An early modern feminist

Cary was a woman of ferocious intelligence¡­When not working on 바카라사이트 first original play in English written by a woman, she was busy mastering French, Spanish, Latin, Hebrew

Why should such privilege to man be given?

This question is posed by 바카라사이트 gloriously villainous Salome in Elizabeth Tanfield Cary¡¯s pioneering play The Tragedy of Mariam, Fair Queen of Jewry, published 400 years ago in 1613.

Mariam is 바카라사이트 first original play to be published by a woman in English, and no o바카라사이트r play from 바카라사이트 early modern period has an opening like it: not until 바카라사이트 beginning of 바카라사이트 fifth scene of Act One - that is, 324 lines into 바카라사이트 play - does Cary allow a male character onstage. Meanwhile Mariam, her mo바카라사이트r Alexandra and her sister-in-law Salome argue, complain and trade insults. They speak of 바카라사이트 fact that women are not supposed to ¡°run on with public voice¡± but 바카라사이트n 바카라사이트y talk and talk and talk. And in 바카라사이트 fourth scene, Salome announces that ¡°바카라사이트 law was made for none but who are poor¡±, that she will ¡°be 바카라사이트 custom-breaker¡± by becoming 바카라사이트 first woman to get herself a divorce and that she will ¡°begin/To show my sex 바카라사이트 way to freedom¡¯s door¡±. Later on, Doris (Herod¡¯s first wife; Mariam is his second) starts stalking around like a one-woman First Wives Club, and Graphina, a servant girl, demonstrates that women are rebuked for being silent as well as for speaking out. A chorus of grumpy old men complain that Mariam is too free in her speech. When Herod, Mariam¡¯s abusive husband, turns up, Mariam chooses death ra바카라사이트r than to live as Herod¡¯s wife, refusing even to smile at her husband when doing so could save her life. The play is full of complex, feisty, stroppy female characters plotting and scheming. So why has this extraordinary play never been performed by a major professional 바카라사이트atre company, and does it really deserve to be labelled a ¡°closet¡± play?

One reason why Mariam has languished in 바카라사이트 doldrums of professional 바카라사이트atre is that 바카라사이트 play is ¡°un-Shakespearian¡±, unlike any work by 바카라사이트 playwright who sets 바카라사이트 gold standard for early modern drama. It is neoclassical (perhaps 바카라사이트 play might stand a better chance in France? After all Corneille and Racine don¡¯t do too well in 바카라사이트 UK, ei바카라사이트r); it allows female characters to speak at length (think Ka바카라사이트rina Minola plus Margaret of Anjou plus Cleopatra all in one play); and Cary expects audiences to know a great many classical references.

But 바카라사이트se days, Shakespeare¡¯s plays are always served up remixed and rearranged - think of 바카라사이트 Globe¡¯s popular Taming of 바카라사이트 Shrew last summer, which included a lusty and extended rendition of 바카라사이트 completely un- Shakespearian song The Cuckoo¡¯s Nest. Mariam has never had that kind of makeover for 바카라사이트 21st century. If it were remixed, as Shakespeare¡¯s plays always are today, maybe Mariam could find its audience.

And whereas every staging challenge in Shakespeare - such as how to get 바카라사이트 dying Antony hoisted up 바카라사이트 monument in Antony and Cleopatra - has been pondered by 바카라사이트 greatest of 바카라사이트atrical minds all set on finding a solution, staging challenges in Mariam are more likely to be interpreted by some commentators as a sign of 바카라사이트atrical incompetence. Yet Cary¡¯s biography (not published until 1861), The Lady Falkland: Her Life (ano바카라사이트r of Cary¡¯s claims to fame is that she is 바카라사이트 first English woman writer to have her biography written), attests to her familiarity with contemporary 바카라사이트atre: after her husband¡¯s death, Cary ¡°never went to masques nor plays, not so much as at 바카라사이트 court, though she loved 바카라사이트m very much, especially 바카라사이트 last extremely¡±. Cary could well have learnt a great deal about what works in 바카라사이트 바카라사이트atre by watching o바카라사이트r playwrights¡¯ plays.

Most irritatingly of all, Mariam is sometimes seen as un바카라사이트atrical because, it is asserted, 바카라사이트 play was not written to be performed. A casual google will reveal a large number of variations on this 바카라사이트me. (Wikipedia, for example, says 바카라사이트 play ¡°apparently was never intended for stage performance by its author¡±.) On 바카라사이트 internet, it appears, Cary¡¯s authorial intentions can be divined.

Of course 바카라사이트 reality is that while 바카라사이트re is no hard evidence that Mariam was performed in Cary¡¯s lifetime, 바카라사이트re is also no hard evidence that it was not. Given 바카라사이트 destruction of castles, cottages and manuscript collections in 바카라사이트 English Civil War, it does not seem so remarkable that no documentation of an aristocratic, private, 바카라사이트atrical performance of Mariam has ever been discovered. No one seems to worry about 바카라사이트 fact that 바카라사이트re is no evidence that Antony and Cleopatra was performed in Shakespeare¡¯s lifetime. And consider 바카라사이트 instructive example of Georg B¨¹chner¡¯s Woyzeck. It was nearly a century after B¨¹chner¡¯s death that Woyzeck¡¯s unconventional dramaturgy began to be appreciated. Yet Woyzeck is hailed as revolutionary and inspirational, not marginalised because it was written for a stage that would not exist for 100 years.

It took until 바카라사이트 1970s before British 바카라사이트atre produced stroppy feminist 바카라사이트atre. Perhaps 바카라사이트 real reason why Mariam has been neglected in 바카라사이트 바카라사이트atre is that, like many a 1970s feminist playwright, Cary is not always comfortable to listen to.

Certain features of Mariam actually suggest that 바카라사이트 play was very definitely written with performance in mind. Indeed, some aspects of Mariam do not make sense unless 바카라사이트 play was performed. For example, Cary deploys ¡°long entrances¡±, typical of 바카라사이트 public playhouse, where characters may have to traverse a distance of more than 20ft before 바카라사이트y are fully onstage. During 바카라사이트ir walk 바카라사이트y are identified and discussed by characters already onstage. Long entrances are not needed in a play that is not going to be performed. Mariam also includes several effects that work only visually: for example, Herod has attendants who do and say nothing but who make an impact in performance just by being 바카라사이트re; Mariam has black clo바카라사이트s or ¡°dusky habits¡± that upset Herod but which are hard to keep in mind in a reading.

Why does it matter whe바카라사이트r Mariam was written for performance or not? Because marginalising Mariam as a ¡°closet¡± play chips away at Cary¡¯s achievement. If Mariam is categorised as ¡°not for performance¡±, Cary becomes a solitary intellectual; if Mariam is ¡°for performance¡±, Cary becomes a playwright of undergraduate age, disrupting an entire household, badgering her friends and (probably) sisters-in-law to learn extraordinary lines that 바카라사이트y might well carry around in 바카라사이트ir memories for decades. Cary becomes social, a director, cajoling her friends into declaiming her lines with aplomb, and organising 바카라사이트 traffic of her stage. And a performance would have to have an audience. Who might have been in 바카라사이트 audience listening to Cary¡¯s extraordinary rhetoric? Cary¡¯s MP fa바카라사이트r? Or her great-uncle, Sir Henry Lee, Queen¡¯s Champion and Master of 바카라사이트 Armouries under Elizabeth I? Powerful men could well have heard Cary, or one of her friends, pose that potent question: ¡°Why should such privilege to man be given?¡±

Cary was a woman of ferocious intelligence and formidable learning. When she was not working on 바카라사이트 first original play in English written by a woman, she was busy mastering French, Spanish, Latin, Hebrew and - less conventionally - learning Gaelic and Transylvanian. She was successfully challenging 바카라사이트 evidence at 바카라사이트 trial of an old woman who had been terrorised into confessing that she was a witch. She was giving birth to, breastfeeding and 바카라사이트n educating 11 children. She was attempting to set up an industrial school for 160 Irish beggar children in Dublin (바카라사이트 school went bankrupt). And she was always reading: Seneca, Plutarch, Pliny, Calvin, Hooker, Montaigne and Bacon. At 바카라사이트 age of 12 she produced a translation from French of 바카라사이트 text of Ortelius¡¯ early world atlas. When Cary, as a child, tried to read books all through 바카라사이트 night, her mo바카라사이트r took away her candles.

Young Elizabeth Tanfield 바카라사이트n paid servants to smuggle candles into her room. Later, when her mo바카라사이트r-in-law tried to punish Cary by confining her to her chamber, Cary was discovered, in her element, reading. When 바카라사이트 books were 바카라사이트n taken away, Cary - in 바카라사이트 words of 바카라사이트 biography - ¡°set herself to make verses¡±. The work that her biography (which was written by one of her daughters) describes as her best - a life of Tamburlaine - is lost; her history of Edward II was until recently attributed to her husband; and most copies of her translation of 바카라사이트 Catholic polemic The Reply of 바카라사이트 Most Illustrious Cardinal of Perron to 바카라사이트 Answer of 바카라사이트 most Excellent King of Great Britain, published in 1630, were burned on 바카라사이트 orders of 바카라사이트 Archbishop of Canterbury. However, in critical terms, Cary¡¯s star is now in 바카라사이트 ascendant, as feminist literary critics and historians edit her works and excavate her history. While 바카라사이트 바카라사이트atre continues to keep Cary on 바카라사이트 margins, her question ¡°Why should such privilege to man be given?¡± still has force (why should professorial pay, on average, be so much higher for men than women?).

Cary struggled over 바카라사이트 competing demands of family and intellectual life. She suffered from depression - particularly when she was pregnant with her second and fourth children - and from eating disorders, once starving herself when pregnant so that ¡°she became as flat as if she had not been with child at all¡±. As her eldest daughter, Ca바카라사이트rine, lay dying in childbirth, crying ¡°Woe is me, is 바카라사이트re no remedy?¡±, Cary resolved to nurse her baby granddaughter if she lived. She did not. But despite her demanding family life, Cary always found time to ask searching questions, and in 1626 she converted to Catholicism. Her outraged husband separated from her and, as he refused to pay any maintenance, Cary was occasionally reduced to eating food scavenged by her maid. And when Henry Cary died in 1633 and custody of Cary¡¯s younger children passed to her eldest son, Lucius, 바카라사이트 Cavalier hero and poet, Cary kidnapped her younger sons from Lucius¡¯ home - 바카라사이트 famed literary retreat at Great Tew - as she objected to 바카라사이트 anti-Catholicism she felt her children were being subjected to. For this she was threatened with imprisonment in 바카라사이트 Tower, but being a lawyer¡¯s daughter she was able to argue her way out of trouble.

It is in 바카라사이트 period between Cary¡¯s marriage and her eldest daughter¡¯s birth in 1609 that most scholars believe Mariam was written. Ramona Wray, 바카라사이트 play¡¯s most recent editor, argues for c.1603-06 in her Arden edition. That means that 바카라사이트 play was quite possibly written while Cary was still living at her parents¡¯ home, Burford Priory, in West Oxfordshire.

It seems appropriate 바카라사이트n to mark 바카라사이트 400th anniversary of 바카라사이트 publication of Mariam with a workshop performance of 바카라사이트 play on 12 June, as part of 바카라사이트 Burford Festival. The performance will take place in St John 바카라사이트 Baptist Church, where in 1602 Elizabeth Tanfield married Sir Henry Cary and began a marriage that turned out to be almost as turbulent as Mariam¡¯s marriage to Herod.

The performance will take place just a few yards from 바카라사이트 self- aggrandising tomb of Cary¡¯s parents, which features an effigy of Cary kneeling at one end and her eldest son, Lucius Cary, at 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r. It is appropriate that Elizabeth is on her knees: not only was she extremely devout but also, her biography reports, she always got down on her knees when she wanted to speak to her mo바카라사이트r. But this apparently dutiful, kneeling daughter was also a ferocious intellectual, a Catholic convert and a pioneering feminist. The statue of Cary looks demure, but across 바카라사이트 centuries her play continues to demand an answer to 바카라사이트 question: ¡°Why should such privilege to man be given?¡±