A List of the parliament of women.
1679
Items
Details
Title
A List of the parliament of women.
Created/published
London : Printed for T.N., 1679.
Description
1 item ; approx. 400 x 310 mm
Note
This is a PRELIMINARY RECORD. It may contain incorrect information. The "FAST ACC" number is a temporary call number. Please email catalog@folger.edu for assistance.
Genre/form
Broadsides (notices)
Item Details
Call number
FAST ACC 271227 (flat)
Folger-specific note
Ordered from Christopher Edwards, D 9275, 2019-01-16, email quote. From dealer's description: "A remarkable and extremely rare satire on women and parliament, published at a time of crisis for the development of British democracy. The satire opens with an apparently deadpan consideration of the place of women in the order of things, asserting that they are (or think they are) little different from men. 'Forasmuch as by the Laws of Nature, Women have a great share in the Creation, and that they eat, drink, sleep, talk, and do all the other Deeds of Nature, and natural Acts, as well as Man, having to their great grief, seen the vile miscarriages of the Lordly and domineering Creature, Man, who had very tyrannically excluded them from both Arts and Arms, and suffered none of them to use any other Rapier, but a Needle, nor any Lance, but a Distaff, nor suffer'd them to come into the Puplit, or to the Bar, though they have believed always, and do still believe, that they are able both to preach and plead, as well as many Men, having the member of the Tongue as loosly hung, and as long, broad, and exact, in all its dimensions, as man's ...'. Arising from this, the women of the kingdom, 'seeing the many miscarriages of late of the Men of this Kingdom, and that they have not ordered their Affairs, and management of the Common-wealth, and believing, they could manage Matters much better, they have, with one Consent, laid their Heads together, and resolved to congregate themselves, and to meddle with the Affairs of the Common-wealth, and to place themselves at the Helm of Government, and to endeavour to regain their long lost Liberty ...'. That preamble is followed by a jocular list of the women who have been chosen as 'their Female Representatives', all with descriptive names reminiscent of broad comedy on the stage: for instance, for the Liberties of Billingsgate (the ancient fish-market), the representatives include Mrs Thunder-clap, Mrs Oyster-shell and Mrs Scold-well; for the Liberties of Wapping (where ships docked) they have Mrs Sail-well and Mrs Talk-apace; and for the Universities, Lady Know-all, Madam Learn-tongue, Mrs Confidence and Madam Empty. This is a very London-centred list, for the other areas for which MPs are chosen include the Inns of Court, Covent Garden (Madam Stately and Mrs Whirligig), the Royal Exchange (Madam Dear-sell and Mrs Lye-a-bed), Moorfields (Mrs Night-Walker and Mrs Pick-pocket), Southwark and Soho. Of particular interest are representatives for 'the two Play-Houses': these include Lady Wriggle-Rump, Madam Kept-well, Mrs Play-make and Madam Love-Song'. From dealer's description: "There are also, it is true, representatives from regions such as 'the North-Countrey', which play to popular southern conceptions of life in the north: Madam Coal-pits, Mrs Old-fashion and Mrs Hard-Hand; and from 'the South-parts' names such as Lady Fickle, Mrs French-Love and Mrs Slattern. These names are said to number 174 (the true total however is actually 184), who 'met together at a convenient Place on London-Bridge, whose roaring Noise was most agreeable to the Harmony of their Tongues, and which they politickly chose, that it might allay the shrill Thunder of their Voices, which else would too loudly resound over the City, to the affrightment of the Men.' Their deliberations were adjourned to the following week, and the writer promises that 'What Acts, Speeches, Remonstrances, Bills and Orders, may be performed, made and done by them, Time will produce'. The context and predecessors of this piece are worth considering. There had been similar satires in English before, notably The Parliament of Ladies by Henry Neville (1647), or Now or Never, or a new Parliament of Women assembled (1656), and there were others later in the century: these were always satirical and comic, and sometimes exceptionally misogynistic. They all presume, of course, that the idea of women forming a parliament is absurd, and this is a strain in political satire that was to continue for at least two more centuries. And yet, in a way, by even suggesting that women might gather to form a parliament, the satirist is legitimising the idea. The political situation in 1679, especially as concerns Parliament, was extremely tense: the Exclusion Crisis was making Parliament the centre of the King's attention, and Titus Oates was accusing all and sundry of traitorous intent. In late May, Charles prorogued Parliament so that Shaftesbury's bill to exclude James II from the succession could not take effect - or, more essentially, I think, be presented to him for assent (when he would surely have refused to sign it). This left the country, at a time when the atmosphere was feverish, without a safety valve - and even those with very little sense of history would have been able to draw a parallel with the long personal rule of the King's father, which had resulted in civil war less than forty years before. Might the reference to 'the many miscarriages of late of the Men of this Kingdom' be a subtle reference to the unhappy state of parliament in mid-1679? We do not know who the author of the text was, but the publisher was probably Thomas Newcomb, the well-known bookseller whose business was in the Savoy (on the south side of the Strand, on the site of the old Savoy Palace). Newcomb's was one of the largest businesses in London, and he held a share in the King's printing house." From dealer's description: "This broadside is exceptionally rare: Wing L2481 records three copies only (Harvard, Huntington and Yale); ESTC online adds one more, at the Bodleian. It is striking that three of these four copies are from identifiable collections of considerable antiquity.1. Harvard: Narcissus Luttrell's copy, with his manuscript cost 1d (but, it seems, no date) 2. Huntington Library: among the papers of the Earls of Bridgewater (acquired by Huntington in 1917) 3. Bodleian Library: among the prints and broadsides collected by Francis Douce (bequeathed to them in 1834) 4. Yale University: uncertain provenance, with 'the last paragraph slightly mutilated'. The present copy can be traced back too - not as far as Luttrell or Bridgewater, but at least for more than 80 years: it was probaby the copy offered by Maggs in the mid-1930s (in catalogues 610 and 643). If so, it did not sell, because a more recent owner has recorded its purchase from Maggs in about 1960, for £3.10s. The Maggs catalogue description is pasted to a backing-board, when it was framed. (Now it is out of its frame, but still lightly attached to an old mount.)"