Oral Traditions and Gender in Early Modern Literary Texts by Mary Ellen Lamb, Karen Bamford

Abstract

MLR, 104.1, 2009 167 arrestingly prescriptive direction, and semi-legitimacy, by contemporary advice bookschallenging contemporary rules ofdeference, theoutwardforms thisculture adopted, Baileyshows, weredesignedtoadvertise-andnegotiate-theambivalent spacesbetween socialinclusion andexclusion. Theattendant emphasis onanaffected effeminacy, shelessconvincingly claims,alsonurtures implications aboutchanging Elizabethanand Jacobean attitudes towards manlyvirtue andgender difference. To engage with and demonstrate membershipof thisunconventional cultural network, self-fashioning gallants ostentatiously exhibited 'particular poses,attitudes and behaviours'(p. 7), embodiedin theflamboyance of their apparel,at socially optimallocations suchas the middleaisleofStPaul'sCathedral. TheLondon theatre ofJonson, Shakespeare, andMarlowewas,Baileylucidly demonstrates throughout, bothculturally reflective ofandcomplicitinsuchirreverent display, not leastsince these young menwere regular theatregoers, though theincreasing commercial suc cessof thestage meant thatthestudiedly immoderate new stylesitincorporated inevitably vitiatedsomeof theirsubversive power.This isa slimvolumewhich, though curiously bereft of illustrations, punchesabove its weight.In scrutinizing a subgroup which flagrantly violatedcontemporary socialnorms, Baileyelucidates both an intrinsically absorbing counter-cultural phenomenonand thesocialand aesthetic environment in which itflourished. BIRKBECK,UNIVERSITY OF LONDON PHILIP MAJOR Oral Traditions and Gender inEarly Modern Literary Texts. Ed. by MARY ELLEN LAMB and KAREN BAMFORD. Aldershot: Ashgate. 2008. XXV+250 PP. ?55. ISBN 978-0-7546-5538-1. Mary Ellen Lamb's introduction to this collection provides a clear and erudite ana lysis of theissuessurrounding oral narratives or,as she termsthem,'old wives' tales' (p. 1).AlthoughLamb describestheconventional setsofbinariesused to formulate oral tradition-written versusoral,upperversuslowerclass,andmale versusfemale-shequickly establishes thatthese divisions offer insufficient insight intoa complex andpersistently mutating genre. Theunderlying methodology ofthe collectionlooks,therefore, at the'blurring [. . .]betweenoralandwritten', and at 'cultural meanings,especiallythegendered meanings,oforal transmission itself' (p. 1).The subsequent essaysaredividedintothree cognateareas. TheessaysinPart Iexplorethe ways in which female storytellers arestereotyped inthe writings ofcanonical male authors. Therearetwo piecesonEdmundSpenser, thefirst byJacqueline T.Miller that concentrates on TheFaerieQueene,identifying womenwho arepersistently silencedand 'constantly thwarted bymen', and the secondbyKateGiglio thatlooksat MotherHubberds Tale,in whichSpenser'srearti culationof the'familiar wisdom' ofwomen healersbecomesan integral aspectof thetext's political allegory (pp.12and24).Romancere-emerges inJulie A. Eckerle's essayonPhilipSidney'sTheCountess ofPembroke's Arcadiaand MaryWroth's7he Countessof Montgomery's Urania, inwhich Sidney'sdepictionof thelower-class i68 Reviews foolishness of Miso andMopsa iscontrasted with Wroth's skilledfemalerhetoric. The final essayinthesection, by HenkDragster, dealswithJohn Aubrey'sreframing of thetalestoldhimbyhis nurse in a historical context, thereby reasserting the classicaldivision of male/written/scholarly versusfemale/oral/fiction. The fascinating essaysinPart IIcombine path-breaking research intothe way fe male identity was fashioned byoral tradition withperceptive closereading, thereby demonstrating thecloseengagement betweenliterary and socialdiscourses. Diane Purkiss'sessaysetsa 1673witchcraft depositionbyAnne Armstrong alongside Shakespeare'sTheWinter'sTale inorder to showhow adolescent womenwere obsessedwith food.Similarly, FionaMcNeill demonstrates that Orsino's flippant demandsfor musicalentertainment inTwelfth Nightcallupon the balladssungabout impoverished women labourers-maids,lace-makers, and thosesenttoserve, and starve, inVirginia. Natasha Korda also looks at the earlymodern femaleworkforce inheressayon street vendors, showing how they weremockedwhile trying toearn a livinginLondon'snewcapitalist markets.The finalessay, byLaRue Love Sloan, demonstrates theentrenched positioning ofgendersinoral tradition bylinking the curtain lecture inwhich a shrewish wife harangues her husband with the final tragic pillowsceneinOthello. The essaysinPart iII tendtobolsterand confirm theblurring ofgeneric boun dariesdiscussedbyLamb, withcontributions on libellous poetry byC. C.McGee, on Margaretand WilliamCavendishbyJames Fitzmaurice, onmultiplesexchanges by ReginaBuccola,onhumanist verbalperformance andTwelfth NightbyEric Mason, andon theassociation betweenfemale practice, oral tradition, andCatholicismby ClareKinney. However, whatmakes thiscollection notonlyinformative buthugelyenjoyable are the depictions of thewomen themselves: the imaginative 'Lucy'who wished to eat 'boyled capon with silver scrues'; 'Fair Winifright, and Bridget bright' who were treated like slaves; thewomen who, as theypawned theirpetticoats and prostituted themselves, were 'creatures soonevp,& soonedowne'; Marie Perman who 'showes herarsse';and, finally, the'Spinsters [. . .] [and]Huswifes'describedby Margaret Cavendish who sat on 'Cold Winter Nights' spinning their 'flax',weaving their 'Web', and-of course- singing 'ballads' (pp. 64, 112, 125, 140, 144, and 164). UNIVERSITY OF SURREY MARION WYNNE-DAvIES LaborandWritingin Early ModernEngland, 1567-1667.ByLAURIE ELLINGHAUSEN. Aldershot: Ashgate.2008. x+156 pp. ?45. ISBN978-0-7546-5780-4. Itisa notableparadoxthat despiteinhabiting a culturein whichmanualworkwas considered socially degrading, early modernwriters from ThomasSmithtoBen Jon sonused images ofphysicallabouras awayoffiguring their ownoccupation. Laurie Ellinghausen's argument in this book is thatforsomeauthors, presenting oneself as a worker was a way of laying claim to a surprisingly enabling marginal status: 'positing oneself on thedownsideofhierarchy, while suggestive ofoppression, can result inpayoffs fortheauthoraswell' (p.4). ...