the amazons in elizabethan literature

The Amazons in Elizabethan LiteratureAuthor(s): Celeste Turner WrightSource: Studies in Philology, Vol. 37, No. 3 (Jul., 1940), pp. 433-456Published by: University of North Carolina PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4172492 .

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Studies in Philology

Volume XXXVII JULY, 1940 Number 3

THE AMAZONS IN ELIZABETHAN LITERATURE

By CELESTE TURNER WRIGHT

Elizabethan literature abounds in references to the Amazons. Conceivably, in a period when women began to enjoy some measure of freedom, such allusions may have more than an idle antiquarian interest; they may reward careful study. After all, the Amazons were the foremost ancient examples of feminism. The sixteenth and early seventeenth-century attitude toward them may therefore reveal men's real, secret opinion of the new tendency. What, for example, did the average Englishman think of his queen, whose character approached, in numerous ways, the Amazonian type? What did he think of any vigorous female who scorns domesticity, belittles matrimony, invades masculine occupation such as war, and even subjugates man?

At the beginning of such a search through the literature, one may inquire whether the Elizabethans actually believed in the existence of Amazons, past or present.

Believers adduced some arguments: Many ancient writers record the legend; 1 Plutarch had been convinced by Athenian place-names and graves dating back to Theseus.2 Such viragoes would be a natural offshoot of the barbarous Scythians; 3 nor does a female commonwealth appear unlikely to one who knows "the world's fickle ruled stay." 4 Travelers' descriptions of Amazons in South

I Heywood, The Exemplary Lives . . . of Nine the Most Worthy Women of the World (1640), p. 94.

2 Plutarch, The Life of Theseus, chap. xxvii, a main source for Raleigh's discussion in the History of the World (1614), Bk. IV, chap. ii, sect. 15.

Gainsford, Glory of England (1618), p. 3. ' Painter, Palace of Pleasure (1567), II, i, " The Amazones."

433



434 The Amazons in Elizabethan Literature

America check with the classical accounts; 5 there must have been reasons for the naming of a mighty river; 6 and Raleigh himself had been convinced by an Indian chief.

Grave doubts, notwithstanding, arose. Why had the intimates of Alexander laughed when historians inserted Amazonian episodes in his biography? 8 How could mere women have made world conquests, and whither did they finally vanish? 9 Might not the ancients have been deceived by beardless men in long robes or by the warlike wives of barbarians? 10 The location of the Amazons is always vague, moved by ancient writers anywhere between Germany and India." Their reputed homes are hard to come at. In Asia Minor their stronghold on the river Thermodon was shunned for fear of its redoubtable garrison.12 In Africa their island lay in a marsh near the boundaries of the inhabited world.'3 In America some viragoes hid in caves on remote islands, from which strong winds kept Columbus,'4 while others, on the mainland, lived beyond the country of the cannibals."' Spaniards who went through plague and high water to reach them were turned back at last by famine; and the Amazons were still a month's march away-" I doubt," brackets skeptical Purchas, " beyond the region of truth." 16

Given such precedents, Beaumont and Fletcher located their imagi-

'Andr5 Thevet, New Found World (London, tr. 1568), p. 101. 6Sandys, Ovids Metamorphosis Englished (1626; London, 1640), notes

on Bk. IX. 7Raleigh, Discovery of Guiana (1596), in Hakluyt, Voyages (J. M. Dent,

London, 1927), VII, 295-296. 8Raleigh, History of the World (1614), Bk. IV, chap. ii, sect. 15. 9 Strabo, Geography, XI, v, 3-4, cited by Painter, Sandys, and Raleigh,

History, loc. cit. 10 Purchas, Purchas His Pilgrimage (1613), Bk. III, chap. xv, and IX,

xiii; Heywood, Nine Books . . . Concerning Women (1624), pp. 218-224; and Sandys, loc. cit., all quoting Palephates and Goropius.

11 Raleigh, History, loc. cit.; Purchas, op. cit., III, xv, 268-269. 12 Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, II, 965-1002. The inhospitality of

these Amazons will be discussed below. 18 Diodorus Siculus, III, liii. Diodorus's account is mentioned by Purchas,

Pilgrimage (1613), III, xv. 14 Anghiera (Peter Martyr), Decades of the Newe World (1555), Third

Decade, in Arber, First Three English Books on America (Birmingham, 1885), p. 69.

15 Hakluyt, Voyages (1599; Glasgow, 1904), X, 424. 16 Purchas, Pilgrimes (1625; Glasgow, 1906), XVII, 33-35. Cf. idem,

Pilgrimage (1613), IX, vi, 712.



Celeste Turner Wright 435

nary colony behind a black lake avoided by even the stag as more fearful than death.'7 In short, no writer ancient or modern seemed actually to have come within eyeshot of these "solitary unimamians." 18 Reports are always at second-hand; and how, for example, could the explorer Orellana have learned of the Amazons' walled cities and golden temples from Indians whose language he could hardly speak? 19 More cautious editors class the Amazons with the phoenixes and griffins of their African domain 20 or with the other monsters used by cosmographers to fill blank spaces on a map.2' So Purchas, after quoting some Spaniard on warrior maidens like goddesses, whiter than other women and dwelling in the sea, comments scornfully in the margin: " Amazonian Dreames." 22

The Elizabethans' belief or disbelief in the ancient myth and in travelers' tales does not, however, affect the importance of the Amazons in their literature. They were interested in the concept, and they used it widely.

To be sure, they were arbitrary in selecting parts for emphasis. Several famous figures receive only passing attention-for example, Marpesia (or Marthesia) and Lampedo, joint queens of the original Asiatic tribe and heroines of earlier writers 23 and pageanters.24 To certain Elizabethans 25 these queens are merely a link in the general history of the Amazons. To others they simply afford Amazonian names, as when the Arcadia 26 mentions Marpesia as the

17 The Sea Voyage, II, i. Cf. Grendel's mere in Beowulf. 18 Purchas, Pilgrimes (1625; Glasgow, 1906), XVII, 261. 19 Herrera, Voyage of Francisco de Orellana, in Hakluyt Society, Publi-

cations (London, 1859), XXIV, 36. 20 Purchas, Pilgrimes (1625; Glasgow, 1905), VII, 364. a1 Gainsford, Glory of England (1618), p. 75. 2Z Purchas, op. cit., XVIII, 59. 23Justinus, II, iv; Orosius, I, xv; Jordanes, Gothic History, VII; Boc-

caccio, De Claris Mulieribus, chap. xi; Christine de Pisan, Cyte of Ladyes (c. 1407; London, tr. 1521), Pt. I, chap. xvi; Bergomensis, De . . . Mulie- ribus (Ferrara, 1497), chap. x (Marpesia alone).

24 Robert Withington, English Pageantry (Cambridge, Mass., 1918), I, 138, note 4: " la royne Lampheto " at Paris, 1431.

25 Painter, Palace of Pleasure (1567), II, i; Raleigh, Discovery of Guiana (1596), in Hakluyt, Voyages (J. M. Dent, London, 1927), VII, 296; Hey- wood, Nine Books . . . Concerning Women (1624), pp. 218-224; idem, Ex- emplary Lives (1640), pp. 94 ff.

2 Arcadia (1593), ed. Feuillerat (Cambridge, 1922), Bk. III (the con- tinuation), p.l 30.




reigning monarch; or when Butler 27 calls his queen-bee Marthesia; or when Burnell makes Marfisa a comic virago in Landgartha.28 Orithyia, who, according to Justinus,29 led an avenging army against the Greeks, is cited mainly for her admirable virginity.30

Writers are more impressed with the last great queen, Thalestris, who asked Alexander for a daughter, to conquer the universe, or at least a son, to become his heir.3' Painter marvels at the woman's audacity in making such advances to any man, let alone a world- conqueror.32 Raleigh, otherwise a believer in Amazons, questions her whole story; 33 but the vulgar recall her along with Penthesilea as one of those " daring Amazonian Damsels . . . who made Coxe- combs of Keysars." 34

Only two Amazons, however, receive extraordinary attention- namely Hippolyta and Penthesilea. Knowledge of the classical legend regarding them throws light on many passages in Eliza- bethan literature.

Shakespeare 35 and Phineas Fletcher "I describe Hippolyta as a " queen"; Boccaccio 37 and Chaucer 38 had done so earlier. Some, however, state that she was only a princess, sister of two joint queens.39 When the realm was invaded by Hercules, whose sixth labor

27 Charles Butler, The Feminine Monarchie (Oxford, 1609), chaps. iv-v. 28 Henry Burnell, Landgartha (1639), Act III. The name Marfisa is

doubtless from Ariosto's woman knight, who is in the tradition. 29 Justinus, II, iv; Painter, II, i; Heywood, Nine Books (1624), pp. 218-

224. The name probably should be Otrere. I I. G., Apologie for Womenkinde (1605); Heywood, Exemptary Lives

(1640), pp. 94 ff. Cf. Boccaccio, De Claris Mulieribus, chap. xviii; Bergo- mensis, De . . . Mulieribus, chap. xviii. I do not find Orythia in the other classical accounts of the Amazons.

"'Heywood, Nine Books, loc. cit.; Sandys, Ovids Metamorphosis (1626; London, 1640), comments on Book IX. Cf. Justinus, XII, iii; Quintus Curtius, History of Alexander (London, tr. 1553), VI, v.

82 Painter, op. cit., II, i, conclusion. 8 History of the World (1614), IV, ii, 15, citing Plutarch. Cf. Strabo,

Geography, XI, v, 4. 84 Anon., Parlament of Women (1640). 85 Midsummer-Night's Dream (1594), Dramatis Personae. ""Purple Island (1633), Canto X, stanza 39. 87 Tragedies, tr. Lydgate (London, 1555?), I, xii. Apollonius Rhodius,

Argonautica, Bk. II, 965-1002, says she reigned. 28 Knight's Tale, line 10. I8 Painter, Palace of Pleasure (1567), II, i; Butler, The Feminine

Monarohie (Oxford, 1609), note to chap. iv. Cf. Justinus, II, iv.




was to obtain an Amazonian girdle,40 she and Menalippe (or Mela- nippe), a fourth sister ignored by most Elizabethans except Hey- wood,4' engaged that hero and Theseus in single combat. According to Gibson's fulsome book in praise of women,42 she unhorsed Theseus but "on mere grace " made him her husband. At any rate, she gave him a stiff fight. Shakespeare and Beaumont and Fletcher,48 however, like Chaucer portray her only as a tamed and contented bride; her husband has shrunk her back into the bounds prescribed for women by nature -xcept that she is no weeping "spinster" when war is mentioned 44 and except that she likes to talk of hunting.45 Gibson 46 lauds her for becoming lowly and serviceable; when a bull's horn wounded the shoulder of Theseus, she licked the wound with her tongue.

Hippolyta is sometimes confused with her sister Antiope 47 because, in another story, Theseus visits the Amazons privately, not with Hercules; is welcomed because they love men; and entices Antiope aboard his ship. Both Sidney 48 and Burton 49 marvel at his couraging in ravishing so valiant a lady. Later, Antiope is slain so that Theseus may marry Phaedra 50-the tragedy to which Shakespeare's Oberon refers when he accuses Titania of having led Theseus to break faith with Antiope.5'

40 Sandys, Ovids Metamorphosis (1626; London, 1640), notes on Bk. IX. Cf. Apollonius Rhodius, loc. cit.; Diodorus Siculus, II, xlvi. Painter, loc. cit., like Justinus, loc. cit., names the royal armor, not the girdle of Hip- polyta (or of any other Amazon) as the prize.

41 The Brazen Age, Act I, praises her and omits Hippolyta. Both these Amazons were female Worthies at the Paris coronation of Henry VI (Withington, English Pageantry, Cambridge, Mass., 1918, I, 138, note 4).

42 Anthony Gibson, A Womans Woorth (1599; a translation from the French), p. 5.

43 Two Noble Kinsmen, I, i. 4 Ibid., I, i and iii. 45 Shakespeare, Midsummer-Night's Dream, IV, i, 118-124. Beaumont

and Fletcher, op. cit., I, i, also mention the boar-hunt; and they have another Amazon Hippolita in The Sea Voyage.

48 Gibson, tr., A Womans Woorth (1599), p. 37 r. 7 Plutarch, Life of Theseus, chaps. xxvi-xxviii, summarized by Raleigh,

History of the World (1614), IV, ii, 15. 48 Arcadia (1590), III, xvii. 4"Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part 3, Sect. 3, Mem. 1, Subs. 2.

0 Ovid, Heroyeall Epistles, tr. Turbervile (London, 1567), IV, 117-122. Plutarch, Life of Theseus, chaps. xxvii-xxviii, calls the jilting and murder a poet's invention; according to him, Antiope was really slain in battle.

51 Midsummer-Night's Dream, II, i, 80.




The other important Amazon, Penthesilea, is celebrated by Painter,52 Spenser,53 Gibson,54 Heale,55 and Rich56 as an almost matchless example of woman's ability in war; and by Jonson 57 as an example of heroic virtue. Sidney, 58 Shakespeare,59 and Shirley 60

mention her casually, as if confident of being understood. Perusing foreign authors, they might have noted her influence upon Virgil's Camilla 61 or Tasso's Clorinda,62 who, like her,63 can inspire ordinary women to snatch up arms and defend their homes; or upon Mon- talvo's absurd Calafre, dashing to the siege of Constantinople with her "California" Amazons and their trained griffins; 6 or upon Ortunez's extravagant Claridiana, heiress to Penthesilea's armor and allegedly her better in all respects.65

On the stage Heywood offers the Penthesilea story as found in the Troy romances-her courtly love for the unknown Hector, whom she never saw alive; 66 her exploits against the Greeks, his mur- derers; her combat with Pyrrhus, who disdained female fighters; her death at the misogynist's hands.67 Many Elizabethans-

52 Palace of Plea-sure, II, i, conclusion. "3Faerie Queene, III, iv, st. 2. Cf. Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, XXXVII,

st. 5. 6 A Womans Woorth (1599), p. 5 r. 65W. Heale, Apologie for Women (Oxford, 1609), ch. 3, p. 15. 58 Barnabe Rich, Eeellency of Good Women (1613). 67 Masque of Queens (1609). Penthesilea is the first of the twelve queens

exemplifying heroic virtue. 8 Arcadia (1590), I, 13: Zelmane claims to be Penthesilea's descendant.

69 Twelfth Night (1600), II, iii, 196. 80 Love's Cruelty (1631), III, i. 81Aeneid, XI, 891-895 (uprising of women); and passim. 82 Jerusalem Delivered, XI, st. 58 (uprising); and passim. 88 Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy, I, 403-474 (uprising). 84 Fifth Book of . . . Amadis de Gaule (c. 1510; London, tr. 1664),

chaps. 50-54. Henry Thomas, Spanish and Portuguese Romances of Chivalry (Cambridge, 1920), p. 266, shows that this, the Esplandian por- tion of Amadis, was known to Ben Jonson (1640).

85 Ortunez de Calahorra, Mirrour of Knighthood, Bk. I, Pt. II (tr. 1585), chap. 26, p. 91. Cf. Spenser, Faerie Queene, III, iv, sts. 2-3, on Brito- martis's surpassing Penthesilea.

88 Ortunez de Calahorra, op. cit., chap. 55, however, makes her bear Hec- tor a son, ancestor of a knight who is defeated by the Knight of the Sun, the lineal descendant of Achilles.

87 Heywood, 2 Iron Age, Act I; this follows his Life . . . of Hector (1614), paraphrasing the Troy Book. There are many Elizabethan editions of the Troy romances. For Penthesilea, cf. Heywood, Nine Books (1624),




Sidney,68 Spenser,69 Raleigh 70-likewise name Pyrrhus as her slayer, although Jonson,71 Sandys,72 and Burnell 73 espouse the older, more classical legend of her fatal defeat by his father Achilles, who, too late, fell in love with her beautiful corpse.74 In this rival version her motive for coming to Troy was not the love of Hector, but a vow to punish the Greeks for aiding Hercules against her people; or perhaps she fled her weakened country to escape an invasion.75 After her death the Asiatic Amazons no longer flourished,76 though they survived to the time of Thalestris. Some of them, perhaps, migrated to South America, where their descendants were found by explorers.77

Besides these heroines from the classical tradition, certain other Amazons appear in Elizabethan literature. An army of them marches in Greene's Alphonsus,78 led, incongruously, by the wife of the Great Turk. Spenser I and Beaumont and Fletcher,80 like Ariosto 81 and Montalvo,82 devise Amazonian communities, modeled in general upon those of the ancients. Several notable Amazons are really men in disguise, such as a lover seeking to be near his lady 83

V; and Exemplary Lives (1640), pp. 94 ff., where she is a female Worthy. Cf. Boccaccio, De . . . Mulieribus, ch. xxx; Bergomensis, ch. xxiii; Gower, Confessio Amantis, IV, 2135-2182; Pisan, Cyte of Ladyes (c. 1407; Lon- don, tr. 1521), ch. xix, and Epistle of Othea to Hector (tr. c. 1440; London, 1904), ch. xv.

68 Arcadia (1590), I, xiii. 69 Faerie Queene (1596), II, iii, st. 31. 70 History of the World (1614), II, xiv, sect. 4. 71 Masque of Queens (1609), note on Penthesilea. 72 Ovids Metamorphosis (1626; London, 1640), notes on Bk. IX. 7 Landgartha (1639), III, masque. 74 Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy, I, 538-722. Cf. Propertius, Elegies,

III, xi, 13-16, quoted by Heywood, Exemplary Lives (1640), pp. 94 if., who, however, favors the Pyrrus version.

75 David Chambers, Lord Ormond, Histoire Abbregee de Tous les Roys de France, Angleterre et Escosse (Paris, 1579), Pt. III, p. 18 r.; Sandys, Ovids Metamorphosis, notes on Bk. IX.

76 Painter, Palace of Pleasure, II, i; cf. Diodorus Siculus, II, xlvi. 77Thevet, New Found Worlde (tr. 1568), ch. lxiii, p. 102v. 78 V, i; see also III, ii and iii on Amazons. 79 Faerie Queene, V, iv-vii. 80 The Sea Voyage. 81 Orlando Furioso, XIX, lvii if. 82Fifth Book of . . . Amadis (c. 1510; tr. 1664), chap. 50. 88 Sidney, Arcadia (Zelmane); Shirley, dramatization of Arcadia; Mars-

ton, Antonio and Mellida.



440 The Amazons in Elizabethan Litermture

or a prince spying upon traitors 84-an entertaining trick if some man falls in love with the "Amazon" or expects to defeat her easily in a duel.85 Because of their decorative costumes, Amazons figured in a pageant at the christening in 1594 of Prince Henry, the heir of James I; 86 Shakespeare's Timon, for similar reasons, con- trives a masque in which Amazons dance and sing.87

Certain warlike heroines are directly compared, by their creators, to Amazons: in allegory Belphoebe 88 and Parthenia; 89 in historical drama Margaret of Anjou 90 and Joan of Arc; 9' in tragedy the ruthless Martia, fighting in Amazon's attire beside her pirate father; 92 in comedy Maria, the shrew-tamer's bride, barricading her house against Petruchio and abetted by the militant wives of tradesmen.93 And with numerous others the comparison would be natural-for instance, Clara, the Martial AMaid, whose father reared her as a boy.94

The Elizabethans pictured the Amazons with the traditional accouterments-the moonlike shield,9 the battleaxe invented by Penthesilea,96 the buskins,97 the robe knotted to the knee, leaving

84Anon., Swetnam, the Woman-Hater (pr. 1620), a play. 85 Sidney, op. cit., passim; and Anon., Swetnam, Act IV. 88 J. G. Nichols, Progresses of Queen Elizabeth (London, 1788), Vol. III,

reprint of A True Accompt (1603), p. 11. Withington, English Pageantry (Cambridge, Mass., 1918), I, 218, note 7 on this; and I, 88 and 138, on Amazons in French pageants of the fifteenth century.

87 Timon of Athens, I, ii, 138 ff. 88 Spenser, Faerie Queene, II, iii, st. 31 (to Penthesilea). 89p. Fletcher, The Purple Island (1633), X, st. 39 (to Hippolyta). 90 Shakespeare, 3 Henry IV, IV, i, 106. 9 Shakespeare, 1 Henry VI, I, ii, 104. 92 Beaumont and Fletcher, The Double Marriage, II, i. 9B Eidem, The Woman's Prize, II, vi.

E Bidem, Love's Cure, or The Martial Maid. 95 Painter, Palace of Pleasure, II, i; Spenser, Paerie Queene, V, v, st. 3;

Heywood, Nine Books (1624), pp. 218-224; cf. Virgil, Aeneid, I, 491, and XI, 663, on Penthesilea; Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy, I, lines 142-150; Bergomensis, De . . . Mulieribus (Ferrara, 1497), chap. xxiii, picture of Penthesilea.

90 Sandy's, Ovids Metamorphosis (1626; London, 1640), notes on Bk. IX, citing Pliny; Heywood, Nine Books (1624), pp. 218-224, on Penthesilea.

97 Raleigh, History of the World, IV, ii, sect. 15, from Plutarch, Life of Pompey, ch. xxxv. Cf. Shakespeare, Midsummer-Night's Dream, II, i, 71; Heywood, 2 Iron Age, I; Sidney, Arcadia, I, xii; Spenser, Faerie Queene, V, v, st. 3.




one breast exposed.98 Spenser's Radigund wears a fairly typical costume.99 Sidney's Zelmane, on the other hand, is outrageously overdressed; 100 much more so Heywood's woodcut of Penthesilea in the style of 1640, her armor smothered under scarves, lace, pearls, and plumes.101

Beautiful helmets are so conventional an attribute of the Amazons that even Zelmane's fussy peacetime headdress of pearls and feathers is shaped to resemble one.'02 When Penthesilea's golden helm fell away in battle, Archilles became enamored,103 as Theseus of Hippolyta.104 The same romantic mishap overtakes many Amazons or near-Amazons-Claridiana,'05 Clorinda,106 Britomar- tis,'07 Radigund.108 MWhen these ladies (except of course the wicked Radigund) are unhelmed, down tumbles a " treasure of fair golden hair." 109

The Amazons were pictured as divinely tall like Penthesilea, whom Archilles had thought queenly."10 The Elizabethans admired tall women. Their eugenicists warned them against the " pigmy children " of a dwarfish wife,"'l citing Plutarch's 112 anecdote of the king who was fined for such a marriage. Although Eeywood, apparently a dissenter, specifies that Boadicea was a comely lady,

I8 Heywood, Nine Books (1624), pp. 218-224, from Quintus Curtius, History of Alexander, VI, v, on Thalestris. Cf. Virgil, Aeneid, I, 490-493, on Penthesilea.

l Faerie Queene, Variorum Edition (Baltimore, 1936), notes on V, v, sts. 2-3.

1o0 Arcadia, I, xii. 102 Sidney, Arcadia, I, xii. 101 Exemplary Lives (1640), p. 94. 103 Above, note 74. 104 P. Fletcher, The Purple Island (1633), X, st. 39. 105 Ortunez de Calahorra, Mirrour of Knighthood (London, tr. 1585),

I,i. 6 Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered, III, st. 21 ff.

107 Spenser, Faerie Queene, IV, vi, sts. 19-20. 108 Ibid., V, v, sts. 11-13. 109 Sidney, Arcadia (1590; Cambridge, 1922), III, xvi, p. 447. 11O Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy, I, 671-674. Cf. Herrera, Voyage

of . . . Orellana, in Hakluyt Soc. Pubs. (London, 1859), XXIV, 34, on the tall Amazons of the New World.

111 Alexander Niccholes, Of M:arriage and Wiving (1615), ch. 4. 112 Education . . . of Children, tr. Sir Thomas Eliot (1535?), ch. ii;

Lyly, Euphues and His Ephoebus, in Works (Oxford, 1902), p. 262; Brys- kett, Discourse of Civil Life (1606), first day; Burton, Anatomy of Melan- choly (1621), Part 3, Sec. 2, Mem. 2, Subs. 2.




not a "martiall Bosse, or Amazonian Giantesse," 1-3 many a tall Englishwoman was delighted to be called either " Amazon" 114 or "our brave British Boadicea." "l Thus although Zelmane and Atlanta 116 are princes in Amazonian disguise, they awaken men's desires. The former, in stature "like Hercules," is goodly and charming-" I have read the Amazons described so." 117

The type traditionally inspires men with the hope of superior offspring. The early Scythians, who had women of their own, nevertheless schemed to marry some Amazons who had been shipwrecked on their coast."8 So Zoilus exults to Zelmane, "What a race will be betwene us! . . . The World will be too little for them! "11 Swetnam, somewhat similarly, wishes to beget upon Atlanta a race of witty orators.120 As for the near-Amazons, Brito- martis will be the ancestress of a heroic line; 121 the Roaring Girls, Long Meg of Westminster 122 and Moll Frith,123 are expected to marry tall captains and to bring forth soldiers.

The Amazons are not admired for physique alone. Pyrocles feels honored to disguise himself as one of those women so excellent " aswell in private, as in publicke vertue." 124 Earlier philogynists had praised them as "moste worthy in warre and polytyke in

peace, 125 exhibiting ffeates of all vertewes . . . more then a thowsand years together." 126 They serve as models of female magnanimity and courage 127 and are even included, with no com-

h""Exemplary Lives (1640), under Bunduca. 114 N. Faret, tr. Grimstone, The Honest Man: Or, the Art to Please int

Court (London, 1632), p. 266. 116 Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, Part 3, Sec. 2, Mem. 3. 118 Sidney, Arcadia; anon., Swetnam, respectively. 117 Shirley, dramatization of Arcadia, I, i, and III, i. 118 Herodotus, IV, chaps. 110-116. 119 Sidney, Arcadia (Cambridge, 1922), III, xxviii, p. 513. Cf. above,

note 31, on Thalestris's proposal to Alexander. 120 Anon., Swetnam (pr. 1620), IV, ii. 121 Spenser, Faerie Queene, III, iii. 122 Anon., Life of Long Meg (1582; London, 1635), chs. ii and xiii. 12S Middleton, The Roaring Girl, II, i, when Moll enters. 124 Sidney, op. cit., I, xiii, p. 89. Cf. I, xii, p. 79. 125 Agrippa (1509), tr. Clapam, Nobilitie of Woman Kynde (London,

1542). 126 William Barker, The Nobility of Women (1559; London, 1904). 1I27Christopher Newstead, Apology for Women (1620), pp. 17-18; I. G.,

Apologie for Womenkinde (1605).




ment upon their sex, among many male examples of valor and of " civil nobility." 128 But no Elizabethan, apparently, follows Chris- tine de Pisan in lauding them because they despised the bondage of matrimony 129 except in satire, where they are ironically admired for having beaten 130 or enslaved 1'3 their husbands.

Of Penthesilea and the rest of the Nine Female Worthies, Hey- wood notes: "'All these Heroyicke Ladies are generally called Viragoes, which is derived of Masculine Spirits and . . . Martial Enterprises." 132 This, obviously, is praise. The term virago had been used by a medieval pope to glorify Joan of Arc 133 and by Renaissance Italians to flatter certain noblewomen.'34 Many Eliza- bethans apply it to such heroines as Bonduca 135 or the warlike virgins of America,'86 although some tinge it with its present-day reproach by applying it to a Roaring Girl 37 or a domineering wife.'38

The Elizabethans loved valor, and the Amazons were valiant-so thirsty of fame that only she who had slain her foe was permitted to marry.'39 They conquered much of Europe and Asia.'40 Homer called them "the peers of men"n; 141 and such Painter 142 and

128 Jeronimo Osorio, tr. William Blandie, Discourse of Civill and Chris- tian Nobilitie (1576), Bk. II, p. 25 v.

139 Cyte of Ladyes (c. 1407; tr. 1521), Pt. I, ch. iv. 130 Shirley, Hyde Park, I, ii, 33-37-words of a feminist. 131 Anon., Parlament of Women (1640 )-" Hench-men of their husbands." 132 Exemplary Lives (1640), prefacing account of Penthesilea. Cf. Boc-

caccio, De Claris Mulieribus (Ulm, 1475), ch. xxx; Bergomensis, De Mulieribus (Ferrara, 1497), ch. xxiii-both of Penthesilea.

133 Heywood, Nine Books (1624), on " Joane de Arc." 134 H. S. V. Jones, cited in the Variorum Edition of the Faerie Queene,

Bk. III (Baltimore, 1934), Appendix II, p. 338. 1 Beaumont and Fletcher, Bonduca, dramatis personae. 136 Purchas, Pilgrimes (1625; Glasgow, 1905), XIV, 504, margin, of a

girl who slew with her bow eight Spaniards. 137 Brathwait, The English Gentlewoman (1631), p. 123. 138 Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part. 3, Sec. 2, Mem. 5,

Subs. 3: " Who can endure a virago for a wife? " Cf. Massinger, The City Madam (1632), II, ii, 163.

139 Heywood, Nine Books (1624), pp. 218-224, from Herodotus, IV, cxvii (really on the Sauromatae, supposedly the descendants of the Amazons); Osorio, tr. Blandie, Discourse of . . . Nobilitie (London, 1576), Bk. II, p. 25 v.

140 Painter, Palace of Pleasure, II, i; cf. Justinus, II. iv; Diodorus Siculus, III, lv.

141 Iliad, VI, 186. 142 Loc. cit., conclusion,




Barckley 143 concede them have been. Even in sixteenth-century Africa, so travelers reported,144 an emperor's chosen guards were a race of Amazons who could hold their own against devilish male cannibals with turned-back eyelids. Evidently exercise and disci- pline can transform a woman into a warrior,145 and the Amazons had justified Plato's belief that women are physically able to " exercise such maystries as men use." 146

There are, furthermore, special circumstances under which even a decent woman may be commended for thus taking arms. Sir Thomas More 147 permits such a step in times of national emer- gency. Thus the Norwegian Landgartha, an avowed disciple of the Amazons, is applauded for her miarch against a Swedish tyrant.148 Thus English ladies may justifiably have fought the Romans,'49 the Danes,'50 the French.15' Thus Scottish ladies might combat Miacbeth.152 It is especially appropriate to defend, like Kyd's Perseda,153 a hard-pressed city, as did the women of Chios and Syracuse 154 or of Argos,155 though of course the Bohemian Valasca

143 Richard Barckley, The Felicitie of Man (1598; London, 1631), III, iv; let not man be proud, since woman has equalled him.

144 Purchas, Pilgrimes (1625; Glasgow, 1905), VI, 507-508; 514-515. Theodor de Bry, Vera Descriptio Regni Africani (Frankfurt, 1598), gives pictures, with an account by Edward Lopez, who, in turn, is cited by Sandys, Ovids Metamorphosis (1626; London, 1640), notes to Bk. IX.

145Daniel Tuvill, Asylum Veneris (1616), Epilogue, citing Plato's arguments; cf. Republic, V, and Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy, I, 447-474- the latter for reasons why the Amazons surpass other women in valor.

146 Agrippa, Nobilitie . . . of Woman Kynde, tr. Clapam (London, 1542), citing Plato's arguments. Cf. Romei, The Courtiers Academie (tr. 1598), p. 239. William Barker, Nobylytye of Wymen (1559; London, 1904), in general an imitation of Agrippa, uses the Amazons to prove that women can fight.

147 Utopia, Bk. II. Cf., again, Plato, Republic, V. 14B Burnell, Landgartha (1639), I. Cf. Barckley, Felicitie of Man (1598;

London, 1631), III, iv, p. 268-apparently the Landgartha story. 149 Heywood, Exemplary Lives (1640), on Bunduca. 150 I. G., Apologie for Womenkinde (1605), on the "hardy female band"

who rid our land of Danes in a single night. 151 Shakespeare, King John, V, ii, 155, " like Amazons." 152 Idem, Macbeth, IV, iii, 186-188. $S8 Soliman and Perseda, V, iv. 154 Plutarch, Bravery of Women, Example 3; Castiglione, The Courtier,

tr. Hoby (1561; London, 1900), III, p. 242; Tuvill, Asylum Veneris (1616), ch. x; Gibson, tr., A Womans Woorth (1599), p. 5 r.

155 Plutarch, op. cit., Example 4, cited by Peacham, Compleat Gentleman (1622),p. 80.




did ill to organize women to revolt against their husbands, no matter how Jonson may glorify her in a masque.156

And some authorities praise a queen, in particular, for practicing the art of war. Elizabeth at Tilbury, reviewing her troops "like some Amazonian empress," 157 displayed a masculine courage 15

and-at least in Heywood's dramatic version 159-justified her generalship by the example of Queen Zenobia, whom Sir Thomnas Elyot,160 against his wont, had commended for fighting. Poets praised Elizabeth as a " Mars-daunting materialist," 161 " for power in arms, Minerva's mate." 162 Had not Castiglione 163 encouraged the woman ruler (though not his ideal "waiting-gentilwoman") to go, like Zenobia or Tomyris, gloriously to battle? Even cantan- kerous Ferne,164 the heraldic expert, who begrudges a coat of arms to the " imperfect sex," prudently excepts a ruling queen, declaring that she shares in the nature of the nobler sex sufficiently to display her arms upon a shield " of the best maner."

But however theorists may applaud commoners or queens for occasional displays of patriotic valor, the vast majority of Eliza- bethans are unalterably opposed to woman's meddling with weapons. Why? Because, says Spenser, of masculine envy, which has stifled woman's fame and prevented further exploits like those of the Amazons,165 The spiteful can always declare, Yt was not trewe

158 Masque of Queens (1609). Contrast Gainsford, Glory of England (1618), II, xiv, 238.

157 J. E. Neale, Queen Elizabeth (London, 1934), p. 297. The words are Neale's; I have not found any Elizabethan comparing the queen directly to an Amazon.

158Dekker, Whore of Babylon, Works (London, 1873), Vol. II, pp. 272- 273, on Titania's (Elizabeth's) zest for this war.

1591f You Know Not Me, You Know No Bodie, Pt. II, in Works (Lon- don, 1874), Vol. VI, p. 337.

180 Defence of Good Women (1545). 181 Du Bartas, Devine Weekes and Workes, tr. Sylvester (London, 1605),

p. 434. 182 Peele, Arraignment of Paris, V, i. 183 The Courtier, tr. Hoby (1561; London, 1900), Bk. III, pp. 221, 224,

248. 164 The Blazon of Gentrie (1586), Pt. II, pp. 77-78; and Pt. 1, p. 156, on

Semiramis. 185 Faerie Queene, III, ii, st. 2, following Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, XX,

sts. 1-3. Cf. P. Q. III, iv, sts. 1-2. Gibson, A Womans Woorth (1599), p. 7, fully applies this idea to the Amazons and to other women fighters.




that Camylla penthesilea nor Iudythe wer so valyant . . . Theas be devysed . . . of wysemen, to call from vyce the wymen of every age." 166 Some (says Gainsford) believe that this masculine envy explains the Amazons' changing their headquarters from the Old World to the New.167

Men may, for example, hamper the female warrior by simply refusing to fight her. The reason may be sheer gallantry, as when Alexander told Thalestris that ladies should be courted with flattery, not with steel.'68 Amadis is reluctant to fight Calafre, lest he hurt her; 169 Arthegall to strike Radigund; 170 a gentleman to undertake a duel with Zelmane; 171 and Alphonsus to cross swords with that "sweete mouse," Iphigina.172 Even Tamburlaine, the relentless, endorses a league with the Amazons because they are women.173

Common sense, however, reinforces this gallantry, for defeat at female hands would be intolerable. As Thalestris warned Alex- ander, war with the Amazons involves the risk of being conquered by women.'74 When a knight falls shamefully before the sword of Zelmane, his brother regrets that vengeance will mean only the destruction of-a female! 175 Some carping Thersites can always twit Pyrrhus or Achilles with having slain a mere wretched woman, even though that woman be Penthesilea herself.'76

Aside from masculine envy, gallantry, or shrewdness, warlike women are hampered by the mere tradition that for them fighting is

168 Barker, Nobility of Women (1559; London, 1904). 107 The Glory of England (1618), Bk. I, ch. ix, p. 75. Gainsford himself

doubts the existence of Amazons in America. 168 Heywood, Nine Books (1624), pp. 218-224. According to G. C.

Rothery, The Amazons in Antiquity and Modern Times (London, 1910), p. 12, Achilles, in Greek tradition, though provoked by Penthesilea, thought it wrong to hurt a woman.

169 Montalvo, Fifth Book of . . . Amadis (c. 1510; London, tr. 1664), chs. Iii-Iiii.

170 Spenser, Faerie Queene, V, v, st. 13. Cf. IV, vi, st. 17. 171 Sidney, Arcadia, II, xi. 172Greene, Alphonsus, V, ii. Iphigina is leading Amazons. 178 Marlowe, 2 Tamburlaine, I, iii. 174 Heywood, Nine Books (1624), pp. 218-224. Cf. Shakespeare, 1 Henry

VI, IV, vii, 40-41: Young Talbot refuses to fight Joan of Arc, saying he " was not born to be the pillage of a giglot wench."

175 Sidney, Arcadia (Cambridge, 1922), III, ch. 28, p. 516. 176 Heywood, 2 Iron Age, III. So Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy, I,

722-740.




immodest. Vives, the educator, had upbraided female authorities on arms and joustings: " A woman that useth these feates, drinketh poyson in hir hert." 177 Conceivably, he was rebuking the medieval Christine de Pisan for her capable treatise on war.'78 In 1578, after half a century, his edict against women's reading romances of chivalry was still in force: the elderly Margaret Tyler 179 blushed at having translated The MIirrour of Knighthood, "a matter more manlike than becommeth my sexe." It were overbold, she argued, " to intermeddle in armes," like the Amazons or like her heroine Claridiana; yet merely " to report of armes " were surely less odious.

To be sure, some of the objectors are thorough pacifists who, like Vives,'80 disapprove of war for men also. Panegyrists of woman count her unwarlike disposition a sign of superiority.'8' Sidney, though lauding the Amazons' valor, regrets that "the swetnes of their dispositions " did not make them, like other ladies, see " the vainnesse of these things, which we [men] accompt glorious." 182

But whatever the evils or merits of war for men, the prejudice against women fighters did not often exempt even a ruling queen. Fortescue, eminent fifteenth-century jurist, arguing against a woman's right to inherit the English crown, had declared that queens cannot bear the sword.183 Later, defenders of Elizabeth and Mary Stuart had pointed out that kings also are forbidden to kill with their own hands 184 and that women have sometimes gone to war and sped well.'85 On the stage, nevertheless, female rulers are often rebuked for intruding upon the battlefield: Bonduca's own

177 Instruction of a Christian Woman, tr. Richard Hyrde (London, 1541), Bk. I, 9v.-IOr.

178 Livre des faitz d'armes, tr. by Caxton at the order of Henry VII. (Britannica.)

179The Mirrour of . . . Knighthood (tr. 1578), "To the Reader." 180 Loc. cit. and Bk. II, p. 101 v. 181 Edward Gosynhill, Prayse of All Women (1542?) ; I. G., Apologie

for WVomenkinde (1605); Constantia Munda, Worming of a Mad Dogge (1617).

182 Arcadia (Cambridge, 1922), I, ch. xii, p. 79. 188 S. B. Chrimes, English Constitutional Ideas in the Fifteenth Century

(Cambridge, 1936), p. 63. 184 David Chambers, Lord Ormond, Histoire (1579), Pt. III, p. 29 r.,

citing Plutarch. 188 John Aylmer, An Harborowe for Faithfull . . . Subjects (15t9),

reply to John Knox, Argument 3.




cousin calls her a " woman fool " for meddling in men's affairs.'86 Cleopatra's soldiers dislike to be women's men; and she herself, eager to join in the seafight, only causes Antony to lose.'87 Even loyal soldiers insult an Italian duchess in her camp, simply because she is a woman.188 John Case, though writing in the Armada year to extol Elizabeth as a model prince, pronounces women unfit for war, the Amazons notwithstanding.'89

One reason for such vehemence againist fighting-women was doubtless the roughness and immodesty of such Roaring Girls as London actually knew. Although authorities on etiquette main- tained that " neyther menne ought to bee Sardanapales, nor women Amazones," llO the vulgar perversely enjoyed the exploits of those heroines in breeches, Long Meg,'91 Mary Ambree,'92 and M/oll Frith.'93 By 1620 "sisters of foolish Don Quixote," 194 with short hair and male attire, were said to be swaggering everywhere. A decade later, Heywood published his play, The Fair Maid of the West, glorifying one Bess, an avowed disciple of Meg and Mary.'95 The moralists continued their invective although Meg and Bess made obedient wives 196 and though sometimes an " English Amazon " proved chaste as well as daring.'97 (" Bodily force too in a woman, were it but to defend its own Fort, is a perfection.")198

188 Beaumont and Fletcher, Bondsca, III, v. 187 Shakespeare, Antong and Cleopatra, III, vii, 1-19; and viii. 188 Massinger, The Maid of Honour, IV, i.

Spaera Civitatis (Oxford, 1588), p. 135. 190 Stephen Guazzo, tr. G. Pettie, Civile Conversation (London, 1586),

Bk. III, p. 160 r. 191 Anon., Life of Long Meg (1582; new editions were needed as late as

1635). Meg had lived in the time of Henry VIII. 192 Thomas Percy, Reliques (London, 1876), II, 231-237. The ballad

originated at the siege of Ghent, 1584. 193 Middleton and Dekker, The Roaring Girl (pr. 1611); Moll lived c.

1589-1661. See Bullen, Works of Middleton (1885), Vol. IV, introduction to the play, for allusions to her in literature.

194 Anon., Hic Mulier (1620); cf. Haec Vir and Muld Sacke (1620). 199 Heywood, 1 Fair Maid of the West, II, iii. 196 Cf. Middleton, The Roaring Girl, III, i: Moll Frith, though loath to

marry, holds the correct views; she says it were base of a husband to stand in awe of his wife.

197 Brathwait, English Gentlewoman (1631), p. 126, on a " Citie-Virago" who trounced a cad for attempting her honor.

198 Burnell, Landgartha (Dublin, 1641), Epistle.




No doubt the actual female swashbuckler was far less attractive than her idealized literary portrait; as Middleton says of Moll, "'Tis the excellency of a writer to leave things better than he finds 'em."199 Observing the morals of the real Moll, misogynists might draw unkind conclusions about even the virago of noble birth; so Webster's Flamineo exclaims in slaying Vittoria, the White Devil,

Know, many glorious women that are fam'd For masculine virtue, have been vicious, Only a happier silence did betyde them.200

Chaste or not, however, a woman who takes up arms becomes cruel, as Boccaccio observes-" a fell wolvess." 201 The sex is by nature irascible through an excess of bile; and hence the Amazons, lacking male guidance, observed no sort of decorum.202 For this reason " Amazonian impudence " 203 and " Amazonian trull" 204 are common epithets; and no characteristic of the classical Amazons is more frequently noted than their cruelty. Small wonder, therefore, that Elizabeth herself is apparently never called an Amazon even by those contemporaries who admire the beauty and courage of the type; the complaint might have been misconstrued. Small wonder, too, that in Spenser not the chivalrous Britomartis nor the Diana- like Belphoebe, but only Radigund, symbol of female tyranny, is literally an Amazon.

The Asiatic tribe came honestly by their cruelty, for originally they were the women 205 of those Scythians who became a byword for barbarism.206 The Scythians, in turn, had inherited their blood- thirsty nature from a snake lady who mated with Zeus or with Hercules.207 They cut off their visitors' noses, quaffed blood from

199 Middleton, op. cit., " To the Comic Play-Reader." 200 The White Devil, V, vi, 242-246. 201 Tragedies, tr. Lydgate (London, 1555?), III, x. 202 Case, Spaera Civitatis (Oxford, 1588), Bk. II, p. 135. 20311Jonson, lpicoene (1609), III, v, 41, of Epicoene. 204 Shakespeare, 3 Henry VI, I, iv, 114, of Margaret of Anjou; Brome,

Weeding of the Covent Garden, IV, i, of two " punks " with swords. 205 Justinus II, i. Cf. Marston, Antonio and Mellida, I, i, 173, where an

Amazon names Scythia as her country. 206 E. g., Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, I, i, 131; King Lear, I, i, 118;

Shirley, Duke's Mistress, III, iii, 18. 207Gainsford, Glory of England (1618), I, i, p. 3. Cf. Diodorus Siculus.

I, xliii.




skulls, and devoured human flesh.208 Hence the sting when a supporter of Mlary Stuart called Elizabeth more cruel than a Scythian.209

The Amazons were not long in manifesting their cruel nature. The original group conspired against their Scythian husbands and seized control of the state; 210 or at least, when most of the men had been slain in battle, the conduct of these female malcontents became questionable. Charitably, we may say that they chased out the remaining men.21' More likely, however, they put the surviving males to the sword,212 alleging, forsooth, that thus the grief of all the women would be rendered equal.213 Then, inconsistently, they took bloody " revenge " upon their husbands' foes.

Having tasted this freedom, they next decided that matrimony had been slavery 214 a " singular example to all ages 1 215 and one cited by John Knox 216 to prove the monstrousness of women. They despised household tasks, especially woolwork,217 liked only hunting and warfare.218 For procreation they mated temporarily with their

208 Heywood, Exemplary Lives (1640), p. 94 ff. Guy C. Rothery, The Amazons (London, 1910), says (p. 12) that the Amazons in primitive tradition were cannibals and (p. 205) that those of Thermodon reputedly drank from skulls.

209 Adam Blackwood, Martyre de la Royne d'Escosse (Edinburgh, 1587), on " Les vertus de Iesabel Angloise."

210 Gainsford, loc. cit., following Diodorus Siculus II, xlv. 211 Christine de Pisan, Cyte of Ladyes (c. 1407; tr. 1521), Pt. I, ch. xvi.

Christine, a feminist, whitewashes the Amazons. 212 Painter, Palace of Pleasure (1567), II, i; Heywood, Exemplary Lives

(1640), p. 94 ff. Cf. Mandeville, Travels (1364; London, 1640?), ch. 50. 2:1 Richard Barckley, Felicitie of Man (1598; London, 1631), III, iv,

267-268. Cf. Justinus, II, iv; Orosius, I, xv. 214 Thevet, New Found Worlde (tr. 1568), ch. lxiii, p. 102; Heywood,

Exemplary Lives (1640), p. 94ff. Cf. Justinus, II, iv. 215 Heywood, Nine Books (1624), pp. 218-224. 218 Regiment of Women (1558), in Arber, English Scholar's Library, No.

2 (London, 1878), pp. 13, 20. 217 Justinus, II, iv. Cf. Virgil, Aeneid, VII, 803-811, on Camilla; Boc-

caccio, De . . . Mulieribus, ch. 98, and Chaucer, Monk's Tale, sts. 2, 3, both on Zenobia; Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered, II, sts. 39-40, on Clorinda; Spenser, P. Q., III, ii, st. 6, on Britomartis; Anon., Life of Long Meg (1582), ch. ii; Middleton, Roaring Girl, Works (London, 1885), Vol. IV, Bullen's introduction to the play. All these heroines particularly hated needlework.

218 Herodotus. IV, cxiv: The Amazons made their Scythian bridegrooms promise to let them ride and hunt, not do housework.




neighbors 219 or-the version preferred by the Troy romancers-con- fined some men to an island which they visited in April, May, and June.220 Those in America had similar systems.22' They must have been a disgruntled lot, disappointed in love and pining secretly for a normal domestic life; 222 and they might have swelled the chorus of Beaumont and Fletcher's exasperated colony: " We must and will have Men! "223

These embittered "mankillers," as the Scythians called them,224 were notoriously unfair to strangers. Ships blown to their shores on the Black Sea found them heartless and unwomanly, fierce-eyed furies who dined on lizards.225 They ravaged Europe worse than the Goths, their Christianized descendants.226 Nor could the South Americans take much comfort in their branch of the clan, who "accompanied with" male prisoners and then slew them,227 hung captives up by the leg and pierced them with arrows.228 The Amazons of romance followed suit, feeding their captives to trained griffins, who wastefully sucked the blood and abandoned the corpses; 229 or murdering all prisoners except those who could

219 Painter, Barckley, Thevet, Heywood (Exemplary Lives), loc. cit. Cf. Plutarch, Life of Pompey, ch. xxxv; Justinus and Mandeville, loc. cit.

220 Heywood, Life of Hector (London, 1614), IV, vi, paraphrasing the Troy Book. Cf. Idem, 2 Iron Age, I, where Pyrrhus twits Penthesilea with this custom, calling Amazons harlots.

221 Raleigh, Discovery of Guiana (1596), in Hakluyt, Voyages (J. M. Dent, London, 1927), VII, 296; Thevet, New Found Worlde (tr. 1568), ch. lxiii, p. 102 v.

222 Cf. Faerie Queene, Variorum Edition (Baltimore, 1936, for Gough (pp. 197-198) on V, iv, st. 30 ff.; Ariosto and Spenser, like many antifeminists, explain all revolts of women as the result of disappointment in love.

222 The Sea Voyage, II, i. 224 Butler, Feminine Monarchie (Oxford, 1609), ch. iv, note; Raleigh,

History of the World, IV, ii, 15, from Herodotus IV, cx. 22C Heywood, Nine Books (1624), 218-224, on the name Sauropatidae,

lizard-eaters. Cf. " Essay on the Ancient Amazons," Universal Magazine, April, 1785, p. 177: this diet makes the eyes fierce. On the inhospitality, cf. Apollonius Rhodius, II, 965-1002.

226 Orosius, I, xvi.

227Raleigh, Discovery of Guiana (1596), loc. cit. 228 Thevet, The New Found Worlde (tr. 1568), p. 102 v. 229 Montalvo, Fifth Book of . . . Amadis (c. 1510; tr. 1664), ch. 50.

G. C. Rothery, The Amazons (London, 1910), p. 6, shows that the Amazons and the griffins were enemies in early Greek tradition.



452 The Amazons in Elizabethanr Literature

defeat ten champions and take delight of ten damsels; 230 or starving poor shipwrecked sailors.231

Such creatures must be unnatural mothers. Webster, weary of domineering women, makes Leonora exclaim:

Ile be a fury to him-like an Amazon lady, Ide cut off this right pap, that gave him sucke, To shoot him dead.'82

The Amazons' unwomanliness is symbolized by the custom, here mentioned, of cutting or searing one breast 233 to facilitate the use of weapons.234 Authorities debated as to which breast was sacri- ficed-a difficulty cleared up by the theory that noblewomen needed room on the left, for the shield; commoners on the right, for the bow.235 At any rate, the name Amazon means "without a breast." 236 Some dispute this etymology, declaring that such mutilation would cause death and that Amazon means " reared withQut woman's milk," 237 though this interpretation is puzzling if indeed the ladies saved the one breast in order to suckle their female infants.238 The practice was supposedly continued in sixteenth- century Africa; 239 a travel book pictures a maiden grimacing under

230 Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, XIX-XX. 231 Beaumont and Fletcher, The Sea Voyage, IV. 232 The Devil's Law-Case (1619), III, iii, 289. See Works, ed. Lucas

(London, 1927), II, 215, on "that wave of exasperation against domineering women which partly occasioned the play."

233 F. M. B. Anderson, Religious Cults Associated with the Amazons (Columbia Press, 1912), p. 13, notes that Greek art never represents this mutilation. The tradition grew out of the idea that the Sarmatians (who did burn their breasts) were descended from the Amazons.

234 Painter, Palace of Pleasure, II, i; Gainsford, Glory of England (1618), I, i, p. 3; Heywood, 2 Iron Age, I. Cf. Strabo, XI, v, 1; Justinus, II, iv.

233 Mandeville, Travels (1364; London, 1640?), ch. 50; Christine de Pisan, Cyte of Ladyes (c. 1407; London, tr. 1521), I, xvi.

236 Heywood, Nine Books (1624), pp. 218-224, on " those with one breast or with a burned breast." Diodorus Siculus, II, 45 (London, 1935, Loeb Classical Library), note, p. 33; Diodorus says both breasts were seared.

2S Thevet, New Found Worlde (1568), pp. 101 v. 23I8Heywood, Nine Books (1624), loc. cit. Cf. Quintus Curtius, History

of Alexander (London, 1553), VI, v. 239 Purchas, Pilgrimage (1613), VII, viii; Raleigh, History of the World

(1614), IV, ii, 15.




the operation.240 In romance it was known to the Amazons of "California," near Tartary.24' Reports of it from South America 242

are disputed by Raleigh.243 Purchas, always the skeptic, appends a query: Why need the Amazons be "unimamians" when many ordinary European women make good archers ? 244

Not only did the Amazons refuse to suckle their sons but- according to their enemies-they often slew them at birth.246 At best they banished them to the fathers for rearing.246 Or a third account, preferred by violent antifeminists-these outrageous mothers dislocated the boys' joints and then enslaved the cripples at spinning.247 This f1nal ignominy recalls Omphale's tyranny over her lover Hercules, whose spinning, though regarded by some as a charming idyl,248 was usually denounced as a vile affront to male dignity.249 Not only sons, but husband and captives, were sometimes put to such drudgery.250 The concept influenced Spenser's account of Radigund, who gives knights " feeble food " and makes

240 De Bry, Vera Descriptio Regni Africani (Frankfurt, 1598), plate 14. 241 Montalvo, Fifth Book of . . . Amadis (London, 1664), ch. 50. 242 Anghiera (Peter Martyr), Decades of the Newe World (1555), Third

Decade, in Arber, First Three English Books on America (Birmingham, 1885), p. 189.

243 Raleigh, Discovery of Guiana, in Hakluyt, Voyages (J. M. Dent, Lon- don, 1927), VII, 296.

244 Pilgrimage (1613), IX, iii, p. 700. 245 Thevet, New Found Worlde (tr. 1568), ch. lxiii, p. 102 r.; Butler,

Feminine Monarchie (Oxford, 1609), ch. iv; Gainsford, Glory of England (1618), I, i, p. 4. Cf. Justinus, II, iv.

246 Asia: Heywood, 2 Iron Age, I; Sandys, Ovids Metamorphosis, IX, notes; cf. Strabo, XI, v, 1. Africa: Purchas, Pilgrimage (1613), VII, viii, p. 577. America: Raleigh, Discovery of Guiana (1596); Purchas, Pilgrimes (1625; Glasgow, 1906), XVII, 33. So Beaumont and Fletcher, Sea Voyage, Act II.

247Barckley, Felicitie of Man (1598; London, 1631), III, iv, p. 268. Cf. Diodorus Siculus, II, xlv.

248 Sidney, Arcadia, I, xii; Zelmane's brooch or " jewell." Cf. Propertius, III, xi, 17-20. Ling, Politeuphuia (1598), on Chastity, defends Omphale as a reformer who punished men thus.

249 Sidney, loc. cit., Musidorus's counterarguments: love makes man a "distaff-spinner." Cf. Lyly, Campaspe, II, ii: " Will you handle the spindle with Hercules? "

260 Sandys, Ovids Metamorphosis (1626; London, 1640), IX, notes. Cf. Diodorus Siculus, II, xlv; Ariosto, Orlando, XIX, 57 ff.




them spin.25' Philogynists countered with descriptions of various states whose men voluntarily left business and government in the hands of women; 252 but the average man despised such inverted commonwealths.253

The Elizabethans did not miss the implications of the Amazon legend for women's rights. Christine de Pisan had made the Amazons' " femenyne royalme " an example of emancipation.2"4 In

seventeenth-century comedy the natural spokesman for the sex against a misogynist is an Amazon.255 Butler, the entomologist, entitles his treatise on bees The Feminine Monarchie and exten- sively compares a beehive to the Amazonian state. Sensing, however, the dangers of the analogy, he reminds us that God, who has exalted the female worker above the male drone, has also made woman subject to man.256 Painter, while marveling at the Amazons' achievements, calls them a "monstruous Sexe," 257 thus, echoing Knox on the regiment of women, for the vehement Scot had declared that the ancients, could they see Mary Tudor enthroned, would think the world transformed to " monstruouse Amazones." Spen- ser takes somewhat the same view; Radigund shows the cruelty of unbridled female rule; 259 her Amazons, like Montalvo's 260 or Gainsford's,261 are finally thrust under the yoke of man. If Radi- gund is Mary Stuart,262 this attack would be an effective reply to

251 Faerie Queene, V, v. St. 24 mentions Hercules's spinning. Cf. Kerby Neill, " Spenser on the Regiment of Women," Studies in Philology, XXXIV

(1937), 134. 253 Agrippa, Nobility of Womankynde (1509, tr. 1542); Barker, Nobility

of Women (1559); Newstead, Apology for Women (1620). 252 Edmund Tilney, Flower of Friendshippe (1568); Guevara, Diall of

Princes, tr. North (London, 1557), II, vi. 254 Cyte of Ladyes (e. 1407; London, tr. 1521), II, xii; cf. I, iv. 255 Anon., Swetnam, the Woman-Hater (pr. 1620), III. 256 The Feminine Monarchie (Oxford, 1609), ch. iv. 257 Palace of Pleasure (1567), II, i, conclusion. 258 Regiment of Women (1558), in Arber, English Scholar's Library, No.

2 (London, 1878), p. 13. 259 Faerie Queene, V, v. Cf. Kerby Neill (above, note 251). 250 Fifth Book of . . . Amadis (c. 1510; London, 1664), ch. liv: Calafre

and her Amazons shall henceforth be governed by men. 281 The Glory of England (1618), I, i, p. 4: The Amazons were at last

put to death or forced to submit to husbands. 262 Gough, note on Radigund, in Faerie Queene, Variorum Edition (Balti-

more, 1936), V, 201: Mary enjoyed warfare.



Celeste Tutrner Wright 455

Lord Ormond, who uses the Amazonian queens to justify the succes- sion of that Scottish princess.263

Lest Elizabeth take offense at this condemnation of woman's rule, Spenser excepts those whom the heavens have lifted to sover- eignty.264 Knox and Calvin265 had used the same argument to placate the queen, whom they had infuriated by their earlier condemnation of her sister's power; they had hastened to compare her to the prophetess Deborah, divinely ordained, by special dispen- sation, as general and ruler.266 Though Elizabeth never forgave Knox and Calvin, the Biblical allusion was a happy one. Deborah in Parliament robes appeared in the coronation pageants of 1559; 267

and her name was often applied to Elizabeth thereafter.268 Deb- orah's martial prowess is praised by Spenser along with Penthe- silea's.269 With Judith of Bethulia, she is frequently cited as proof of woman's ability in war 270 or in government.271

2'3 David Chambers, Lord Ormond, Histoire Abbregee (1579), Pt. III, p. 18.

2g4 Faerie Queene, V, v, st. 25; and Gough, Variorum, V, 197-198. 266 Arber, ed., Knox's Regiment (London, 1878), pp. xvi-xviii and 57-60

(Knox's letter of July 20, 1559). 266 The Regiment (1558) had unluckily denied, however, that Deborah

was a temporal magistrate. 267 Nichols, Progresses of Queen Elizabeth (London, 1788), reprint of

The Passage . . . through the Citie (1558), I, 19-23; Withington, English Pageantry (Cambridge, Mass., 1918), I, 202.

268 Gosson, Ephemerides of Phialo (1579), p. 46; Lyly, Euphues and His England (1580), Works, ed. Bond (1902), II, 210; Bentley, Monument of Matrons (1582), Bk. IV, p. 697; I. L., "An Elegie upon . . . Elizabeth" (1603), in Fugitive Tracts (London, 1875), Series 2; Gainsford, Vision of Henry VII (1610), p. 3.

269 Faerie Queene, III, iv, st. 2. 270 Baldwin, Myrrour for Magistrates (London, 1563), Pt. II, end of

"The wilfull fall of Blacke Smyth "-a notable passage in defense of female rule. For this reference and for much other help I am indebted to Pro- fessor Lily B. Campbell. Cf. Ferne, Blazon of Gentrie (1586), I, 156, and Heywood, Exemplary Lives (1640), both on the Nine Female Worthies. Vives, Instruction of a Christian Woman (c. 1529; London, 1541), 101 v., and Gosynhill, Prayse of All Woman (1542?) warn us that these stories are no warrant for warlike conduct in women.

271 Baldwin, loc. cit.; Gibson, tr., Womans Woorth (1599), p. 7; Vaughan, Golden-Grove (1600), III, viii; Tuvill, Asylum Veneris (1616), ch. ix. Deborah alone: Chambers, Histoire Abbregee (1573), III, 13-14; Judith alone: Case, Spaera Civitatis (Oxford, 1588), p. 33.




Was Elizabeth puzzled because she herself, with these two Biblical heroines, was made a divine exception, whereas the example of the Amazons and the enfranchisement of women were in general con- demned? Probably not; feminine royalty is used to being an exception. Did not Queen Victoria attack, with no sense of incon- gruity, " this mad, wicked folly of 'Woman's Rights'"? 2?2 What- ever Elizabeth herself may have thought, the majority of her subjects appear to have accepted unchanged the views of the Middle Ages: they regarded the Amazons as picturesque ornaments to a pageant or a romance but their social system as a dangerous example of unwomanly conduct, a violation of that traditional order under which

Wommen are born to thraldom and penance And to been under mannes governance.278

University of California.

27 2Lytton Strachey, Queen Victoria (1921), ch. ix, sect. iv. 278 Chaucer, Man of Law's Tale, lines 286-287.



the amazons in elizabethan literature

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