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Chris Browne
History 4994W
8 May 2015

Gender Culture in Early Modern England as Represented by Popular Crime Literature

The beginning of the early modern era saw an increase spread of ideas and knowledge

across a number of boundaries. With the development of the mechanical movable printing press

in the mid fifteenth century by Johannes Gutenberg, the printed word could be made faster and

became more widely available to the people of Europe. The increase in books dovetailed with a

rise of literacy across Europe. In England, pamphleteers wrote and spread cheap reading material

that was being marketed towards the lower classes rather than the landed elite who had been the

previous sole audience for printed books. These chap books and pamphlets were marketed to

working class people and dealt with the evils that exist in lower class society. One of these

pamphleteers, Robert Greene, wrote a series of pamphlets starting in 1591 on the subject of

Conny-catchers; con artists who make their money on preying on vulnerable or gullible

people1. In his 1592 book, A Dispvtation Betweene a Hee Conny-Catcher and a Shee Conny-

Catcher, Greene explores a debate between a pickpocket and a prostitute on their ability to

degrade society. They both tell stories of exploits of gaining wealth through the manipulation of

the people of England. By the end of the book, Greene makes it clear that the prostitutes claims

that the power of a womens temptation can do a greater damage to a man, by corrupting him to

the core, while a pickpocket can only take a mans money. Greene uses the prostitute to shed

light on how the women of lower class England were perceived. This perception is not only by

the authors of these books, but were then cast down to the readers, in an attempt to persuade the

working class to be wary of these independent women.

Greene was not alone with his writing to showcase the social ills that can befall a society.

Many of the pamphleteers and street literature writers commented on the supposed evils and

immorality of the common people in an open attempt, as stated by sixteenth-century pamphleteer

Thomas Harman, to root out all vagrants and sturdy vagabonds, as passed through and by all

parts of this famous isle [England], most idly and wickedly2. With the case of the female

prostitute from Greenes third Conny-Catcher book, he was a part of a trend as other popular

crime street literature of this time that featured a female criminal, especially in the case of

murderesses, were portrayed as being the ultimate sinner of a crime, even if with a male

accomplice. Crime novels tied the villainous women criminal as being unsaintly and in league

with the Devil. One such example is the story of Mistress Beast, whose description for her part in

the murder of her husband, is detailed as a most horrible and wicked Woman, a woman, nay a

devil3.

Crime literatures focus on the power of corruption held by the prostitute and other

female villains play into the greater picture of early modern English literatures commentary on

the womens place in society. In the early modern period, women were restricted in their ability

to earn income and livelihoods. They had little choice but to marry and house-keepers and take

care of children while their husbands pursued a trade or farmed. Young women were expected to

learn domestic skills either through housework in their own home or as working as a servant to a

wealthier household until they were married4. Economic changes in England, however, lead to

aristocrats decreasing their hiring of servants for long term employment. Rather, an

institutionalized new system of wage based service with short term contracts meant that the

prospects of learning domestic skills and having the economic stability until marriage became

uncertain for many lower class young women5. Many women were to take up a trade, attempting
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to join guilds and work for wages, like their male counterparts, for significantly lower wages.

Marriage was expected to be a womans end game for economic stabilization and the sole avenue

to living a socially acceptable life, creating outsiders of those unfortunate enough to be never-

married, widowed, or orphaned (which given that most orphans lacked the dowry that attracted

suitors)6. Should a woman marry, they would find themselves being the submissive of the couple,

with English society dictating that wives should be submissive and obedient, while husbands

should rule but not tyrannize7. Clergymen detailed that a prosperous household is one where

husbands and wives pursued separate, complementary work, with the husbands leaving the

house to find work and wives occupying themselves with housewifery and domestic labor8.

Despite being considered the property of the husband, women were able to strike a balance in the

household by being the controller of the household economy. Husbands would be much too busy

working to purchase the household needs, leaving the wife to shop in the marketplaces for food

and other necessities. Women had to tread their control of the household economy carefully, as

excess spending by a wife, such as visits to alehouses to hear the town gossip, was described by

many pamphleteers as the husbands need to tighten his reigns on his wifes purse.

Moral rules stressed by both Protestant and Catholic reformers, also put pressure on

women. Clergymen spoke of the evils of extramarital sexual relationships, arguing that marriage

was the only pathway for women to escape the sin of the sex. This pressure was put upon women

as being seen as the source of temptation and their sexuality being more damaging to that of

men9. English society saw a womans sexuality coming from a mans physical desires, but a

woman must make herself modest in order to not to intentionally excited or manipulate for their

own ends10. A woman could not be trusted with her sexuality, as a loose woman could bring ruin

to a man. A common theme in English street literature revolving a womens sexuality was how
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she used it. If she was a passive beauty, she was seen with sympathy, conversely a sexually

active woman was seen as a mischievous11. This patriarchal rule was justified because of

Englishs societys placing importance on a mans greater strength, intelligence, and virtue, and

by Gods explicit imposition of female subjection as a punishment for Eves sin.12 Many ideals

regarding women and their sexuality came out of the medieval era as being in related with

Church teachings. Church dogma saw women as the instrument of the Devil, a thing at once

inferior and evil.13 With the threat of womens sexuality being a corrupting power and the

knowledge that many young unmarried women were now contract workers; either working as

servants for the aristocracy or working for half the pay at jobs along with men; the idea of

independent women were seen as a threat to English society. This group of young independent

women were classes among the vagabonds and sturdy vagrants14 that Harman writes of, and

can be seen in the witchcraft trials that had been occurring across England and the continent at

this time.

Early modern Englands changing and growing base of literate people meant that there was

growing market for books among the lower classes. The reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and King

James I saw a rise in literacy across all social groups; with such examples, literacy rates among

the husbandmen of East Anglia grew from ten to thirty percent, yeomen hailing from Norwich

saw a literacy growth from forty-five percent to seventy-five percent, tradesmen from the same

city rising forty percent to sixty percent15. By the beginning of the seventeenth century, seventy-

six percent of London based shopkeepers could sign their names (which meant they could also

read) and even womens literacy rates rose from ten percent to forty-eight percent by

midcentury16. With this rise of literacy, there was a greater market not only for books useful for

ones trade, such as almanacs, but also for recreational and leisurely books and pamphlets. By
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1641 there were almost three hundred ballad sellers in the city of London alone17, and from 1560

to 1622 saw the establishing of forty-two pamphlet publishers in England, publishing material on

miracles, monsters, witchcraft, unusual weather and sensational murders18.

While, there was a rise of a market for such publications, the prices of these books tended

to only be affordable by workers with a surplus salary as the average yearly cost of living for a

lower class laborer family was around 11-14 and the yearly wages for a laborer was around 9-

10. Wealthier laborers, such as husbandmen could see a surplus of 3-4 after a week and junior

yeomen could make 40-50 yearly salary, making this socio-economic bracket the target

audience of these publications19. The pricing of the pamphlets was the equivalent of the cost of a

pot of ale at an alehouse20, meaning that for many of the lower class workers the decision was

between a visit to the alehouse and a book. For many, the main form of consumption for these

books, by those who either could not make their sacrifice of beer or food, or who could not read,

was orally. Taverns, fairs, and merchant streets had vocal readings of many of these chapbooks

and pamphlets and the singing of ballads, as being read by the books owners or the merchants

trying to sell their wares. A single chapbook or pamphlet might be heard and read by numerous

people, beyond the original buyer.

The authors of these chapbooks and pamphlets were generally educated men, with Robert

Greene holding a degree of Bachelor of Arts from St. Johns, Cambridge21 and a Master of Arts

from Clare College and Cambridge University22. The author writing with their names openly on

their works. This is unlike the ballad writers of this time, who wrote anonymously after the

Interregnum government imposed heavy penalties for the singing and sale of ballads23, though it

was the chapbook publishing network that kept the ballad market afloat until after the

Reformation24. Despite the market of pamphleteers and book writers were largely male, a small
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number of women authors, numbering from twenty to about thirty-four, came to prominence

during this era, starting first as translators of texts before making works of their own creation25.

Many of the women writers were thought negatively by their male counterparts, seeing their

writings as an act of rebellion and working against society. One such author, Aphra Behn, saw

her works as a writer compared to prostitution and raging, indiscriminate sexual appetite26. In

the subject of criminal works, the authorship could range from published literary figures to

clergymen, as many of the books ended with a moral and religious admonitions or polemics27.

Many of the clergy used the chapbook trade to push social changes, with examples being

pamphleteer Richard Jones who fought for a reformation of social values during the late

sixteenth century. Writers like Jones fought against social evils such as drunkenness and whore-

dome [sic]28. It was the case with literature focusing on the criminals and outsiders of society

that the aim of the pamphleteer is prophylactically to enclose the deceptively kind words of

the con man with his [the pamphleteers] own authentically kind warnings29. These writers set

out with the goal to try to bring to light the issues that were undermining English society,

whether their goal comes from a religious push for moral purity or a social stance to protect the

associated orders of the Commonwealth and stable signification30. Regardless of their motives,

the writers used this popular method of entertainment to reach the people of England to spread

their messages of the sociality evils that exist among them.

With this historical context that Robert Greene came to prominence during this time as one of the

most popular street literature writers. Robert Greene was born in about 1560 in Norwich, in

Norfolk County31. He was well educated, having attended and graduated Cambridge. In his years

at school, he traveled to the continent, visiting Spain and Italy, much to his parents dismay who

saw Italy as an abyss of dissipation and vice32. He fell into the way of the Italians on his return
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to his mother England, who found everything English bad and coarse33. He finished his

schooling and wrote his first pamphlet Mamillia on his return. He moved himself to London and

devoted himself to his literature while enjoying his youth. As he described it, his early years in

London, he was burning the candle at both ends. He found himself in company in the loose

society of actors that he would be the source inspiration for his Conny-catcher series. Greene

turned to a wild career of debauchery and orgies34. He was known to have father a child with

the sister of one of the famous, Cutting Ball, a captain of a gang of thieves who had found his

end at the gallows35. For a time, he found God in the form of a preacher at St. Andrews Church

in Norwich but quickly fell back into his ways of drinking in the city. Even his marriage in late

1585 or early 1586 to Dorothy, the daughter of a squire in Lincolnshire, only temporally tore

Greene from London. The marriage ended after only a year with him returning to London to

continue his writing, despite his wife baring him a child and after having squandered all of her

dowry36.

By the early 1580s, Greene has written several pamphlets, and had become Englands

first celebrity author, with his name becoming a household name37. Despite his popularity, he

had garnered many literary adversaries, who looked down on him because of his intemperance,

licentiousness, an irreverence for religion, sometimes finding vents in coarse and revolting

blasphemies,38 all of which he openly admitted to. He had started as a writer of love-pamphlets

(which is ironic considering his marriage only lasted but a year), but by this time his work turned

much more serious in tone. In the later years of his life he published the first pamphlet in the

Conny-catcher series, where he aimed to expose all the traps and snares that swindlers and

every description of knave laid for inexperienced people39. His regular drinking and debauchery

made him in close context with those that he wrote of, and his frequenting of London courtesans
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gave him the story of the narrator found in the The Conversion of an English Courtesan, all of

which is the words of the woman herself40. His pamphlets attracted the attention of authorities

to the actions of the criminal ranks of Londons lower class. With an increased pressure from the

authorities, saw a reduction of the practices of the conny-catchers, which awakened an

indignation among them. He received threats to end his writings, or else a lynch-mob of

criminals cut off his hand41. He continued to publish, authoring two sequels to the original

Conny-catcher which resulted in a failed attempt on his life. Greene self-references himself and

the murder plot in the final lines of A Disputation;

There were some fourteen or fifteen of them met, and thought to have made that the fatal
night of my overthrow, but courteous Citizens and Apprentices took my part, [] I will
plague them to the extremities, let them do what they dare with their billow blades, I fear
them not.42
Greene continues to threaten to name known thieves and the places they lurk in upcoming

pamphlets and books to give them their last adieu43. Greene enjoyed the idea of him being a

public Exposer44, with his threatening to continue his crusade of highlighting the criminals that

plagues society.

However, A Disputation would be his last in the Conny-catching series, and one of his

last books at all. Following a night of orgy and drinking, Greene was seized with indigestion

and took to his bed. With his wealth having been spent to maintain his lifestyle of drink and

extravagance, he could not afford decent medical aid, leaving him crippled and bed ridden.

Abandoned by his friends, either because of their ignorance of his illness or they didnt care

enough, he was left with just his landlords and the woman he had been living with to tend for

him. In his final days, he reflected on his youth and misused life45 and wrote two final

pamphlets, A Groatsworth of Wit and Repentance. Both were an autobiography of his life, the

first a novel with the main character Roberto playing the role of himself, with the second being
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coloring of Greenes devout state of mind, sincere contrition, and broken spirit,46 of looking

back on his life. Greene died on the third of September 1592, and shortly after his passing, his

name was slandered by his literary enemies to their fullest.

Greenes life of drinking and slumming gave him the context to write his Conny-Catching series.

Originally meant to be two books, a conversation with a justice of the peace who judged conny-

catchers gave Greene the idea to continue his series47. From that, the series grew into a fourth

book. The 81 page chapbook, A Disputation between a He Conny-Catcher and a She Conny-

Catcher was written in early 1592 with its aim to continue the tradition of the previous

installments; to reduce the practice of the conny-catchers48. The opening pages of the story

starts with the introduction of the characters of Laurence, a pickpocket, and Nan, a prostitute. It

is quickly introduced that despite Nan being married, she is rather independent economically

with her prostitution being the main source of her income. As she exclaims that had she made

less money than her husband, she might go bare & penniless the whole year, claiming her

wealth came from her own right, as Circes had never more charms, Calypso more enchantments

the Sirens more subtle tunes, than I have crafty slightest to inveigle a Conny, and fetch in a

country Farmer.49 It is by her own right that Nan has made her wealth, by her own skills and

talents. It is also here that her economic independence and sexual freedom as a prostitute, a

married prostitute at that, has Greene set her us a threat to the pious order of post-Reformation

England and the social order of the early modern era. Unlike the pressed ideal of womanhood,

where the marriage plot safety eliminates the threat of the sexually unruly female servant [

and] success in the service hierarchy erases the economic tensions that increasingly characterized

the service work of early modern women,50 Nan continues to work after marriage to increase

her own wealth and well-being, and her employment is entirely based off her sexuality. Her
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independence, both from her husband and sexuality, becomes a part of Greenes focus; whether a

pick-pocket or a prostitute is more degrading to society.

Nan argues that her own trade of prostitution is the most degrading; Oh but note the

subject of our disputation, and that is this, which are more subtle and dangerous in the Common-

wealth, and to that I argue.51 She openly boosts that her profession of prostitution is the most

degrading to the Commonwealth, as if her aim is to undermine the English society by preying on

the wealth of those who she ensnares with her above stated charms that beat out even some of the

most notorious femme fatale in Greek mythology. This idea of her willingness to do corruption

upon the people of English society is acknowledged by her stating that if a man falls in love with

a prostitute:

she flatters him, she inveigles him, she bewitched him, that he spares neither goods nor
lands to content her, that is only in love with his coin, if he be married, he forsakes his
wife, leaves his children, despises his friends, only to satisfy his lust with the love of a
base whore, who when he hath spent all upon her and he brought to beggary, breathed
him out like the Prodigal child, and for a small reward, brings him if to the fairest end to
beg, if to the second, to the gallows, or at the lost and worst, to the Pockes, or as
prejudicial diseases.52
Nan describes the spiral of corruption she, as a prostitute, can inflict upon a man who has fallen

for her allure. She begins the monologue with that a pickpocket might steal at most some

hundredth pounds,53 but when compared to the power of that of a prostitute, a man will lose his

worth, his family, and even his life for the lust of the prostitutes love. Nans other stories tell of

great deeds and thefts she managed, such as the theft of several horses, because of her ability to

sway men to commit terrible deeds. Laurence admits that prostitutes are Crocodiles when you

weep, Basilisks when you smile, Serpents when you desire, and the Devils chief brokers to bring

the world to destruction54. Greene has the pickpocket admit that prostitutes are truly the worst

social enemy because of their ways their ways of seduction. Laurence is saying that prostitutes
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are beasts behind their guises of tears and smiles and that they the devils chief method to bring

ruin to the world. Greene is targeting these women, who are sexually active outside of their

marriage and are financially free from a man, as the main threat to be taken away from his

chapbook. This relation comes from a prostitutes ability to corrupt a man, so that he may strip

away his wealth for her and shed his family to be with her only to be abandoned by her after she

has everything.

Greenes pamphlet continues following the Disputation with The Conversion of an

English Courtesan, which recounts the fall of a young woman into the ways of prostitution as a

warning tale for wanton Maidens55. In this first person recounting, a young woman memoirs

her that despite her parents being honest and wealthy and being the more favored by her

parents because of being their only daughter, she still fell into prostitution56. The narrative

continues, describing her as the fairest of all, and yet not more beautiful then I was witty, in so

much that being a pretty Parrot, I had such quaint concepts, and witty words in my mouth, and

when she did fall in the ways of prostitution, it was her wit that grew to the worst, and she

waxed upward with the ill weeds57. The narrator blames her parents for becoming a prostitute,

saying that the extreme love off my parents, was the very efficient cause of my follies,

resembling herein the nature of the Ape that ever killed that young one which he loved most,

with embracing it too fervently58. Her parents set up an arranged marriage with an elder

gentleman that would bring great wealth and social honor for the family, but the young, being

independent, refused the marriage, and found love with another younger gentleman of lesser

reputation. This shames her family, who must break off the engagement with the wealthy

gentlemen.
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The narrator puts her freedom to make her own choices at her blame, having had the

reins of liberty too long in mine own hands59. She also puts to blame her parents overwhelming

kindness and love of her as her reason that she rebelled. She laments that they had been so loving

and offers a warning for fathers of young women;

If they daughter bee not shame fast hold her straightly, least she abuse herself through
over-much liberty. Take heed of her that hath an un-shameful eye, & marvel not if she
trespass against thee. The daughter makes that father to watch secretly, and the
carefulness he hath for her, taketh away his sleep. In her virginity, least she should be
deflowered in her fathers house. If therefore thy daughter be un-shameful in her youth,
keep her straight-line, least she cause thine enemies to laugh thee to scorn, and make thee
a common talk in the city, and defame thee among the people, and bring thee to public
shame.60
Fathers should keep their eyes on their daughters and be careful of their daughters

independence, and how it might bring ruin to their family. It is the role of the daughter to

increase the familys social worth through marriage, and that a vigilant father should keep his

daughters liberty of choice in check. As the old English proverb goes, A spaniel, a woman, and

a walnut tree: the more theyre beaten, the better they be,61 showing that early modern English

families did not have the space for an independent woman. This is a continued warning by

Greene to the people of the English, that independent young women, who break from a mans

control, are a threat to society. The narrator left her home and her family after being dependent

on them for her youth, to become a prostitute. Greene writes this segment as a warning to both

the parents of young women and young women themselves. The warning to the parents calls to

keep firm with ones daughter, do not let give them too much freedom for, like the narrator, will

bring shame upon the family. For the young women, Greene warns to avoid the path of the

narrator, wishing that her parents had been firmer and stricter in their raising of her. Greene also

references again Greek mythology, but in this case on the fall of a young maid into promiscuous

ways, if she hath not either with Ulysses tasted of Moly, or stopped her ears warily, she may
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either be enticed with the Sirens, or enchanted by Circes62. Just as Nan had used the

mythological examples of the Sirens and Circes as metaphors for her ways of seduction, the

narrator describes the way a young maiden can fall into the same path.

The narrator describes her life as a Courtesan as one where she has lost her honesty, and

that her and her sister prostitutes, care not who grow into their favor, nor what villainy they

commit, and that they are vultures that pray on men alive, and like the serpent sting the bosom

wherein they are nourished.63 She warns of the danger of prostitutes to men and for young

women to stay avoid following her path. The narrator goes on, describing the sin that is

prostitution, stating that she was so accustomed to sin that gluttony I held good fellowship &

wrath honor and resolution, I despised God, nay in my conscience I might easily have been

persuaded there was no God.64 The whole of Greenes Disputation follows that the

independence of both Nan and the narrator is what the main drive of their sexual exploits. This

sexuality is what Greene targets as the Devils greatest tool of destruction for English society and

that prostitutes have no belief in God.

The narrators story ends with a happy note, with the young maiden redeeming herself from her

position as prostitute to that of housewife. Her repentance comes when she meets a young

gentleman at the tavern who treats her with some respect and she has a reflection on her life. The

young man, whom she describes as a Clothier, a proper young man, compliments her on her

rare wit and excellent beauty.65 After he leaves the alehouse, she self reflects and finds herself

and her life as unbearably disgusting66 and finds that her acts of prostitution had offended God;

if God see us shall we not be more ashamed to do such a filthy act before him then before

men.67 She states that compared to the sexual acts of marriage, which she notes is lawful, her

actions as a prostitute are seen as impudent and graceless before a God who pronounced
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damnation for such as give themselves over to adultery.68 The clothier provides her with a home

to start her life anew before taking her as his wife. Greene is showcasing in the latter half of The

Conversion that a prostitute can redeem themselves by finding a man and God, reinforcing the

patriarchal ideals that a womens only way to a proper and pure life is that of marriage.

Womens independence, or therefore lack of, was chronicled by early modern English street

literature more than just of Greene with his Conny-catcher series. Other crime pamphlets

describe the acts of villainy of women in the acts of a crime being the most horrific, regardless of

their participation of the crime itself. Tales of a wife murdering her husband was far more

popular to the English audience, with a great number being published between 1590 and 163069.

In the chapbook, The Most Cruell and Bloody Murther, the woman burglar takes no pity on a

cornered pregnant mother and children. The murderess is described to have committed an act, A

act too terrible to report, but the most damnable that ever was heard of, executed by a woman,

as the murderess plunges the knife into the pregnant womens belly, killing the unborn child and

the mother, claiming the title of a tragic midwife 70. This comparison to a midwife is to make

the deed all the more sinister. Midwifing was a major occupation for women in the early modern

English society, with a long tradition in English history that gave them cultural authority and

occupational legitimacy71. This legitimacy and social power was expressed by the midwifes

access to the most intimate spaces of womens bodies and a degree of proximity to, and

personal intimacy with mothers, children, and the middling and upper-class households of which

they were usually not members.72 Having a women commit a deed so foul, which is made even

more so with the phrasing as the midwifes goal to bring life into the world instead of taking life,

sets the stage for the view of the women murderess as more than monstrous73. She is shown as
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being as exemplifying the true evils a women is able to commit, just as Greene in Nans

monologue on the evils of a prostitute can bring absolute ruin to a man.

The murderess plays upon the social roles of women in this society and breaks them in a

horrific way. Even when the woman is not the direct murderess, rather just the plotter, coercing a

man into the role of murder, they are still treated with the same contempt and commentary. The

example of is the pamphlet of Mistress Beast who plots the murder her husband with the aid of

her servant. Mister Beast is described in a positive manner, while the description of his wife is

done so to encourage nothing less than contempt and loathing74. With the painting of Mister

Beast as an upstanding citizen and his murderous wife as being in league with the devil,

showcases the impression women lashing back against men. With men being the power holding

sex in early modern England, a woman trying to usurp this power is seen as working with the

devil, working against the morals that the society has for the people. This pact with the devil is

mentioned with Greene in the Dispvtation, with Laurences line of prostitutes being the devils

main force for bring the worlds destruction. This is showcasing that the issue of independent

women counter English societys balance of power and that many pamphleteers were trying to

maintain this balance through their works. Even in comedic crime novels of this time, the

comedy comes from a reversal of powers or a simple inversion of weak and strong, high and

low.75 This theme of women violently striking or corrupting men as working against society is

shown by the writers with their depiction of womens aggression is often seen as unnatural76,

as can be seen as the references with Mistress Beast being described as not a woman but a devil

and Nans prostitution being described by Laurence as being beast-like.

In regards to marriage, which is the end goal for all good women at the time, Greene and

other vagrant writers, wrote of the importance of marriage by showcasing its corruption.
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Marriage in this time period was described by one Nan, despite being married, was still a

prostitute and made her own spending money outside of her husbands work. With her

confession at the end of A Disputation as prostitutes being the ultimate corruption of English

society, it has the link between the danger her independence poses and that her marriage

situation. As Garthine Walker notes on how society is portrayed in criminal literature of the time,

the disorder inherent in ungodliness and heresy was analogous with the disorder of the

household.77 Murder of husbands by their wives, such as the example of Mistress Beast, where

seen as the greatest of wrongful violence78. It was seen as a petty treason, as it worked

against the patriarchal hierarchy and the society norms of husband and wife relations79.

Even in the literature regarding witchcraft, which historically saw a high ratio of women

being accused across England as compared to men, many of the witches were seen as being in

league with the devil. Accusations of witchcraft stemmed from several different backgrounds.

Patriarchal disputes followed English witchcraft, with cases regarding the emerging male

dominated medical profession. These male doctors worked to establish rights as the sole care-

providers for sickness and other ailments. They attacked the traditional female herbalists,

midwives, and folk healers, denouncing them as witches and their activities as the Devils

work.80 Other accusations came from a similar vein as Greenes writings of women being in

league with the Devil. This can be seen in the possession case recorded and marked in the 1597

pamphlet The Most Wonderfull and True Storie, of a certaine Witch named Alse Gooderige. In

the pamphlet a young boy is possessed by the devil as by the actions of a witch. When

questioned by authorities, the witch is admits to not having received Communion and is unable

to recite the entirety of the Lords Prayer which is attributed to being in league with the Devil as

the Devil would not allow them to say such words81. The pamphlet ends with the accused
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witch, Alse Gooderige dying in prison and the young boy being freed from the possession, with

her death marking the end of the Devils control of the boy. It later came out that young boy lied

about his possession82. Other published representations of witch craft followed the same trend.

One example is Henry Goodcoles 1621 pamphlet titled The wonderfull discoverie of Elizabeth

Sawyer, a Witch, late of Edmonton, her conviction and condemnation and Death. Goodcole, a

London minister who had spoken with the convicted Sawyer before her death at the noose, writes

the pamphlet as to warn others to avoid sin. He describes Sawyer as old, ugly, ignorant, and

guilty of great wickedness, as well as the victim of the devils bullying and lust for creating

human misery.83 Her crimes were charged with the murder of neighbors children and a

neighbors wife, of which she was convicted and hung for. These pair of witchcraft pamphlets

further shows that women, when targeted with the lens of being targeted outcast by a community,

they are branded as being in league with the Devil and the unnaturalness of their actions. This

follows the theme of many of the criminal literature with female perpetrators, how it is unnatural

that they step out of their societal constraints.

Robert Greenes A Disputation Between a He Conny-catcher and a She Conny-catcher

serves as an excellent lens to view early modern English societys gender expectations for the

women of the lower working class. The chapbook shows that an independent and sexually active

are a threat to societys balance. Any acts of aggression against this balance cast the women into

being unnatural or even in league with the Devil. The societal norms of this time saw a strictness

of a womens placement in society, as seen with their proverbs and their literature. Respectful

women were seen to have the end goal of finding a husband and tending to the household and the

children while the husband was the breadwinner. Though for many, this end goal was not

immediately attainable, meaning finding work outside the home for income or waiting for a
 Browne 18

marriage prospect meant that many of these lower class women experienced a small liberty of

independence from their patriarchal breadwinner. Pamphleteers, such as Greene, who wrote

commentary on the social ills of English society targeted this independence as a threat to the

gender balance of the time. They ran with the idea of the extreme corruption and evils these

independent women can achieve if their independence is allowed to continue. Greene shows this

with his character Nan, who could cause a man to give up his family and wealth to be with her

but in the end would be cast aside. This social commentary was meant to give warning to the

lower class workers to keep a wary eye for the threat of a womans independence; for fathers to

keep their daughters from falling into the path of active sexuality and independent rebellions, and

for young maidens to avoid a path that brings shame and ruin to ones family.
1 Greene, Robert, and Alexander Balloch Grosart. The Life and Complete Works in Prose
and Verse of Robert Greene. Vol. I. New York: Russell & Russell, 1964. 29.

2 Taylor, Barry. Vagrant Writing: Social and Semiotic Disorders in the English Renaissance. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 1991. 1.

3 Walker, Garthine. Demons in female form: representations of women and gender in murder
pamphlets of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. In Writings and the English
Renaissance, edited by William Zunder and Suzanne Trill, 124. New York: Longhouse Group
Limited, 1996.

4 Dowd, Michelle M. Women's Work in Early Modern English Literature and Culture. New York, NY:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. 23.

5 Ibid, 22.

6 Wiltenburg, Joy. Disorderly Women and Female Power in the Street Literature of Early
Modern England and Germany. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1992. 10-11.

7 Ibid, 71.

8 Pennington, David. "'Three Women and a Goose make a Market': Representations of Market
Women in Seventeenth-Century Popular Literature." Seventeenth Century 25, no. 1 (Spring2010
2010): 29. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed March 1, 2015).

9 Ibid, 16-17.

10 Wiltenburg, Disorderly Women. 141.

11 Ibid, 143.

12 Ibid, 98.

13 Anderson, Alan, and Raymond Gordon. "Witchcraft and the Status of Women -- The
Case of England." The British Journal of Sociology 29, no. 2 (1978): 173.

14 Taylor, Vagrant Writing, 1.

15 Watt, Tessa. "Part III The Chapbook." In Cheap Print and Popular Piety, 1550-1640, 260.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991

16Burnett, Mark. Popular culture in the English Renaissance. In Writings and the English
Renaissance, edited by William Zunder and Suzanne Trill, 108. New York: Longhouse
Group Limited, 1996.

17 Pennington, Three Women. 28-29.

18 Watt, Cheap Print, 264-265.

19 Ibid, 261.

20 Wiltenburg, Disorderly Women. 30.

21 Greene & Grosart, The Life and Complete Works. 12-13.

22 N, L.H. "Robert Greene." Robert Greene. January 1, 2004. Accessed May 1, 2015.
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/11418.

23 Wiltenburg, Disorderly Women. 31.

24 Watt, Cheap Print. 272.

25 Trill, Suzanne. Sixteenth-century womens writing: Mary Sidneys Psalmes and the
femininity of translation In Writings and the English Renaissance, edited by William
Zunder and Suzanne Trill, 140. New York: Longhouse Group Limited, 1996.

26 Chernaik, Warren L. Sexual Freedom in Restoration Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge

27 Walker. Demons. 124.

28 Watt, Cheap Print. 278-280.

29 Taylor, Vagrant Writing. 15.

30 Ibid, 10.

31 Greene & Grosart, The Life and Complete Works. 7.

32 Ibid, 9.

33 Ibid, 12.

34 Ibid, 14.

35 Ibid, 33.

36 Ibid, 16.
37 N, L.H. "Robert Greene." Robert Greene. January 1, 2004. Accessed May 1, 2015.
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/11418.

38 Greene & Grosart, The Life and Complete Works. 34.

39 Ibid, 33.

40 Ibid, 113.

41 Ibid, 34.

42 Greene, Robert. The Thirde & Last Part of Conny-catching, with the New Devised Knauish Art of
Foole-taking: The like Cosenages and Villenies Neuer before Discouered; A Dispvtation Betweene a
Hee Conny-catcher and a Shee Conny-catcher. London: Curwen Press, 1923. 41.

43 Ibid, 41.

44 Greene & Grosart, The Life and Complete Works. 34.

45 Ibid, 41.

46 Ibid, 53.

47 Ibid, 130.

48 Ibid, 33.

49 Greene, A Dispvtation. 10.

50 Dowd, Womens Work. 30.

51 Greene, A Dispvtation. 17.

52 Ibid, 36.

53 Ibid, 36.

54 Ibid, 40.

55 Ibid, 46.

56 Ibid, 42.

57 Ibid, 43.
58 Ibid, 43.

59 Ibid, 50.

60 Ibid, 52-53.

61 Pennington, Three Women. 28.

62 Greene, A Dispvtation. 48.

63 Ibid, 71.

64 Ibid, 73.

65 Ibid, 75.

66 Greene & Grosart, The Life and Complete Works. 134.

67 Greene, A Dispvtation. 77.

68 Ibid, 77.

69 Walker, Demons. 131.

70 Ibid, 126.

71 Dowd, Womens Work. 60.

72 Ibid, 61-62.

73 Walker, Demons. 126.

74 Ibid, 132.

75 Wiltenburg, Disorderly Women. 184.

76 Ibid, 184.

77 Walker, Demons. 128.

78 Ibid, 131.

79 Ibid, 131.

80Anderson & Gordon, Witchcraft and the Status. 175.

82 Ibid, 156.

83 Ibid, 125.

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