oup.com/Shakespeare & Women hakespeare ‘Ah, women, women! come; we have no friend But resolution, and the briefest end.’ —Cleopatra’s soliloquy after Antony’s death (Antony and Cleopatra, 4.16.91-92) WHO WAS SHAKESPEARE’S ‘DARK LADY’ ? The “female page” role was when a male actor played a woman who was playing a man (a special challenge to both the actors’ ability to perform as well as to the audience’s imagination prior to 1660). 7X THERE ARE as for women in Shakespeare’s plays. Emelia Bassano Lanier A clandestine Jew and illegitimate daughter of the Italian-born court musician, Baptista Bassano, one of a group of Jewish musicians brought from Venice by Henry VIII Mary Fitton A gentlewoman and maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth Lucy Morgan A notorious London prostitute called Lucy Negro, Black Lucy, or Lucy Morgan Aline Florio Wife to an Italian translator who first met Shakespeare at the home of the Earl of Southampton (Shakespeare’s patron for some time) and later again in London AS MANY ROLES FOR MEN 84 % of Shakespeare characters are men CLEOPATRA & ROSALIND ARE THE ONLY 2 female characters in the top 10 biggest roles in Shakespeare’s plays. 16 % of Shakespeare characters are women CHARACTERS & THEIR LINES Main female characters had far fewer than their male counterparts = 100 lines Hamlet in Hamlet Iago in Othello King Henry in Henry V Rosalind in As You Like It Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra Innogen Cymbeline Portia in The Merchant of Venice Juliet in Romeo and Juliet Helena in All’s Well That Ends Well Isabella in Measure for Measure Desdemona in Othello Emilia in The Two Noble Kinsmen Mary Frith, a notorious London pickpocket and crossdresser, was the subject of several early modern works. She performed onstage once in the 1611 play The Roaring Girl. Hamilton, Sharon, Shakespeare’s Daughters, 5. Shapiro, Michael, Gender in Play on the Shakespearean Stage, 16-8. Spevack, Marvin, A Complete and Systematic Concordance to the Works of Shakespeare. Wells, Stanley, An A-Z Guide to Shakespeare (2 ed.). Wells, Stanley and Gary Taylor, William Shakespeare: A Textual Companion WOMEN ON STAGE In the early modern period, crossdressing was frequently associated with prostitution, fornication, or other forms of illicit activities. Legal proceeding records of the time contain numerous cases where women and their helpers were punished for dressing up as a man—no matter illicit sexual activities were involved or not. CROSSDRESSING OFF STAGE Shakespeare used “female page” roles throughout his career Cymbeline The Merchant of Venice As You Like It Twelfth Night The Two Gentlemen of Verona Female roles were almost always played by male actors until 1660.