Abstract

AS THOMAS EDGAR NOTES IN Lawes Resolutions of Womens Rights, some women in the early modern period were able to shift well enough (6); nevertheless, in law they were generally subject to their husbands and fathers and encouraged--at least by conduct book writers and preachers--to listen to these men figures of male authority. (1) At the same time, women were warned to guard their ears and stop them from hearing dishonestie (Overbury C4), was feared, thanks to the traditional commentary on Eve's role in the Fall, that women were more likely to be corrupted--and therefore to corrupt men--if they heard subversive or inappropriate ideas. These fears were most often expressed not concerns over male speech but unease about the female desire to listen, what Othello calls, in reference to Desdemona, her greedy (Othello 1.3.148), and appear connected to views of female sexuality. A number of critics, including Peter Stallybrass, Lynda Boose, and Douglas Bruster, discuss the link between the mouth and the vagina and the association between speech and sexual licentiousness in the period, and Linda Woodbridge notes the long-time connection between the ear and the vagina (Woodbridge 55). However, the link between all three orifices, the ear, mouth, and vagina, is often overlooked because of the current tendency to view ears passive, ever-open orifices (Kilgour 131). In contrast, in the early modern period, ears, like mouths and vaginas, were regarded not only passive openings through which the body could be penetrated, but also sites through which desire could be expressed. I therefore wish to explore how these three orifices were constructed sites of female desire and how this construction is revealed through the character of Anne Frankford in Thomas Heywood's A Woman Killed with Kindness. Not only are the ear and mouth connected one hears the speech the other produces, but they are also linked through the analogy of speech to food, an association common in the early modern period. (2) idea of speech nourishment of the soule (Primaudaye 126) was most for Protestant preachers who clearly had a vested interest in encouraging people to take in and digest the spoken word, at least when they were preaching. (3) According to these preachers, an open ear is necessary for both faith and obedience and those who exhibit a closed ear, who refuse to listen to God's word (or to God's earthly representatives), are ungodly. Protestant and Catholic writers alike revered the Virgin Mary the ideal listener because she attended to and believed what she heard, bearing God's son (the Word made flesh) a result (Hassel 54-55, 69-72). They insisted that this type of hearing was necessary for faithful, fruitful obedience. In contrast, Eve was deemed the epitome of an unfruitful hearer not only because she failed to maintain belief in God's word, accepting what the serpent said over God's earlier directive, but also because her act of listening brought the antithesis of fruitfulness--death--into the world. While Protestant ministers encouraged their congregations (and readers) to hunger for God's word and to incorporate into their bodies so that they, like the Virgin Mary, might be transformed, preachers were also aware of how other voices could interfere with digestion. As Eve discovered, what the devil and the world say is often more appealing than what God says. Robert Wilkinson writes, The diuel calleth by temptation and yee yeelde vnto it, the worlde calleth and ye listen to it, the fleshe calleth and ye come to it, but the worship of God calleth and ye care not for it (B[V.sup.v]). Such an ear, according to Richard Crooke, is an Eare (Egerton A[4.sup.r-v]). (4) Moreover, he specifically associates these adulterous ears with transgressive female sexual desire, for they are known as the Harlot is knowne, they are euer gadding to seeke their new Louers (A[5. …

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