Antifeminism in the Service of Anticlericalism in Sir David Lindsay's Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis

Abstract

Sir David Lindsay's Scottish drama, Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis (1552-54), includes striking portrayals of uncontrollable women, from noblewoman Dame Sensualitie's usurpation of the Scottish king's secular power on behalf of the Catholic Church to Foly's wife, whose Rabelaisian bodily functions are a visceral metaphor for the disordered state of late medieval Scotland. Despite the theatrical power of such misogynistic stereotypes, antifeminism is not actually the endpoint of Lindsay's political satire. Rather, it is the tool through which Lindsay critiques the corrupt Catholic clergy in Scotland and its superiors in Rome. By focusing on how the clergy's campaign against marriage convinces husbands on all social levels—including the royal court, the world of artisans, and the yeomanry—to reject spousal relations, this reading of the play reveals how the failures of Scotland's men ultimately cause the uncontrollable behavior of the nation's women.