Women's Public Lives: Navigating the East India Company,Parliament and Courts in Early Modern England

This article traces the strategies that women deployed, and the resources upon which they drew, in order to challenge the East India Company (EIC) and ultimately lay claim to property that they believed was rightfully theirs. It focuses on three women, Elizabeth Dale, Rebecka Duteil and Mary Goodal, who navigated the EIC, parliament and the courts in seventeenth-century London to try to secure their inheritance from husbands and siblings. It offers a fresh perspective on early modern women's public lives by focusing on a wide array of agentic strategies that women employed in their encounters with various institutions. Using a range of sources, including company records, petitions, court depositions and wills, it argues that exploring women's interactions with the EIC, especially in their role as adversaries, enriches understandings of women's agency in early modern England. This article suggests that such a lens can further nuance how we understand the inherent tensions of early modern women's public lives: as inflected by global as well as local contexts and shaped by conflict as well as collaboration.     

Carnival and Literature in Early Modern England

A FOLKLORE SAMPLER FROM THE MARITIMES: WITH A BIBLIOGRAPHIC ESSAY ON THE FOLKTALE IN ENGLISH. Ed. by HERBERT HALPERT. Mount Allison University and Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1982. 273 pp., appendices and bibliography. Reviewed by Georgina Boyes.

THE DRUNKEN KING, OR, THE ORIGIN OF THE STATE. By LUC DE HEUSCH, translated and annotated by Roy Willis. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982. Pp. xv + 50 (£16.50). Reviewed by Loreto Todd.

RITES AND RELIGIONS OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS. By GALE R. OWEN. David and Charles, London, and Barnes and Noble Books, New Jersey, 1981. Pp. 216, 24 plates, 40 figs. £12.50. Reviewed by H. R. Ellis Davidson.

SIJOBANG: SUNG NARRATIVE POETRY OF WESTERN SUMATRA. By NIGEL PHILLIPS. Cambridge Studies in Oral and Literate Culture, Cambridge University Press, 1981. Pp. 255. 2 maps. 8 plates. £22.50. Reviewed by H. R. Ellis Davidson.

THE CULT OF THE SERPENT: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY SURVEY OF ITS MANIFESTATIONS AND ORIGINS. By BALAJIMUNDKUR. State University o f New York Press, Albany, 1983 ISBN 0-87395-631-1. 363 pp., 107 ills. Cloth $39.50, paper $12.95. Reviewed by Jacqueline Simpson.

BRÜDER GRIMM KINDER-UND HAUSMÄRCHEN. Textkritisch revidiert und mit einem Nachwort herausgegeben von HEINZ RÖLLEKE. Cologne (Eugen Diederichs Verlag), 1982. 2 volumes, pp. 592; with 4 illustrations by Ludwig Emil Grimm. Reviewed by Ellen Ettlinger.

LEGENDS OF THE WORLD. Ed. by RICHARD CAVENDISH. Orbis Publishing, London, 1982. Pp. 433, ill. £12.50. Reviewed by Alicia C. Percival.

THE RIVER'S IN MY BLOOD: RIVERBOAT PILOTS TELL THEIR STORIES. By JANE CURRY. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, 1983. Pp. 288. £10.00. Reviewed by Ruth Glass.

PERFORMED LITERATURE: WORDS AND MUSIC BY BOB DYLAN. By BETSY BOWDEN. Indiana University Press, 1982. Pp. 239. $18.95. 0 253 34347 X. Reviewed by Brian Hinton.

LEYENDAS, TRADICIONES, CUENTOS FABULOSOS, Y OTROS RELATOS FANTASTICOS DE LAS ISLAS CABRERA, FORMENTERA, EIVISSA, MENORCA Y MALLORCA. By GABRIEL SABRAFIN. Archivo de Tradiciones Populares, vol. 35. Apartado 296, Palma. 1982. 8vo. Pp. 237 + 3 folding maps. ISBN 84-85354-87-6. 1100 pesetas. Reviewed by Leslie Grinsell.

MYSTERIOUS WALES. By CHRIS BARBER. David and Charles, Newton Abbot, Devon. Pp. 243, 143 illus. and map. Hardback. 1982. £8.95. Paperback, 1983 (Paladin), £2.50. Reviewed by L. V. Grinsell.

OURS ONCE MORE: FOLKLORE, IDEOLOGY, AND THE MAKING OF MODERN GREECE. By MICHAEL HERZFELD. Austin: University of Texas Press 1982. x, 197 pp. Reviewed by Charles Stewart.     

New Interpretations of Early Modern England

Reformation and Revolution 1558–1660. By Robert Ashton. (The Paladin History of England.) London: Granada. 1984. xx, 503 pp. £18.00.
Authority and Conflict: England 1603–1658. By Derek Hirst. (The New History of England, Volume 4.) London: Edward Arnold. 1986. viii, 390 pp. Hardback £27.50; paperback £9.95.
The Emergence of a Nation State: The Commonwealth of England 1529–1660. By Alan G.R. Smith. (Foundations of Modern Britain.) London: Longman. 1984. xiii, 479 pp. Paperback £8.50.     

Parliament and the People in Medieval England

This article traces the relationship between parliament and the ordinary people of medieval England, mainly peasants but including townsmen, between about 1270 and 1450. In charting the early history of representation prior to 1270, it outlines the transition from representation of the people by the country's magnates, to the socially broader system of representation through the election of shire knights and town burgesses. Two themes emerge: the growth of the electorate, from the probable presence of freeholders among the electors in the county court under Edward I, to the enfranchisement of the 40s. freeholders by the famous statute of 1430; and the changing nature of petitions to parliament, from the complaints of individuals to those presented by the Commons on behalf of the nation. In the history of both these themes, the Black Death and subsequent plagues marked a turning point. In drastically reducing the population, the plagues brought prosperity to many of the peasant survivors – men who sought a place among the electorate in the early 15th century. And in threatening the income of the gentry through higher labour costs, the plagues fundamentally changed the attitude of the Commons in parliament towards the people. Until about 1350, the Commons had spoken up for their interests, in the face of Edward III's oppressive wartime demands; but from that time onwards, the Commons set their collective face against the rising claims of a potentially more prosperous people. The article pays special attention to the position of the villeins, whose relationship with parliament differed considerably from that of the freeholders.     

英国近代早期的物价问题与国家管制

近代早期的英国曾与西欧各国一同经历了"价格革命".当时英国的物价大幅上涨,从而严重影响到国家经济秩序的稳定和国民的生活.是时执政的都铎政府为此进行了长期的国家管制,并颁布了各种调节物价的专门法规,其中诸多王室敕令的施行颇为引人注目,体现出政府不断强化干预力度的政策导向.通过王室敕令等相关.法规的实施,都铎国家的物价管制取得了一定成效.但受若干主客观因素的制约,都铎时期物价国家管制的实际效果又是较为有限的.     

英国中世纪及近代早期的家产分配方案

在中世纪及近代早期的英国,家产继承主要依据普通法继承规则.在当时的生产关系下,这一规则主要是维护封建主阶层的整体利益,而较少顾及亲情.但人毕竟是有感情的,封建主在分配家产时常常综合考虑,以限嗣继承(Entail)、托管(Uses)、家产析分契约(Strict Settlement)等变通手段对普通法继承规则加以修正.这些变通手段反映了封建主在情感与理智之间摇摆不定的心态,地产继承制度也在这种摇摆中曲折发展.一部继承法变迁史表明,制度的变迁常常是人们心理冲突的外化形式.     

英国近代早期的劳工工资问题与国家管制

自中世纪的黑死病大流行时期起,英国政府针对劳工工资问题进行了长期的国家管制,其主要标志是1349年的《劳工条例》和1351年的《劳工法令》等法规的颁行。近代早期的都铎政府继承了前代做法并进一步强化了干预力度,通过著名的《学徒法令》及诸多王室敕令的施行,都铎国家的工资管制取得了一定成效。但受若干主客观因素的制约,都铎时期工资国家管制的实际效果又是较为有限的。     

Rereading Rape and Sexual Violence in Early Modern England

In the early modern period, the inapplicability of certain discourses of sex and violence impeded allegations of rape whilst facilitating denials of rape. Women who asserted rape (and men who spoke out in support) engendered those same discourses which incriminated them with their own semantic and expressive intent. Male violence was stressed and feminine agency discursively denied in these accounts. Sex was largely occluded, except when it appeared in particular forms: when rape was conceptualised as the tragic antithesis of healthy, procreational sex; through metaphors which implied the violation of a woman's most private boundaries; and as a brutal expression of unrelenting, and often obsessive, masculine love. Rape narratives produced in legal contexts cannot provide evidence of repressed memory. But they can demonstrate how, from a position of weakness, women nevertheless attempted to negotiate their way through a web of cultural restrictions.     

近代早期英国海外贸易的兴起

近代早期英国海外贸易由弱到强不断得到发展。从最初伦敦与安特卫普之间的呢绒贸易,到17世纪中后期大西洋商业体系的初步形成,英国海外贸易经历了三个不同的历史阶段,并最终建立了殖民地贸易模式。这为英国实现海上强国的梦想,并成功地走向近代社会,意义重大,影响深远。     

从赋税来源与用途看英国近代议会与税收

16世纪始,英国处于由封建社会向近代社会转型的过程中,其税制相对完备。主要表现为议会掌握着税收大权:一方面,赋税的征收权由议会掌握,国王要征税需征得议会同意。另一方面,赋税的开支和使用亦由议会监督。倘若有国王试图与议会争夺赋税大权则必然招致议会和全国人民的反对而最终失败。在议会掌握税收大权的背景下,赋税的用途亦有所变化,开始了由主要用于战争向用于政府日常开支和社会福利支出的转变。本文试图从都铎王朝、斯图亚特王朝和光荣革命后三个时段阐述英国赋税的来源与用途及与议会的关系。通过对英国近代赋税来源与用途的分析,了解现代化税制的建立对英国成为世界上第一个现代化国家的重要意义,从中汲取可资借鉴的成果。     

Monuments,Reputation and Clerical Marriage in Reformation England: Bishop Barlow's Daughters

The impact of the English Reformation upon women and women's agency in effecting religious change has been much debated. This paper examines the key innovation of clerical marriage by studying the family of Bishop William Barlow (d. 1568), whose five daughters married five bishops. It establishes that Barlow himself married well before it was lawful to do so, and reviews the circumstances that led to his daughters’ remarkable marital achievements. Subsequently, the commemorative acts of this family between 1595 and 1630 were crucial to the creation of an honourable role for the clergyman's wife in English society. By manipulating the representation of the dead, Barlow's daughter Frances Matthew improved her and her sisters’ place in the world. Monuments and their influence upon historical memory are therefore shown to be a hitherto unrecognised means available to women for transforming social order.