“Because Women are not Women, Rather Might be a Fit Subject of an Ingenious Satyrist”

Abstract

This article considers Constantia Munda's The Worming of a Mad Dogge (1617), the final prose response to Joseph Swetnam's The Araignment of Women, as a pamphlet which grapples self-consciously with literary conventions and exploits “literate” codes of writing. “Literate” here means the ability to interpret different discourses and genres, to appeal to readers of different competencies, and to negotiate social contests through literary means. In The Worming the virtuoso manner of the exploitation of discourses of misogyny and sin, the female voice, elements of the querelle des femmes genre, and a satirical pastiche of learned writing all exhibit the author's skills. Read in these terms, aspects of style, humor, and authorial voice which have troubled critics are seen as techniques which place The Worming in a network of intertextual early modern writings with John Stephens, John Cocke, and John Webster.