Sexual Identities in Early Modern England: The Marriage of Two Women in 1680

Abstract

During the past decade, much has been written about early modern sexualities both licit and illicit. Scholars have examined the conceptual and linguistic categories which were taken for granted in early modern times, where phallic heterosexuality was assumed to be the norm, and homoerotic relationships were treated as aberrant. Historians have argued that labels for same-sex relationships were used differently in the past, and that categories were more fluid.'In the case of female homoeroticism in particular, however, the problem of source material has loomed large. The act of 'sodomy' between men was a felony in seventeenth-century England, thus generating historical evidence in the form of court records. But women who engaged in sexual activity with each other committed no legal offence.2 Even in continental Europe, where female-to-female sexuality had been criminalized since the Middle Ages, men found it difficult to acknowledge that women could be physically attracted to each other. Although many cases of same-sex intercourse were brought before the European courts, few involved female defendant^.^ Lesbian sexuality did leave discursive traces in seventeenth-century literature, although this was negatively constructed and largely muted. Even the terminology for female-to-female sexuality was far more veiled and ambiguous than that for males. 'Sodomy', although it designated any form of sexual intercourse deemed 'unnatural', was usually applied to men. The terms 'tribade' and 'fricatrice' were used for women who desired other women, and Emma Donoghue has established the early modern usage of the words 'lesbian' and '~apphist'.~ Educated writers drew on a pre-existing legacy of classical models, while popular tales and ballads reflected the beliefs of the plebeian majority. Other literary sources include the poetry of some seventeenth-century women, to which scholars have given homoerotic readings, and gossip of the Restoration court, whose courtiers were fascinated with the varieties of sexual behaviour in contemporary L~n d o n .~ Medical treatises (usually composed by male physicians) discussed cases of women who had sexual relations with each other.6

Women's clothes and female honour in early modern London

“…30 Other women cross-dressed to participate in festive entertainments ; to facilitate their trade as prostitutes and after the Restoration as actresses ; to attract and follow lovers of both sexes ; and to enable them to move more freely in London, often with criminal intent. 31 One ' lusty young wench ' pretended to be a Quaker, took up service in Westminster, and robbed her employers on the second evening, fleeing 'in mans apparel ' whilst Margery Yoel and a female accomplice broke into the house of Edward Stone of Feltham in Middlesex, 'disguised in Mens Clothes ', stole 'all of value ' he had, and threatened to kill him unless he gave them money. 32…”