Wife, whore, and/or Dutchwoman: shifting female roles in The London Prodigal
The Dutch were the largest group of strangers in late sixteenth century London, with an established church in London and with households and businesses focused on trade and on manufacturing, especially the manufacture of luxury goods. Early modern Londoners would certainly have encountered Dutch wom...
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| Published in: | Early modern literary studies 2017, Vol.27, p.1-11 |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | eng |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | The Dutch were the largest group of strangers in late sixteenth century London, with an established church in London and with households and businesses focused on trade and on manufacturing, especially the manufacture of luxury goods. Early modern Londoners would certainly have encountered Dutch women who were not prostitutes, and travel writers emphasized the independence of Dutch women within their households. This essay aims to supplement the critical discussion of the stage Dutchwoman as prostitute by examining an Englishwoman who pretends to be Dutch in a play nearly contemporaneous with The Dutch Courtesan, the anonymous The London Prodigal (1603-4). Dogged for centuries by its label as marginal/apocryphal Shakespeare, The London Prodigal has been until recent years neglected as a work of dramatic interest in its own right and still does not appear in a published modern critical edition. Generically, it is a city comedy, one of a set of urban plays preoccupied with new economic and social relations in the rapidly-growing and increasingly cosmopolitan city. The growth of the Dutch populations from the mid-1580s can be attributed to the Spanish reconquest of the southern Netherlands; in 1593, 55% of the alien community in London were Dutch. The Dutch church was established in London in 1550, making Dutch immigrants more visible and occasioning debates about their role in London's economy. The supporters of these immigrants argued that they contributed new skills and methods to England's economy, though native English craftsmen often expressed fear of foreign competition in their trades. By putting on a Dutch disguise, Luce chooses a national affiliation associated closely with skilled labor and turns herself, in effect, into a familiar other. Sara Mendelson and Patricia Crawford explain that upper class women especially experienced a violent 'sense of physical displacement' in the move from the father's household to the husband's.18 When Flowerdale abandons his wife, then, he leaves her in a disorientingly and dangerously free position. |
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| ISSN: | 1201-2459 1201-2459 |