Mother Bombie

Lyly, John; Lea, Kathleen M.; Smith, David

doi:10.1093/oseo/instance.00010782

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Mirroring Mother Bombie's later soothsaying skills, Candius reflects on Silena's hand, commenting that her "line of life is good, Venus mount very perfect," and that she "shall haue a scholler" for her "first husband." 37 Candius's barely-disguised sexual reference to Silena's Mons Venus receives an obscure reply from the uneducated innocent. Silena responds to Candius's sexual innuendo by exclaiming, "you are well seene in carnes durt, your father was a poulter, ha, ha, ha."…”

Section: Rabbit Sucker Cony and Hare Economicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Falstaff’s Baffled “Rabbit Sucker” and “Poulter’s Hare” in 1 Henry IV

Quarmby¹

2020

shakespeare

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When Prince Hal orders Falstaff to cease his obscene caricature of kingship in 1 Henry IV, thus surrendering his role to the English throne's true heir, the old knight argues vociferously against this enforced moment of theatrical usurpation: FALSTAFF. Depose me, if thou dost it halfe so grauely, so maiestically, both in word and matter, hang me vp by the heeles for a rabbet sucker, or a poulters Hare.

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Section: Rabbit Sucker Cony and Hare Economicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Falstaff’s Baffled “Rabbit Sucker” and “Poulter’s Hare” in 1 Henry IV

Quarmby¹

2020

shakespeare

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“…21 However, Fleay dates Mother Bombie to 1588-9 or possibly 1589-90. 22 The second quarto is dated 1598. The 'uncourtly' Mother Bombie has been neglected among the critics compared to Lyly's other plays.…”

Section: Mother Bombie By John Lyly (1594)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Witches which Never Flew: Native Witchcraft and the Cunning Woman on the Stage

Ahmed¹

2014

IJLA

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Abstract:In early modern England cunning men and women (often older people on the fringes of society) became easy targets for gossip within rural communities. I will examine some figures of the cunning woman in this period and show how they appear in different senses: the cunning woman as a healer, nurturer, fortune-teller and domestic manager. Mother Sawyer, in The Witch of Edmonton by William Rowley, Thomas Dekker and John Ford (1621), complains of the community of Edmonton that she has been convicted because she is 'poor, deform'd, and ignorant' (II.i.3).1 Sawyer has been abused because she is old and ugly and does not have any means by which to make her living. She is physically portrayed as a contemporary English witch. However Sawyer is not a witch from the beginning of the play, and not presented as one until her community accuse her of witchcraft. After she realizes that there is nothing left to lose, she makes a pact with the devil and thus her identity changes from an old woman into a real witch. In John Lyly's Mother Bombie (1594), Bombie is a 'white witch' or 'cunning woman' whose mysterious power is used to help people, not to harm. In Thomas Heywood's The Wise Woman of Hogsdon (1604), the Wise Woman pretends to be a cunning woman and skilled in fortune-telling, palmistry and curing diseases. The three protagonists in the mentioned plays are drawn from English witch-lore, and they live in the suburbs and resort to witchcraft in order to make their living. Mother Sawyer, a traditional English witch, is portrayed as hag-like whereas Mother Bombie and the Wise Woman are English local cunning women. The witches do not fly and stage directions do not call for flight in the witch scenes; their feet remain firmly on the ground in all scenes. Cunning women are not the same as witches: they do not have a familiar, they tell fortunes and cure diseases, are benevolent, they do not hold covens on the Sabbath, do not make pacts with the devil in return for rewards and they do not act maleficium. The chronological approach taken here is used in order to determine the dramatic development of the witches and cunning women in two theatrical modes-the tragic (The Witch of Edmonton) and the comic (Mother Bombie, and The Wise Woman of Hogsdon).

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Staging Disability in Renaissance Drama

Wood¹

2017

A New Companion to Renaissance Drama

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Mother Bombie

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Falstaff’s Baffled “Rabbit Sucker” and “Poulter’s Hare” in 1 Henry IV

Falstaff’s Baffled “Rabbit Sucker” and “Poulter’s Hare” in 1 Henry IV

Witches which Never Flew: Native Witchcraft and the Cunning Woman on the Stage

Staging Disability in Renaissance Drama

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