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Words Like Daggers
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Early Modern
Cultural Studies
Series Editors
Carole Levin
Marguerite A. Tassi
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(cid:3)(cid:4)
Words(cid:2) Like Daggers(cid:4)
(cid:2)
Violent Female Speech in Early Modern England
Kirilka Stavreva
University of Nebraska Press ◆ Lincoln and London
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© 2015 by the Board of Regents of the University of
Nebraska. Acknowledgment for the use of copyrighted
material appears on page xi, which constitutes an exten-
sion of the copyright page. All rights reserved. Manu-
factured in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Stavreva, Kirilka.
Words like daggers: violent female speech in early
modern England / Kirilka Stavreva.
pages cm.— (Early modern cultural studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978- 0- 8032- 5488- 6 (hardback)
isbn 978- 0- 8032- 8657- 3 (epub)
isbn 978- 0- 8032- 8658- 0 (mobi)
isbn 978- 0- 8032- 8659- 7 (pdf).
1. English literature— Early modern,
1500– 1700— History and criticism. 2. Women—
England— Social conditions. 3. Language and
languages in literature. 4. Women and literature—
England— History. 5. Violence in literature.
6. Women in literature. I. Title.
pr428.w63s73 2015
820.9'9287— dc23
2014025633
Set in Garamond Pro by Renni Johnson.
Designed by A. Shahan.
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A memorial to the sonorous shades of
Stavri Fotev Stavrev (1924–9 5),
Zafirka Georgieva Stavreva (1927–9 5), &
Kristalina Stavreva Statkova (1951–2 010)
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Contents
List of Illustrations viii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Bitter Words and the Tuning of Gender xiii
1. Feminine Contentious Speech and the
Religious Imagination 1
2. Gender and the Narratives of Scolding in
the Church Courts 17
3. Unquiet Women on the Early Modern Stage 45
4. Witch- Speak in Late Elizabethan Docufiction 71
5. Courtly Witch- Speak on the Jacobean Stage 103
6. Gender and Politics in Early Quaker Women’s
Prophetic “Cries” 129
Epilogue: Margaret’s Bitter Words and the Voice of
(Divine) Justice, or, Compulsory Listening 147
Notes 157
Bibliography 179
Index 195
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Illustrations
1. Mother Damnable of Kentish Town (undated) xvi
2. Emblem of the unruly tongue, engraved by Crispin de Passe 6
3. Illustration from The Apprehension and Confession of Three
Notorious Witches (1589) 91
viii
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Acknowledgments
This book would have come to a screeching halt without the inspi-
ration and support granted by so many communities and individ-
uals. My greatest debt is to the scholars, editors, and writers who
have shed critical light on the lives, speech, and writing of early
modern women. Among these, Carole Levin’s sparkling intellec-
tual fervor, gentle friendship, and enthusiastic mentorship have
proved, in Hamlet’s words, elements of “wondrous potency” that
steadied me throughout the research and writing process.
Words Like Daggers germinated from two sections of a chapter of
my dissertation, and I am profoundly thankful to the community
of the University of Iowa’s English Department for scholarly, finan-
cial, and personal support during my graduate work. Huston Diehl
(who did not live to see this project completed), Alan Nagel, Mir-
iam Gilbert, and Alvin Snider helped me find an academic home
in early modern studies; Garrett Stewart modeled the delight of
creativity in close- grained analysis of sound and image; Eric Grif-
fin, Kathryn Moncrief, Patrick Ryan, Kimball Smith, and the late
Elizabeth Dietz, kindred spirits from “the tribe of Huston” all, made
seminar work, archival research, conference presentations, and the
critique of work- in- progress a joy; long since I received my Ph.D.,
the early modern reading group of the department, including, at
several times, Doug Trevor, Gina Bloom, and Adam G. Hooks,
continued to offer valuable insight on chapter drafts.
At Cornell College, Cindy Benton, Tina Fetner, Michelle Mou-
ton, Catherine Stewart, and Jama Stillwell offered helpful com-
ments, direction, and camaraderie as I was learning how to inte-
grate writing into my life as faculty at a liberal arts college. Michelle
ix
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