Devices of Virgin Martyrdom

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 5 explores how four outrageous virgin martyr plays address the problem of knowing sainthood. The Virgin Martyr (1619) by Thomas Dekker and Philip Massinger, the anonymous Two Noble Ladies (c.1619–22), The Martyr’d Soldier (c.1619–22) by Henry Shirley, and Saint Patrick for Ireland (1639) by James Shirley all feature angelic apparitions to musical accompaniment, books as apotropaic devices, and the miraculous—and often pyrotechnic—destruction of devils. And, in their formulaic production of virgin martyrdom, they use rape as a test to validate sanctity. This chapter also extends the exploration of virgin martyrdom to the Restoration stage. In that period, Matthew Medbourne and John Dryden composed new plays about SS Cecilia and Katherine, respectively, that replicated much of the repertoire of sanctity without utilizing the device of rape perfected by the earlier plays. The violent miracles of the Jacobean and Caroline virgin martyr plays function as a sort of canonization in the theatre that occurs without adjudication by theology or religious confession.