourselves
of our own evolutionary progress.
Our image of the Middle Ages is chieflyinformedby its
literature, but rarelyhave we questioneditshistoricalvalidity.
This is the "literaryfallacy"BernardDeVoto has writtenof,
theerrorofassumingthatimaginative literature affordsa com-
plete and authentic interpretation of an age. As Plato under-
stood,Poetry(and by this term he meant to include all imagina-
tive literature) is feigned history,which is to say it
is merely an imitation of an illusion, and for this
reason,amongothers,he regardedliterature as suspect.Plato's
epistemological dilemmas are no longer compelling,but his
criticalsuspicionof literature is. The creativeimagination, like
the divineCreator,movesin mysterious ways, and part of that
mystery derivesfromthe consciousforeshortening thatart's
artificedemands.The literarytext,we mustremindourselves,
is nevera preciserecordof actuality.Even the mostrigorous
verisimilitude, as theword'setymology suggests,is an aesthetic
mode ratherthana sliceof reality, and once actualityhas been
refractedthroughtheprismof theartist'simaginationwe may
neverbe able to sorttruthfromseeming.
Still,if we take thisfeigningto involvenot onlythe artist's
consciousdistortionsbut his unconsciousprejudicesas well,
we begin to perceivethe dangersof formulating the climate
ofan age throughitsliterary. expressions alone.HippolyteTaine
was rightto declare that a writeris shaped by his milieu.
Nevertheless, Taine's conclusionthatliterature is thecollective
of
expression society failsto account for the unique personal
forceswhichcontrola writer's attitudestowardthelifehe por-
trays.Even the"fixedmasterpieces" are idiosyncratic products
of particularwaysof viewingtheworld,fictions indeliblyinflu-
enced by variablefactorssuch as class,religion,age, and sex.
DuringtheMiddleAgestheseunconsciousbiaseswerekeenly
operative.Then,almostwithoutexception,menofletterscame
fromtheintellectual aristocracy. The greatmajority of writers
were noblemenor clerks,eithermonasticsor secularscholars
attachedtocathedralchaptersand municipalschools.The intel-

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SPARE RIBS: THE CONCEPTION OF WOMAN 141

lectualaristocracy wasindistinguishable fromthesocialaristoc-

racy. Those who were literate
and fluent in Latin were from
theleisuredupperclasseswhichhad thetimeforan education
and the means to affordthe costlymanuscripts.And then,
almost withoutexception,men of letterswere men. Con-
sequently, the medievalliteraryscenedescribesa hermetically
closed circle:the literatiwroteto the literateand thiscoterie
wasAomogeneous in veryimportant ways.
Whatthismeansis thatthe conceptionof womanrevealed
in themedievalsatires,romances,and lyricpoemsreflectsthe
attitudesof a verysmall,male, aristocratic population.This
aristocracy,whichin Englandnumberedno morethan3% of
the population,was far outnumberedby the thirdestate-
freemenand villeinswhosedutyitwastorunthesmalldomestic
industriesin villagesand townsand to workthe land. What
wediscoverbycomparingtheimageofwomaninthearistocratic
literaturewiththe contemporaneousdocumentsand records
describingthe actuallifeof the vastthirdestateis a startling
discrepancybetweenthe viciouslyabusive or patronizingly
imagesand woman'sactualroleas the greater
idealizedliterary
part of the medieval worldunderstoodand acceptedher. By
thetimewe cometo thesixteenth centurytheRenaissancehad
done muchto closedownthatdiscrepantgap. As themedieval
agriculturaleconomygraduallyyieldedto Tudor mercantile
capitalism,and thecharacterofsocietybecamepervasively mid-
dle class,womanbecamean economiccipherand socialposses-
sion. Under the pressuresof the expandingmiddleclass and
theReformation idealshersubjectionwassolidifiedthroughout
theclass structure. Now the stereotyped literaryimagesmore
nearly accord with woman's drasticallyreduced rolein society.
II
Withinthediversity of medievalliterature
twodominantand
apparentlyincompatible attitudestoward women maybe dis-
The first
tinguished. attitudefindsclearexpressioninthesatires
ofJean de Meungand Matheolusand in the clericalwritings
whichfirstbegan appearingin profusionduringthe twelfth
century,characterizedby vicious,oftenhystericalmisogyny;
the second acquiresexemplaryformin the religiouscult of
Mariolatryand in itssecularizedversionof chivalrictalesand
of
lays courtly love,written,ifnotbyaristocrats,
thenforthem.

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142 SOUNDINGS
Betweenthem,the clergyand the aristocracy forma kindof
fatalantipodes,eithercynicallydebasing woman or blandly
idealizingherto oppositepoles of thesexualwheelof fortune.
No matterhowantithetical theseliterarytraditionsappear,both
eventuatefromsimilarstereotyping imaginations, unable, or
morelikely,unwilling toacceptwomanas a complexindividual.
The clericalwritings theromanticlyricsidealize;butboth
vilify,
conventionalize woman beyond the compass of dynamic
humanity.The importantthingto keep in mindis thatboth
clericand aristocrat,despite theirmutualantagonism,were
politically associated;bothlanded estateswere repositoriesof
a conservative ideologyand each in its own wayattemptedto
maintaintheestablishedbalanceof powerand domination.
Clericalanti-feminism should not at all be surprisingsince
fromits originsChristianity had been hostiletowardwomen.
Basing theirargumentson Genesisand the apostolictheory
ofwoman'sinferiority, theChurchFathersinsistedthatwoman
was createdof man and thereforeto serve him; thatit was
Eve who fell fromgrace and that initiallapse should teach
manthatwoman'ssubjectionis inherentin thenaturalscheme.
In theMiddleAgesclericalmisogyny againattainedremarkable
popularity. St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica- thatsplen-
did compendiumof Christianideology- puts the orthodox
argumentsuccinctly."Woman is naturallysubject to man
because in man the discretionof reason predominates."So
naturalis thiscondition,Thomas continues,"thatwoman is
subjectbyhernature,whilea slaveis not"(I, q. 92). The notion
of femalesubjectionwhichAquinas is statinghere had by the
thirteenth centurya long historyof evolutionbehind it. In
itsessentialsit was a legacyfromantiquity, but in itsvirulence
and prolixity ithad reacheda plateauinthepreviouscentury.
It is no accidentthattherecrudescence ofanti-feminism coin-
cideswiththeChurch'sdesperatereformmovementinstituted
byGregoryVII and carriedout in EnglandbyAnselm.Faced
withbittercriticismof the spreadingcorruptionwithinand
threatenedbya quickeningpopularpietywithout,theChurch
movedfirstto keepreligiouspowerout of thehandsof secular
princes,and thentoreform clericalbehaviorinordertomitigate
its growingreputation of decadence. To enforce priestly
abstinence,Geoffrey, Archbishopof Rouen, wentso faras to
threatenexcommunication to clericshaving"commercewith

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SPARE RIBS: THE CONCEPTION OF WOMAN 143

femalesofanydescription." Geoffrey's interdiction wasnotvery

successful,but it may serve to illustratethe covertlinksbetween
thedemandsforsacerdotalcelibacyand theChurch'smisogyny,
for one effectof the Gregorianreformswas the resurgence
of asceticideals whichprovideda congenialatmospherefor
theChurch'sreinvigorated anti-feminism. By equatingwoman
withinsatiablesexuality, irrationality,and demonictemptation,
theclergyembarkedon a propagandacampaign.To be sure,
the systematic defilementof womanwas intendedto win the
clergyback to celibacy.But additionally, bydesignating woman
as thesupremetemptress seducingmento disobedience,clerics
wereable to takea giantstridetowardrationalizing theirown
moralweakness.
Beneathits theologicalsurfacethe medievalChurch'smis-
ogynyrevealsa cynicalpoliticalstrategy intendedto undermine
women'sgrowinginfluence.Indeed,thefrequency and thevio-
lence of these attacksattestto the importanceof womenin
theecclesiastical hierarchy. Duringthetwelfth century,because
so manymenhadjoined thecrusades,becausenunnerieswere
theonlyalternative fornoblewomenwhocouldn'tor wouldn't
marry, because aristocratic
womenhad no othermeanstosatisfy
theirintellectualaspirations,more noble women than ever
beforehad takenreligiousorders.Whateverthe reasons,the
resultswerethatin Englandalone bytheend of thethirteenth
centurytherewere 138 nunneries,and prioressesand abbesses
werebecomingincreasingly visiblein thechurchhierarchy and
influentialin ecclesiasticalaffairs.
Whatwas even more ominousthan the numberof women
withinthe Church,however,was the risingtide of influential
womenattractedto the varioushereticalpietiesand mystical
movementswhich were exerting a mass influence. The
Béguines- groupsofwomenwholivedand worshipedtogether,
devoting themselves to good works- began in the Low
Countriesduringthe twelfthcentury.Neitherthe attacksof
theArchbishop ofMainznorAlbertusMagnushad beenable to
suppressthemand by the thirteenth centurybéguinageshad
spread tomost major citiesand many communities. Throughout
westernEuropeduringthetwelfth century centersofmysticism
developedwhichweremoldingthe thoughtof the population
and turningtheirattentionto popular piety.The conventof
Helftaproduceda successionoffemalemystics suchas Matilda

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144 SOUNDINGS
of Magdeburg,Saint Gertrudethe Great,and Saint Mechtild
of Hackeborn.And in the Rhinelandthe Friendsof God, led
bya Benedictinenun namedHildegardofBingen(1098-1179)
attractedsignificant followingsand in some instancespublicly
attackedthemaleecclesiastical hierarchy.1 Whateverproblems
the mysticalpietisticmovementsaddressed,the Churchpre-
ferredto viewthempolitically - merelyas heterodoxieswhich
threatenedthe masculineecclesiasticalhierarchy.In the mis-
ogynieliterature churchmen movedunderthecloakofreligious
zeal to solidifytheirpowerfulpositionin medievalsociety.By
emphasizingwoman'sevil and seductivepowersthe Church
modulatedfroma theologicaloutlookto a politicalprocedure
thathad as itspragmaticgoal puttingwomanbackin herplace.
During the twelfthcentury,at about the same timeas the
growingclericalanti-feminism, therearose the ritesof courtly
love in thecoteriesof Eleanorof Aquitaineand her daughter,
Mariede Champagne.In the classicarticulation of thisgenre
the male lover passionatelydesiresan exceedinglybeautiful
and perfectwoman whose emotionalaloofnessand marital
statusmakeherseemhopelesslyinaccessible. The lover,despite
his frustration, cannotquell his fascinationand continuesto
render faithfulserviceto his high-mindedlady. She recip-
rocates,notbygrantinghimtheamorousrewardhe so desper-
atelycraves,but byapprovinghisconductand reassuringhim
of his worth.This love ritual,whichmostscholarsnow agree
does notreflect themoresofactualsocialconduct,2 wascodified
by Andreas Capellanus, himself a court chaplain,3and found
expression in numerous Provencal lyrics.
Whileit is true,as A. J. Denomyand othershave pointed
out,thatitis "impossibleto reconcilethetenetsof courtlylove
withthe commandmentsof God ... as interpretedby Saint
Paul,"4thereis a residualspiritualityin theamorouscult.The
philosophicalpremise of thisliterature is thatlove is a state
ofthesoul,notofthebody,and thatitssatisfaction is genuinely
emotionaland spiritual, notappetitive.* As a result,thepoetry

* Andreas betweentwo kindsof love,one pure, the other

distinguishes
mixed. It is the pure love whichbinds togetherthe heartsof the lovers
witheveryfeelingof delight.Pure love consistsof thecontemplation of the
mindand theaffection of the heart;it goes onlyso faras the kissand the
embracebetweennude lovers,omitting the finalsolace,forthatis not per-
mittedto thosewhowishto love purely.

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SPARE RIBS: THE CONCEPTION OF WOMAN 145

and later the codifiedlove ritesdescribea relationbetween

lady and devoteethathad nothingto do withvulgar,trivial,
physicalsatisfactions, and mostcertainlynothingto do with
thosesociallyacknowledgeddutiessuchas marriage,domestic
cares,procreation,and child-rearing. In thesecourtsof love
illicit,adulterous assignationsunderlaythe relationship, and
theobjectwaspreeminently themalelover'sspiritualascension;
inspiredby lady'sbeautyand nobility,
the he becomesennobled
in beneficence, valor,and worth - what a latergenerationwas
to call cortezia.
Woman as the idealized incarnation of beauty,
as the objectof contemplation, as the springboardfor man's
spiritual ascension,these are the conceptualfociof thisgenre.
What is generallyrecognizedand oftenrehearsed about
feudalaristocratic societyis thatmarriagewas a brutallyprag-
maticcontractof economicand class advancementwhichin
almosteverycasefavoredthemale.Itwasimperative fora noble-
a
man, knight, or even a to
youngaspirant knighthood to mar-
ryforstatusandproperty. Since marriage was an institutionalized
meansofupwardsocialmobility, womenwerefrequently "sold"
to thelowernobility or urbanaristocracy or, in extremecases,
to the wealthier strata of the peasantry. In this state of
hypogamy, witheach downwardstep on the socialladder the
womanwouldinherittheinferiorstatusof her husband.Con-
sequentlymarriagesatisfiedneitherher romanticaspirations
nor herdesireforsocialmobility, and earlyin thetwelfth cen-
tury,as contemporary chronicles, sermonsand satiresindicate,
theinstitution ofmarriagebegantobreakdownand adulterous
liaisonsproliferated.
It shouldbe clearfromsuch a socialcontextthatthecourtly
love literature was fundamentally a fancifulrebelliousness. In
a societyin whicharistocratic womenwere deprivedof their
individuality, denied even the satisfactions of romanticfulfill-
mentor socialascendancy,theliterarycultof illicitlove acted
as an imaginative displacement, undermining onlyin itsfictions
the patriarchaldominance of feudal society.The inverted
mythology in whichthe womanbecomesthe dominatinglord
and themanplaystheenslavedvassalis thecreationoffantasy.*

* In so muchof the courtlypoetrythe lady seems all-powerful;she is

thelord; theloveris her "vassal"or "man."Guirautde Bornelhcomplains
of his lady'scrueltyand wisheshe wereblestwitha "good lord." Bernart

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146 SOUNDINGS
In the literaturethe womenharmlesslyrevengedthemselves
on theirmen,who,in turn,generouslyallowedthemto gratify
theirsexual and socialinclinationsin lyricfantasiesspun with
the utmostdetail around their superiority;as one twelfth-
centurycommentator remarked:"theladies enjoybeingcon-
stantly wooed, and findit so gratifyingto deny."
In thissort of fantasizingno one is seriouslythreatened,
and themocksubversionofrealityreflects moretheimpossibil-
ity of actual subversionthan anything else. But thereis still
a more serious aspect to courtlyliterature.For a class that
depended so stronglyupon legitimateoffspring upon whom
the feudalestatescould be legallybestowedin unbrokenpat-
rilineardescent,therisingincidenceofadulteryand illegitimacy
had to be controlled. Thus the illicitand franklysensual
impulsesof thisamorousliterature servedto createa sublimat-
ingbufferdisplacingextramarital passionsto ritualratherthan
reality.
Ill
If thepreponderanceof medievalliterature polarizeswoman
eitherto sinfulsensuality
or spiritualsublimity, theimpression
gained from the contemporaneous documents - gild by-laws,
legal proceedings,bishops' recordsand a few extantfamily
- is thatwomenof the thirdestate- whatJohnof Salis-
letters
burydescribedas "the feetof the Commonwealth" - enjoyed
a practicalequality.Among the upper ranks,feudal ties of
vassalage dictatedhuman relations.Since these institutions
dependedexclusively on military thebusi-
and politicalservices,
nessand interestof thefeudalhierarchy wereexclusively mas-
culineand the importantrelationswerecorporate.But where
peopleareboundtothesoilinthestaticagrarianworld,mobility
and the social prestigethatattachesto power were not real
possibilitiesfor most.What was real, however,was a closely
knitextendedkinshipstructureamong the lowerclassesthat
existedas the dominantmatrixforindividualrelationships.5

de Ventadorndeclares,"I am yourvassalpledgedand sworn,"and Andreas

assertsthattheloveris always"theservantand friendand slaveto hislady."
See Sidney Painter,FrenchChivalry:ChivalricIdeas and Practicesin Medieval
France(London, 1940), p. 106: "The Noblewomanwas completelysubject
to her husband,. . . but in the literary
conventions of chivalricand courtly
love she was notherlord'sinferior, butequal to or superior."

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SPARE RIBS: THE CONCEPTION OF WOMAN 147

Thus whilethe aristocracy forgedan extensiveland-holding

economy and a socialsystemwhichmaximizedsexualdivision
of labor,mostof the populationowned littleand depended
on communalrelationsfortheirsustenance.
These socio-economic demandedthatthelowerclasses
factors
"a
develop greater sense of the normalpersonality of woman
than . . . eitherthe aristocracyor the church."6Simone de
Beauvoirconcludesthat"commoninterestbrought[husband
and wife}togetherand raised the wifeto the rank of com-
panion. . . . Husband and wifelived on a footingof equality
in smallruralcommunities amongfellowlaborers.In freelabor
womanfounda realautonomybecausesheplayedan economic
and socialpartofrealimportance."7 In thevillageswherethere
was no strictdivisionof labor womenworkedthe fieldsside
by side withmen; in townsand citieswherehandicrafts and
domesticindustriespersistedthroughthe fifteenth century,
manufacturing and merchandizing offoodswerestillessentially
carriedoutat home.Simplyput,formostofthemedievalworld
the economiclifewas an integralpart of the household;the
familywas theproductiveeconomicunitand all werepartners
in thebusinessof survival.
Because the feudal structurewas so literallyhomocentric,
dominatedby the warrioraristocrat, the preservation of mas-
culinemilitary power was crucialto itssurvival.By theeleventh
century,as fiefswere becominghereditary,the aristocracy
developedthe rule of primogeniture, the descentof property
to the eldestmale. Primogeniture applied to all feudal land,
for its principalpurposeswere to avoid the breakup of the
familypatrimony, to furthertheconcentration of wealth,and
to keep strategicand lucrativemilitary fiefsin male hands.8
In theshiresand townships, bycontrast, wherefeudalmilitary
powerwas not an influentialfactor,inheritancewas more a
matterof familyrelationships. Amongtheselowerclasses,as
G. C. Homans pointsout, "theimmediatefamilywas favored
at the expense of ... the aristocratic traditionof descentin
thestrictmaleline."9
Even more impressiveare the juridical distinctionsthat
existedbetweenclasses.Whilearistocratic womenwereconsid-
ered minorsat best,chattelat worst,womenof thethirdestate
wereaccordedmarkedlybettertreatment beforethe law. An
undisputed formula of the feudal tradition, embodiedin the

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148 SOUNDINGS

emergingcommonlaw of the twelfthcentury,decreed that

womencould not marrywithouttheconsentof theirlord and
thatthewifeshouldbe subjectto herhusband'swill.According
to Plantagenetlaw women could not testifyin court except
in cases wherea husbandwas murderedin thewife'spresence
or in cases of rape. But thosejuridicialrecordsthatcoverpeti-
tionsand actionsbeforethe King's curia and administrative
officers- thatbodyof boroughlaw thatwas to becomeEquity
in thesixteenth century - lower-class womenactivelyprotected
theirlegal rightsto propertyownershipand frequently won
disputes with their husbands. In their monumental Historyof
theEnglishLaw, Pollock and Maitlandreveal this significant
discrepancy betweenthefeudallegalcodesand theactualprac-
ticesamong the middleand lowerclasses."Canon law," they
write,"giveswomanno rightsand exactsfromher no duties
save thatof payingtaxesand performing such servicesas can
be performedbyDeputy.Privatelaw,withfewexceptions,put
womenon a par withmen."10And theyconclude:
We cannotevenwithinthesphereof property law explainthe
marital relationship the as
among citizenrybeingsimply thesubjec-
tionof thewifeto herhusband'swill.He constantly needsher
concurrence, andthelawtakescarethatsheshallhaveanopportun-
ityof freely refusing herassentto hisacts.To thiswe mustadd
that. . . thereis a latentideaofcommunity between husbandand
wifewhichcannotbe suppressed or ignored.11
The argumentthatthe medievalwomanof the thirdestate
sharedthe crucialdecision-making processesof her economic
and socialexistenceis strengthened by the fewextantrecords
of the gild proceedings.In a volume of originaldocuments
publishedby the EarlyEnglishText Society,the nineteenth-
centuryhistorianToulmin Smithaccumulated a wealth of
materialreflecting whathe quaintlycalled theancientpractice
of communalassociationthatexistedamongthecommonfolk
whichhad "alwaysworkedwell tillforciblymeddled with."12
Allthedocumentsare from1389,whenRichardII's parliament
called upon "every brethernand sisternin every shire of
England"to reporton the nature,governance,and practices
of theirgilds.
Of thefivehundredgildsthatrespondedonlyfivewerenot
composedbothof menand women.(Onlytwogildslistedtheir
membershiprolls by name, and in one instancethere were

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SPARE RIBS: THE CONCEPTION OF WOMAN 149

morewomenthanmen).Mostofthegildsweresocialorganiza-
tionswhoseprimaryfunction waspreparingforand participat-
ing in the feastdays. In these cases women'sparticipationis
not surprising.But even in the religiousgilds whereaffairs
weremanagedbypriests, womenwereadmittedas laymembers.
Occasionally,as in the case of the Hull gild of the Blessed
Virginand theGildof CorpusChristi,womenhelpedto found
the organization.Mostsignificantly, gildsof
of the eighty-five
craftmostadmittedwomen,allowing them equal opportunities
and applyingto them equal penaltiesthat the by-lawspre-
scribed:theyelected officersand participatedin feastdays,
and couldbe suedfordebtsand punishedformisdeeds.Several
of thosecraftgildsthatdid notoriginally acceptwomenmade
exceptionsforwidowswhosehusbandshad been gild-brothers.
In othergildsthereseemsto havebeen legitimate reasonswhy
womenwere excluded,usuallyconnectedwiththe natureof
theoccupation.The Young Scholars,forexample,wereprob-
ablystudying forthepriesthood;theshipmen,smiths, and cord-
wainersengagedin verystrenuousphysicalwork.
The important positionthatwomenheld in SouthernEuro-
pean societiesof the eleventhcenturyhas been describedby
Herliby.13EileenPowerhas thisto sayofthefreedomafforded
womentradersand thefemmasole,and describesthe degree
of independencelower-class womenexperienced:
A glanceat any manorial"extent"willshow womenvilleinsand
cotterslivingupon theirlittleholdingsand renderingthe same
servicesfor themas men; some of theseare widows,but many
of themare obviouslyunmarried.. . . Womenperformedalmost
everykindof agriculturallabour,withtheexceptionof the heavy
businessof ploughing.They oftenacted as thatcher'sassistants,
and on manymanorstheydid thegreaterpartof sheep-shearing,
whilethe care of the dairyand of the smallpoultrywas always
in theirhands.14
In the towns women also possessed a degree of economic
independence and were crucial to the growingclothindustries:
Of the fivehundredcraftsscheduledin EtienneBoileau'sLivre
des Métiersin medievalParis,at least fivewere theirmonopoly,
and in a large numberof otherswomenwere employedas well
as men. ... In all the greatcloth-working Florence,the
districts,
Netherlands,England, women are to be found carryingout the
preliminary processes of the manufacture. Spinningwas,indeed,
theregularoccupationof all womenand the "spinster's" habitual

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150 SOUNDINGS
meansofsupport. . . Otherfood- producingandtextileindustries
werealsolargely practised
by them,and domestic
servicesprovided
a careerformany.15
The womenof London were knownto be engaged in at least
a hundred different occupations; they were master
craftswomen, teachers,doctors,and merchants.The Calendar
ofLetterBooksmentions womenbarbers,apothecaries, armorers,
shipwrights, tailors,spurriers,and water-bearers. This is not
to saythattheMiddleAgeswasa periodofidyllicsexualparity;
but the factsdo suggestthatwomenof the lowerestatesdid
have a relativelyfree and creativescope for expressiondue
in largemeasureto theirproductivecontributions in thesocial
and economicworld.
Their aristocratic counterparts faredverydifferently, how-
ever. They were excluded,of course,fromthe militaryand
politicalaffairsof the feudal hierarchy,and rarelyattained
thehonorific powerpositionsoftheirsociety.Becausenoblemen
were exclusivelyresponsiblefor acquiringhonor and wealth,
theirwomenweredrastically inferior,theirfortunesand labor
legallyand customarily acceptedas belongingto themen.And
sincethe aristocracy depended on propertyas the continuing
of its
symbol status, womenbecame the primaryvehiclefor
malestatusclimbing, themeanstotheend ofmaintaining name
and inheritanceintact.But as the economicbasis of society
graduallybegantoshiftduringthelaterMiddleAgestheemer-
gingmiddleclassesgaveevidenceofapingtheirbetters.Of this
tendencythe Ménagierde Paris is the presidingspirit.The
book he addressed to his child bride providesample proof
of howthewomenof thehautebourgeoisie werebecomingsocial
ornamentsand fixtures in thehome.Withouta functional role
in the labor force,the upperclasswomanno longercounted,
and an earlyconsequenceof this new attitudewas that she
becamemerelya domesticslaveand a reproductive agent.

IV
The forcesthatgave riseto the Renaissanceradicallytrans-
formedmostaspectsof Englisheconomicand sociallife.The
changefroman agrariancommunity to an urbanmarketplace
helped to accelerate and extend woman's subjugation.The
enclosuremovement, forexample,whichallowedrichlandlords

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SPARE RIBS: THE CONCEPTION OF WOMAN 151

to appropriatecommonpasturelands forsheep grazing,left

thousandswithout land tocultivate. The bankruptedyeomanry
were forced tomigrate to thecities,creatinga prodigioussurplus
oflaborforEngland'sfledgling industries. Similarly, thedecline
of domesticindustriestook manufacturing and trade out of
thehomeandvillageand broughtcommerceundertheefficient,
centralizedauthorityof a relativelysmall but powerfulclass
of merchants. As a resultof the surplusforceof yeomenand
the drasticconstrictionof manufacturingwomen became
economically expendable;as a competitive threatto masculine
employment theywereamongthefirst tobe exiledtotheperiph-
ery of thisnew mercantile world.
The same changesthathad weakenedthe medievalvillage
economyworkedto transform the structureof familylife as
well.As mercantile capitalism withitsemphasison privateprop-
erty and individual acquisitiondestroyedthe fabricof the
medievalcommunity, so thenuclearfamily, advocatingprivacy
and self-sufficiency, replacedthe extendedkinshipunit.And
it was the nuclearfamilythatprovedto be the bastionof the
patriarchalideology,servingas a conservative counterto the
otherwise liberalizing spiritof theage. The nuclear family,Ben-
jamin De Mott has written,was the achievement of the middle
class,butitwasaccomplishedat a verygreatprice.By fostering
theindividualism of thefamilyit simultaneously destroyedthe
formsofconnectedness and signaledtheend ofopen communi-
cationamonggenerationsand classes.16Whetherthe nuclear
familydestroyedhumansolidarity is questionable,butit seems
safe to assume thatit did drastically reduce woman'srole in
society. Now her former economic and social responsibilities,
whichhad helpedsustaintheentiremedievalcommunity, were
confinedto thehome.
In the Protestantrevolutionthe bourgeoisie found their
naturalally.Protestantism shapedand wasshapedbythemater-
ial needsoftheneweconomicorder.Reformation leadersvigor-
ously asserted the of
rights private property, dignified hard
work,and glorified theactivitiesofbusiness.If Calvinpreached
a grimdoctrineofelection,theEnglishmiddleclassingeniously
assimilated itintotheirWeltanschauung, rationalizing wealthand
successas thevisiblesignsofsalvation.The samespiritofProtes-
tantismsanctifiedthe bourgeoisie'seffortto keep woman in
the home. For middleclass men busilyaccumulatingmaterial

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152 SOUNDINGS

goods and worrying aboutthemeansto perpetuatethem,pro-

creationwasessentialforprocuringan heir,and chastity neces-
sary to ensure its legitimacy.Thus did German and English
religiousreformers lead the generalProtestant assaulton the
Catholicdoctrineofcelibacy.Theypubliclychampionedmarri-
age as a worthyhumaninstitution and divinesacramentintend-
ed to bringforthchildren.Whiletheyexaltedmarriage,how-
ever, middle-classwritersand Reformationpreachers still
retainedtheCatholicthemesofwoman'sweaknessand irrespon-
sibility.But theyemployedthem no longer merelyto stress
her moralweakness,but tojustifytheirargumentthatwoman
is man'ssubordinateand her properspherethehome.
Duringthe last quarterof the sixteenthcenturya flood of
domesticconductbookstreatedtheproblemsoffamilygovern-
mentand good housekeeping.17 The themesattractedsome
ofthebestmindsofEurope; menlikeAgrippa,Erasmus,Vives,
and Bullingerpublishedtheirversionsof theideal household.
Thomas Becon'sBookofMatrimony e, publishedin England in
1561,18is typicalof the genre.Like countlessotherwritersof
domestictreatises,Becon insiststhatthe foremostdutyof the
husbandand wifeis to begetchildren.Becon definesthe hus-
band's dutiesas provisionand defense,assigningto the wife
obedienceand fidelity. Geoffrey FentonagreeswithBecon that
the husband'sspecialauthority is to govern,and goes on the
describethe wife"as the inferiorpart of her husband[who]
is thereforesubjectto all dutifulobedienceon his behalf,and
bound to honor him withno worsetermsthan by the name
of lord and master."19 Fenton'sdescriptionof the husbandas
masterand the wifeas servantmakes explicitthe profound
role differentiation and sexual hierarchythebourgeoisfamily
nurtured.It was the man who busied himselfaccumulating
wealthand acquiringhonorwhilehiswomanremainedat home
thriftilyhoardinghis richesand rearinghis heirs.The specific
detailsof this divisionof labor may be found in numerous
Renaissancemaritalhandbooks,but nowhereis the idea ex-
pressedin such vividtermsas in Henrie Smith'sremarkable
barnyardanalogy:
The husbandisthecockeandthewifeis thedam:thecockeflieth
abroadto bringin, and thedam sitteth upon thenestto keep
allathome.Fortheman'spleasureismostabroadandthewoman's
within.20

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SPARE RIBS: THE CONCEPTION OF WOMAN 153

The veryfactthatso manytreatises on familygovernancewere

produced,and insucha formulaic waythattheycreatea conven-
tion,atteststo thegeneralacceptanceof thisdivisionof labor.
Suchan unequaldelegationofresponsibility createda situation
in whichwomenwereforcedto relyexclusively on theirhus-
bands. In practicaltermsthisdependencymeantthatshe had
no alternativebut to accept her husband'ssupervisionand
authority.
The condescensionof Renaissancewriterstowardwomenis
so palpable thatit seems surprisingwhen we rememberthat
theirmonarchwas a queen. Elizabeth'sdaily presencemust
have createdsome tensionsand not a littleembarrassment to
themasculineapologists.Because of her accomplishedleader-
ship and her fablederudition,the successfulmilitary expedi-
tionsshe authorized,her bold backingof Drake and Raleigh
and the voyagesof exploration,and her craftyhandlingof
a recalcitrantcourt,Elizabethembodied,howeveruneasily,the
epitome of Renaissance virtù;she was a livingexampleof the
"great man." But as career womanand virginElizabethwas
an affront and hervanityand growing
tomasculinesensibilities,
paranoia seemed royalexamplesof feminineirrationality. It
is not surprising,therefore, thatthe firsttwodecades of her
reignproducedthe mostprolificrash of satireson woman's
in the historyof thatsub-genre.21
frailities Nor is it hard to
understandwhyElizabeth'ssuccessor, JamesI, despisedwomen
and wantedthemback in thehome.
Nowsurelytheseare generalizations; Englanddid notawaken
one day to findthe Renaissancedawningoutside,nor did the
middleclass suddenlyrear its head in the sixteenthcentury.
The changeinwoman'spositionisgradualandthehistoriograph-
ie problemsmustbe obvioushere. But what I thinkis clear
is thatbetweenthe twelfth and the sixteenthcenturiesfunda-
mentalchangeswere takingplace in the social structureof
Englishlife,and thatto a verygreatextentthesechangeswere
the result of a radical economic transformationfromthe
medievalprimary economytotheRenaissancemoneyeconomy.
For mypurpose,thisshiftmeanta more restricted and sub-
jugatedposition for women. With the highpriority middle
the
classplaced on ascendingstatusand accumulating wealth,and
theaxiomaticobsessionwithlineageand unbrokenfamilialdy-
nasty,the majorityof Renaissancewomen became glorified

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154 SOUNDINGS
domesticmanagersand procreativefunctionaries. Now, in a
muchmoreubiquitouswaythanithad beenin medievalculture,
sexismwaspartoftheentirecastestructure. Middle-classwriters
took over fromthe depleted clergyin proclaimingwoman's
and
stressingher pride, fickleness,irrationality,
inferiority,
extravagance.Or theytookto praisingmaritalblissand exhort-
ingwoman tofulfill
her"divine"function toprocreate.In either
case bearingand rearingchildrenand efficiently maintaining
the home were her "natural"tasksin the bourgeoisideology.

V
EnglishRenaissanceliterature is incrediblyrichand diverse,
perhapsthe greatestefflorescence of the human imagination
in Westerncivilization.Despite its rich however,its
diversity,
underlying and consistentconception of woman is not much
different fromthatof the Middle Ages: she is stillan object,
eitherofspiritualcontemplation or ofsexualsubservience. The
dramaticpolaritiesof theseattitudesare clearlyexpressedin
twoof thedominatingmodesof Elizabethanlove poetry.The
firstis the Petrarchanlyric,wherethe Neoplatonizedcult of
love parallels the medieval courtly romancers' spiritual
apotheosisof woman. The second is Ovidian eroticpoetry,
"borderedwithbulls and swans,"followingthe Latin poet in
deployingOlympianmyths,givinga sortof divineembellish-
menttothedeliciousjoysofsexualunion,all thewhileextolling
the libertinecredo thatwomenweremade formen'spleasure
and describingthesureand easysuccessof a manwitha maid.
ChristopherMarlowe's"Hero and Leander,"one of the best
poems in thistradition,providesan ironicperspectiveon the
coy,chastemistress of thesonnetsas wellas an unusualinsight
intothe natureof pastoralpleasures:
Andthenhe wooedwithkisses, and at last
As shepherds do,heron thegroundhe laid,
Andtumbling intothegrass,he oftenstrayed
Beyondtheboundsofshame,inbeingbold
To eyethosepartswhichno eyeshouldbehold.
No extendedanalysisof the sexual attitudesimplicitin this
kind of poetryis necessary;the RenaissanceOvidian poems
existin the same traditionas the medievalpastourelle, where
theactorswerenotshepherdsand shepherdesses butchevaliers

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SPARE RIBS: THE CONCEPTION OF WOMAN 155

and peasant girls.Except that the characteristicwitand metric

energyis lacking,this medievalpastourellecould be Marlowe's:
Whenmywooingbroughtme nought
On thegroundI laid her straight,
Liftedup herprettydress
And seeingherwhitenakedness
Burnedall themore
And taughtherlove'slore;
Nor did she sayme nay
But delightedin theplay.
The carpediemseduction theme which appears in exemplary
waysin Renaissance poems otherwiseas diverse as "The Shep-
herd's Complaint," "Venus and Adonis," "Delia," "Gather Ye
Rosebuds," and "To a Coy Mistress," poems we usually
anthologizeand read quite apart fromtheirattitudinalcontext,
maximizes the notion of woman as a sexual functionand, as
Marlowe'swrywitmakes clear,reduces her to a pastoral nymph.
But to the formerpoetic convention- the Elizabethan sonnet
and itsso-calledRenaissance Platonism- letme make some pass-
ing remarks.It was Marsilio Ficino, grand scholar of the court
of Lorenzo the Magnificent,who firsttranslatedPlato intoLatin
and saw the potential bridge between the two irreconcilable
notions of love popular during the Middle Ages, the one an
adulterous love of a beautiful woman, the other the ascetic,
spirituallyupliftinglove of God untaintedby physicalpassions.
The way Ficino understood the Symposium was that love was
a progression from the body to the soul, the physical to the
spiritual,the natural to the divine; a constantascension from
mundane beauty to heavenly Beauty. And within Ficino's
paradigm of a Platonized ladder, woman constituteda rung.
Her essential value, indeed her raisond'etre,was her symbolic
functionas a thingof beauty,to borrow Keats' phrase.
In England thisNeoplatonism,acquired throughDante, Pet-
rarch, and Ronsard, found its way into numerous sonnets in
thelastdecade of the sixteenthcentury.The bestof these sonnet
sequences, like Sidney'sAstropheland Stella,developed the poet's
dramaticstrugglebetweenpromptingsof sexual fulfillment and
yearnings for spiritual purity.At the ideational center of the
-
sequence was a Stella, Celia, Delia, or Lesbia that idealized
lady, the abstractof all virtues: meekness, constancy,beauty,
and, of course, chastity.Lyrically,the golden-haired, white-

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156 SOUNDINGS

skinned,ruby-lipped, long-necked, slope-shouldered lady*was

the center;but dramatically and essentially the singerand not
the lady was the singleobject of investigation. It is he who
enjoyssingularautonomy, expropriating alltheinterest himself.
If Astrophelexpressessincerity and promisesto look into his
heartbeforewriting, thatsincerity is reflexive,concernedonly
withhis own emotionalturmoil.Trapped betweenpassionate
desireand moralcompunctions, Astrophelis investedwiththe
complexities and ambivalences of a livingcreature,capable of
making choices,tortured by that verynecessity,while Stella
remainsa shadowyabstractioncondemned to a marmoreal
imprisonment withinthe sexual and literaryconventionsthat
rigidlydefineher. The conventionalroles in the Elizabethan
sonnetcontributeto definefeminity as passiveand simplistic,
whilemasculinity emergesdynamic complex.In thehands
and
of lesser poets the sonnetbecomes simplythe occasion for
measuringmasculinevitality,a self-reflexive, onanisticself-
aggrandizement: Daniel's Delia, not surprisingly, is almostan
anagramof his own name.
The singleliteraryworkof thisperiodwhichcomesclosestto
the
expressing predominating conceptionsof womanis Shake-
speare'sTheTamingof Shrew,writtenduringthe heightof
the
thepopularcontroversy overwomen.TheShrewis a playabout
marriage,middle-classstyle.It is the men who as tradersat
themarketplace,in thevocabularyofcommercialtransactions,
bickeroverthepurchaseof theirwomen,and once concluding
theirbusinessclaimtheirexclusivepossession.Petruchio,who
announcesthathe has come "to wiveit wealthily"in Padua,
negotiateswithBaptistaover Katherine'sdowry(Il.i.l 14-27)
and,havingsettledtheobligatory economicmatters, legitimately
exerciseshis rightsof privateproperty."I will be masterof
whatis myown,"PetruchiowarnsKatherine,and thenreminds
the weddinggueststhat "she is my goods, my chattels;she
is myhouse,myhorse,myox, myass,myanything!" (III.ii.225-
27). Petruchio'swords serve as a forcible reminder of theweight

* Thesecataloguesitemizing intoconven-
thelady'scharmsquicklypetrified
tionalexpression.The graphiewhichstartedat her hair and terminated at
herfeetprovideda topographical mapoftheladyofsurprising detail.Shake-
theonebeginning
speare'ssonnetstothe"darklady,"particularly "Mymistress'
eyes are nothinglike the sun,"depend on thisconventionfortheirironic
effect.

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SPARE RIBS: THE CONCEPTION OF WOMAN 157

ofauthoritybehindthepossessiveattitudetowardwomenwhich
theyexpress.The removalof womanfromthe home of her
familyand hertransferrai tothehomeofthemanwhosedomes-
ticated servantshe becomes is embodied in the ceremony
anthropologists call "purchaseof theright."Such an economic
transactionand woman'ssubsequentdomesticreification-akin
tothepurchaseofcattle,fromwhichthewordchatteletymologi-
callyderives-is the foundationof the patriarchalfamily,the
fundamental institution upon whichmale supremacyis based.
Whatis so striking aboutTheShrewis Shakespeare'scareful
juxtaposition of two radicallyconflicting attitudestowardcourt-
ship and domestic relations.Petruchio's brutallypracticalsense
of marriageas an economicmergerand an efficient business
throwssharpcontraston thesubplotwherea triadofidealizing
suitorselevateBianca to a romanticpedestal.The different
impulsesbetweenthe courtshipslead withthe sureness of
inevitabilityto the drasticallydifferingresultsof the marital
relationships,stressingwitha puritanicaldidacticismthe con-
stantoppositionbetweenromantic idealizingand conjugalpart-
nership. Romantic love may be an emotionally compellingpas-
sion,butit has littleto do withthepracticalbusinessof getting
on in the world*;indeed, it is bound to distortthe proper
orderof a household.
AlthoughTheShrewis primarily a playthatextolsthemiddle-
of
classmarriage convenience, itis also interestingas a redaction
of two long-held masculine myths about woman: the
Shrewand thePatientGriselda.Whatevertheirpreciseorigin,
probablygoing back to the contrastbetweenPenelope and
Clytemnestra in Greek literature,these femininestereotypes
emergedfromthe medievalsatireson the sex, representing
two aspectsof the querelledesfemmes. The meek,submissive
Griseldaepitomizedthe ideal of propermasculinedominance
and wifelyobedience,whilethe Shrewdidacticallyservedto
presentthe consequencesof "unnatural"domesticrelations.
♦JulietMitchell,"The LongestRevolution,"NewReview(Nov.-Dec, 1966),
pointsoutthatmonogamy
p. 15.Mitchell precedestheidea oflovein Western
culture."The two[notions]have subsequently been officiallyharmonized,
but thetensionbetweenthemhas neverbeen abolished.There is a formal
betweenthevoluntary,
contradiction contractual characterof 'marriage'and
thespontaneous, characterof love'- thepassionthatis celeb-
uncontrollable
ratedpreciselyforitsinvoluntaryforce."This seemsto be theeffectof the
plotjuxtapositionin TheShrew.

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158 SOUNDINGS

Shakespeare's singular achievementwas to recognize the

inherentcomedyin bringingtheseconventionaltypestogether
and, perhaps even more importantly, to presentthe Shrew
and the Griselda as merelytwo related creationsof male-
dominatedsociety. t
Fromtheoutsetoftheplay,whenBaptistaattempts toauction
Katherinein marriage,Shakespeareunderscorestheseemingly
radicaldifference betweentheMinólasisters.In dramaticcon-
trastwithKatherine'sunnaturalaggressiveness, Bianca has the
natural attributesof meekness and passivitytraditionally
associatedwiththe patientGriselda. In her acquiescenceto
her father'swill Hortensiosees a "jewel"; and in her silence
Lucentiofinds"a maid'smildbehaviorand sobriety." Together
the sistersrepresentoppositeextremesof the createdorder.
Katherineis persistently equated withthe subnaturaiand the
devilish;Bianca existson the supranaturallevel of the gods:
in her speech Lucentiohears the wisdomof Minerva,and in
her facesees thebeautyof Lena. But,of course,thecharacter
contrastis onlyapparent,preparingforthe stunningreversal
of thelastscene,wherethe shrewishKatherineemergesmeek
and obedientand themildBiancarevealsherdomesticrebellion.
Thus the subplotrelatesto the main plot as a cautionary
warning.Preciselyfromthe way that Petruchiotames the
unnaturalKatherineand createsthe perfectly naturalsubmis-
sivewife,weare meantto understandhowit thattheidolizing
is
loversofthesubplottransform Biancafroma meekand dutiful
daughter to a whimsical mistress,and then disastrously into
an unnatural shrew. And the consequences of Bianca's
metamorphosis are appropriatelyrealized in her double act
of disobedience:herclandestinemarriagewithouther father's
consent,and her rebelliousassertionof independence,which
costsLucentio100 marks.The lessonis broughthome to the
middle-class audience:allowyourwomenliberty, worshipthem
withlavishpraise,let authorityand controllapse, and they
willreturnsuch unnaturalness in kind.

t Althoughthereare manyplaysthatemploytheseconventional feminine

stereotypes
singly,Shakespeareseemstohavebeenthefirsttocombinethem.
Only afterthe appearanceof The Shrewdo the two stockfiguresappear
in thesameplay.Dekker'sTheHonestWhoreand Dekker,Chettle,Haughton's
ThePatientGrisselcombinethesemotifsand are bothobviouslyindebtedto
Shakespeare.

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SPARE RIBS: THE CONCEPTION OF WOMAN 159

Petruchio,under no such dangerous delusions,shrewdly

embarkson the alternatecourseto curb Katherine's"spiritto
resist"by demonstrating her properpositionin the domestic
order.ForbehindPetruchio's tamingis hisinsistence
on a mari-
tal relationthatmirrorsthe naturalorderof the createduni-
verse.Withthezanylogicappropriateto the play,Petruchio's
tamingculminateswhenhe forcesKatherineto concede to an
unnaturalreversalin the cosmicorder (the sun is the moon)
and in thehumanorder(age is youth).Farcicalas it mayseem,
Petruchio'stamingis based on a veryseriousand acceptable
premiseforthemeninthisaudience.Byinverting thedomestic,
Petruchiohas succeededin teach-
social,and cosmichierarchies
ing Katherinethather own shrewishrebellionis in directcon-
tradiction withthewaythingsoughtto be.
In thelastscenewhenLucentioand Hortensiostareinwonder
at theirwives'willfulrefusalto obey theirbidding,Petruchio
explainsto themand to us thesignificance of Katherine'snew-
builtvirtueand obedience:
peaceitbodes,and love,and quietlife
Anawfulruleandrightsupremacy.
Andtobe short,
whatnot,that'ssweetand happy.
So says Petruchio,and his formulaof "awfulrule and right
supremacy" wouldhave been recognizedbythecontemporary
audienceas consonantwithwhattheirpreachers, pamphleteers,
and writersof domesticconductbooks had been sayingfor
Overand overagainthesemiddle-class
thelastquarter-century.
advocatesof the perfectmarriagewarnedthatboth partners
mustheedtheirprescribed In hissermon
dutiesand obligations.
"A Preparative for Marriage," Henrie Smith warned his
parishionersthat"marriageiscalledConjugiumwhichsignifieth
a knitting or joyningof duties."And the wife'sfirstdutyis
"tobe contentand tobe ruledand governedbyherhusband."22
Because,Tasso wouldhave added, "A womanthatconformes
herselfto her husbandis adorned withthosevirtueswhereof
being obstinateshe continuethunfurnished."23 Bishop Hall
stressedthehusband'spoweroverthewifebut cautionedthat
men should not use thatauthoritytoo tyrannically, and that
thelanguageofCorinthians - "Theirwivesare theirslaves;this
is not for the womento have power on theirhead, but for
themento havepoweron thebody"- shouldnotbe takenliter-

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160 SOUNDINGS

ally.24And WilliamGouge, employingthe popular metaphor

of the ordered societyas a bee hive,concluded thata well-
orderedhome is a livelyrepresentation of Church,Common-
wealth, and Cosmos.25
Katherine'slastlong speechpresentsthisviewof wifelysub-
mission.It is worthnoting,however,thatin theoriginalsource
forShakespeare'splay*Katherinehad attributed herobedience
Shakespeare'sKath-
tomental,moral,and biologicalinferiority.
erine capitulatessimplybecause women are "the weaker
vessels."Because of woman's"softcondition,"the husbandis
obligedto endurepainfullabors,and in returnforthisloving
guidancethe wifeowes himher obedience,actually"too little
paymentfor so large a debt." But whetherthe argumentis
basedon mental,spiritualorbiologicalgrounds,thefactremains
thatRenaissanceattitudestowardwomen,so clearlypresented
inTheTamingoftheShrew, wereprincipallybasedon thenatural
exchangeof male protectionand guidance for femalehelp-
lessness.TheTamingoftheShrewis at once a masculinevision
ofnightmare and fantasy. inwomanisunnatural,
Rebelliousness
for it underminesthe masculinelaws of nature; conversely,
the measureof a good woman is the measureof her wifely
submissiveness.

VI
WhatI have attemptedto traceis the drasticrestrictionof
woman's once integralpositionin the economic and social
milieu.DuringtheMiddleAges,whenthevillageand thehome
werecentersof important womenwerebusy,impor-
activities,
powerful.Betweenthetwelfth
tant,and relatively and the six-
teenthcenturiesthe majorityof women were systematically
denied the legal and customarylibertiestheyhad formerly
experienced,untilthe spreadof mercantilecapitalismand the
coalescenceofReformation and bourgeoisideologysuccessfully
isolatedherwithinthedomestichousehold.The rolestructures
* I referhere to the
playThe Tamingofa Shrewwhichfora long while
was consideredShakespeare'ssource.In recentyearsspeculationhas arisen
concerningwhetherA Shrewis merelya memorialreconstruction or a bad
quartoof Shakespeare'splay,or whetherit was writtenlaterand based on
TheShrew.The chronologyand the degree of Shakespeare'sindebtedness
are not at issue here. The importantfactis thatShakespeare'sKatherine
argues fromdifferent groundsthan the analogous characterin A Shrew.

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SPARE RIBS: THE CONCEPTION OF WOMAN 161

of societyhad shiftedand woman'sfundamental functionhad

been transformed fromproductionto reproduction.26
Thatwoman'sdomesticity meanthertotalsubjectionishardly
disputable. When she was restricted to thehome,whatphysical
strength shewascapableofatrophied,thusensuringthefragile,
delicatecreaturesabout whomit was then possibleto argue
thattheywerenotphysically fitfor"masculinework."Bylegally
declaring her the husband's ward,womanwas deprivedof her
individuality beforethelawand henceherrightsas civilsociety
definesthoserights.But mostsignificantly, bysubstitutingthe
Reformation ideal of chastity withinmarriageforthe Roman
Church'sapotheosisof virginity, the middleclass manifestly
attempted to use itswomenas vehicles,themeansof transport-
ing itsfamilial dynastiesand propertyrightsdown succeeding
generations while stillmaintaining legitimacy and honorin a
caste-conscious society.* This is whythecuckoldand theshrew
are ubiquitousfiguresin Renaissanceliterature. The cuckold's
fate evokes the cardinal crime in this society:a breach of
obedience, piety,and fidelityin marriagewhich seriously
threatensthestatusquo. In the figureof the shrewthe middle
class had come full circlein secularizingthe formerclerical
anti-feminism. In her deviationfromacceptedbeliefs,in her
obduraterefusalto submitto masculineauthority, the shrew
is a hereticwhose treason musteitherbe renounced or be
stampedout.
This is also whythe tamed Shrewor the patientGriselda
became one of the major archetypesof the ideal woman in
westernliterature.Her virtues - obedience, modesty,com-
pliance,passivity, gentleness,timidity, silence,deference,
willing-
ness to do humbletasks,eagernessto please- these are the
virtuesproperto subordination, and femininesubordination
is properto thenaturalorder.Thus theideal womanpossesses
all theattributes oftheidealservant, and bybindingthisservant

* Evenas procreative
agentRenaissancetheorists
allowedwomanno untar-
nishedglory.For if the Churchremindedpeople thatchild bearingwas
woman'spenancefororiginalsin,sixteenth-century anatomists
taughtthat
the childwas carriedby the male'ssperm.Thus whenin the seventeenth
centuryLeeuwenhoekfirstput semenunder the microscopeand saw the
wriggling"animalcules,"he was convincedthathe had'but confirmedthe
long-heldtheoryofthehomonculus, themale'sbabieswhichhe merelypassed
on to thewomanfornurturing.

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162 SOUNDINGS

intoan ironcladcontractualmarriagearrangement, sealingit

bytelling her thatshe God's
follows law in bearingand rearing
children,and warningher thatif she shouldforgether place
or her functionshe becomesa rebelto thecosmicorder,man
had found himselfa servantwho could not quit and who
dared notrebel.
My closingnote is intendedto shed one furtherglimmer
of illumination on theRenaissanceconceptionof woman.That
often repeated metaphor one finds in the sermons, the
pamphlets,and the domesticconductbooks of the age- the
metaphorof the domesticbody politic- describesman as the
head and the limbsof the family.What such an anatomical
figuredoes is to leave forwomanthebody,or moreprecisely
the reproductive and nutritiveparts,twoapt symbolsand re-
mindersof her procreativefunction.This sexualrole is reflec-
tedintwooftheprimary revolutionsofdressthatoccurreddur-
ing the Renaissance. In the Middle Ages feminineclothinghad
been all of one piece,seamlessgarmentsof long,singularlines
fromhead to toe. Duringthe Renaissancethe ladydeveloped
cuttingherselfin half,and thereby
a waist,literally accentuating
thereproductive and nutritivefunctions by theirveryphysical
emphasis.The second bit of paraphernalia,introduced,it is
thought, byCatherinede Medici,wasthecorset.Thus strapped
and trundled,dividedand accentuatedby the bell skirtand
thebodice,the Renaissancewomanbecamea walkingemblem
ofherephemeralrolein society:herprocreative responsibilities
emblazoned in her bisected body; her meek subservience
emphasizedby her externalbindings.

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SPARE RIBS: THE CONCEPTION OF WOMAN 163

NOTES

1. FriedrichHeer, The MedievalWorld:Europe1100-1350, trans.Sondheime

(Cleveland, 1962), p. 263. See also H. O. Taylor, The Mediaeval Mind,
I (London, 1911), pp. 442-70 passim. For a more detailed discussion
of medieval mysticism see J. Leclercq, F. Vandenbroucke, and L. Bouyer,
La spiritualitédu moyenâse (Paris, 1961).
2. For a full discussion of this see Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens (London,
1949), pp. 125 ff.
3. Andreas wrote De artehonestiamandi sometime between 1174 and
1186. The firsttwobooks,De amore,presentthe rulesand theconventions
of the courtlyrites.But the thirdbook, De reprobatione, is writtenfrom
the viewpoint of an orthodox Christian, and here Andreas seems to
reject the tenets of illicitlove. See A. J. Denomy, The Heresyof Courtly
Love (Gloucester, Mass., 1965), pp. 34-37.
4. Denomy, p. 27.
5. March Bloch, La Sociétéféodale.La formationdes liensde dépendance(Paris,
1949), pp. 191-221. Bloch points out that feudal institutionsdeveloped
in France at the same time that the familywas constrictingin extent.
6. Eileen Power, "The Position of Woman," in The LegacyoftheMiddleAges,
éd. G. C. Crump (Oxford, 1926), p. 407.
7. The SecondSex (New York, 1961), p. 94.
8. Sidney Painter,"The Familyand the Feudal Systemin Twelfth-Century
England," reprintedin Feudalismand Liberty(Baltimore, 1964), p. 200.
9. EnglishVillagers oftheThirteenth Century(Cambridge, Mass., 194 1),p. 2 16.
10. HistoryoftheEnglishLaw, BeforetheTimeofEdwardI, 2 vols. (Cambridge,
1898), I, p. 42.
11. Ibid., p. 43.
12. EnglishGilds,E.E.T.S., Original Series,40 (London, 1870, reprinted1963),
p. xiii.
13. D. Herlihy,"Land, Familyand Women in ContinentalEurope, 701-1000,"
Tradüio, 18 (1962), 89-120.
14. Power, p. 411.
15. Ibid., pp. 411-12.
16. Supergrow(New York, 1970), p. 106.
17. Cf. Louis B. Wright,Middle-ClassCulturem ElizabethanEngland (Ithaca,
1958), pp. 121-227.
18. Thomas Becon, "The Catechism," ed. Rev. John Ayre, Parker Society
(Cambridge, 1844), 111, 340.
19. GeoffreyFenton, TragicalDiscourses(London, 1625), p. 289.
20. "A PreparativeforMarriage,"TheSermonsofMaisterHenrieSmith(London,
1594), p. 20.
21. Chilton Powell, EnglishDomesticRelations1487-1653 (New York, 1917),
pp. 101-146.
22. Smith,"A Preparativefor Marriage," p. 19.
23. "The Householders Philosophie,"trans.T[homas] K[yd], 1588, The Works
of ThomasKyd,ed. FrederickS. Boas (Oxford, 1901), p. 255.
24. Sermon XXXV: "The Woman's Vail," Works,2 vols., I, 487.
25. Of Domesticali Duties:EightTreatises(London, 1622), p. 16-17.
26. Mitchell,p. 10.

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