Renaissance Woman: A Sourcebook: Constructions of Femininity in England

by Aughterson; Kate

• ISBN13: 9780415120456
• ISBN10: 0415120454
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1995-12-18
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Renaissance Woman: A Sourcebookbrings together extracts of significant accounts of woman and femininity in early modern England. Providing versatile and accessible readings of gender construction in this period, this book offers the reader a broader historical context, without the interpretive baggage of secondary readings. Renaissance Woman: A Sourcebookcontains sources ranging from medical documents and political pamphlets to sermons and the Bible, as well as literary texts by and about women. Sections include: theology; physiology; conduct; sexuality and motherhood; politics and law; education; work; writing and speaking; and proto-feminisms. The selections within each section cover a wide chronology, from 1520 to 1680, as well as a range of viewpoints about each area.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	xi
Acknowledgements	xiii
Introduction	1	(8)
Theology
Introduction	9	(2)
The Bible	11	(4)
John Calvin, Sermons	15	(3)
The first examination of Ann Askew	18	(2)
Certain sermons or homilies	20	(5)
Church of England, Canons	25	(1)
Thomas Becon, Catechism	26	(3)
Sermons:
Thomas Adams, Meditations upon the creed	29	(2)
William Whately, A bride bush	31	(4)
Women preaching:
Thomas Edwards, Gangraena	35	(2)
Margaret Fell Fox, Women's preaching justified	37	(4)
Physiology
Introduction	41	(2)
Aristotle:
The history of animals	43	(1)
The generation of animals	44	(3)
Galen, On the usefulness of the parts of the body	47	(2)
Gynacea:
Martin Akakia, On women's illnesses	49	(2)
Ludovic Mercatus, On the common conditions of women	51	(3)
Helkiah Crooke, Microcosmographia	54	(3)
Nicolas Culpeper, A directory for midwives	57	(3)
Nicholas Fontanus, The woman's doctor	60	(4)
The complete midwife's practice enlarged	64	(3)
Conduct
Introduction	67	(2)
Juan Luis Vives, The instruction of a Christian woman	69	(5)
The debate on dress:
Philip Stubbes, The anatomy of abuses	74	(3)
John Rainoldes, The overthrow of stage plays	77	(1)
John Williams, A sermon of apparell	77	(2)
Marital conduct books:
Robert Dod and John Cleaver, A godly form of household government	79	(3)
Henry Smith, A preparative to marriage	82	(2)
Richard Brathwait, The English gentlewoman	84	(1)
Brides' duties:
Samuel Rowlands, The bride	85	(4)
William Gouge, Of domestical duties	89	(6)
Banabe Rich, My lady's looking glass	95	(1)
William Vaughan, The Golden grove	96	(2)
Dorothy Leigh, The mother's blessing	98	(5)
Sexuality and Motherhood
Introduction	103	(2)
Desiderius Erasmus, The woman in childbed	105	(1)
Henry Bullinger, The Christian state of matrimony	106	(2)
Eucharius Roesslin, The birth of mankind, otherwise named the woman's book	108	(2)
Thomas Becon, The book of matrimony	110	(4)
Elizabeth Grymestone, Miscelanea, meditations, memoratives	114	(1)
Christopher Newstead, An apology for women: or women's defence	115	(1)
Elizabeth Clinton, The Countess of Lincoln's nursery	116	(4)
Devotional advice on childbirth:
Thomas Bentley, The monument of matrons	120	(2)
Christopher Hooke, The childbirth	122	(1)
Alexander Niccholes, A discourse of marriage and wiving	123	(1)
Nicolas Culpeper, A directory for midwives	124	(3)
Sarah Jinner, An almanac	127	(2)
Jane Sharp, The midwife's book	129	(1)
Francesco Barbaro, Directions for love and marriage	130	(1)
Aphra Behn, To the fair Clorinda	131	(2)
Political and Law
Introduction	133	(3)
Aristotle, Politics	136	(1)
Juan Luis Vives, Instruction of a Christian woman	137	(1)
John Knox, The first blast of the trumpet against the monstrous regiment of women	138	(2)
John Aylmer, An harborow for faithful and true subjects	140	(2)
John Leslie, A defence of the honour of the right high, mighty and noble princess Marie Queen of Scotland	142	(2)
Thomas Smith, The commonwealth of England	144	(1)
James I, The true law of free monarchies	145	(2)
Robert Pricke, The doctrine of superiority, and of subjection	147	(2)
William Gouge, Of domestical duties	149	(1)
William Perkins, Christian economy	150	(1)
William Heale, An apology for women	151	(1)
T.E., The law's resolution of women's rights	152	(5)
Matthew Griffith, Bethel	157	(2)
A true copy of the petition of the gentlewomen and tradesmen's wives	159	(2)
Robert Filmer, Patriarcha	161	(4)
Education
Introduction	165	(3)
Juan Luis Vives, Instruction of a Christian woman	168	(3)
Desiderius Erasmus, Colloquy of the abbot and learned woman	171	(2)
Richard Hyrde, Preface	173	(2)
Thomas Becon, Catechism	175	(2)
Thomas Salter, The mirror of modesty	177	(1)
Richard Mulcaster, Positions	178	(4)
Bartholomew Batty, The Christian man's closet	182	(1)
Elizabeth Jocelyn, The mother's legacy to her unborn child	183	(3)
Bathshua Makin, An essay to revive the ancient education of gentlewomen	186	(7)
Work
Introduction	193	(2)
John Fitzherbert, The book of husbandry	195	(3)
Thomas Tusser, A hundred good points of housewifery	198	(6)
John Jones, The art and science of preserving body and soul	204	(2)
Mary Ward, Letter to Pope Paul V	206	(2)
Patrick Hannay, A happy husband	208	(2)
John Taylor, The needle's excellency	210	(2)
R. Garnet, The book of oaths	212	(2)
Preaching work:
Sarah Cheevers and Katherine Evans, This is a short relation of some of the cruel sufferings	214	(3)
Joan Brooksop, An invitation of love	217	(2)
Sarah Jinner, An almanac	219	(2)
Jane Sharp, The midwife's book	221	(2)
Mary Trye, Medicatrix, or the woman-physician	223	(2)
Advice to the women and maidens of London	225	(4)
Writing And Speaking
Introduction	229	(3)
Baldassare Castiglione, The courtier	232	(1)
Margaret Tyler, The mirror of princely deeds and knighthood	233	(3)
Thomas Bentley, The monument of matrons	236	(1)
Philip Stubbes, A crystal glass for Christian women	237	(7)
Richard Brathwait, Essays	244	(2)
Gervase Markham, The English housewife	246	(2)
John Vicars, The schismatic sifted	248	(1)
Dorothy Waugh, The lamb's defence against lies	249	(1)
Priscilla Cotton and Mary Cole, To the priests and people of England	250	(3)
Eliza's Babes	253	(2)
Sarah Jinner, An almanac	255	(1)
Katherine Philips, Poems	256	(2)
Aphra Behn, Preface to The Lucky Chance	258	(3)
Proto-Feminisms
Introduction	261	(3)
Cornelius Agrippa, A treatise of the nobility and excellency of woman-kind	264	(2)
Jane Anger her protection for women	266	(2)
Aemilia Lanyer, Salve deus rex judeaorum	268	(1)
Daniel Tuvil, Asylum veneris	269	(1)
Rachel Speght, A mouzell for Melastomus	270	(7)
William Austin, Haec homo	277	(2)
Jane Owen, An antidote against purgatory	279	(1)
To the supreme authority of England, the commons assembled in parliament	280	(3)
Eliza's Babes	283	(3)
Margaret Cavendish, The philosophical and physical opinions	286	(3)
Poulain de la Barre, The woman as good as the man, of the equality of both sexes	289	(2)
Notes	291	(8)
Select secondary bibliography	299	(8)
Index	307