Better a shrew than a sheep : women, drama, and the culture of jest in early modern England
In a study that explodes the assumption that early modern comic culture was created by men for men, Pamela Allen Brown shows that jest books, plays, and ballads represented women as laugh-getters and sought out the laughter of ordinary women...
Criticism, interpretation, etc
xi, 263 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780801440243, 9780801488368, 0801440246, 0801488362
50279913
Introduction : sauce for the gander
Near neighbors, women's wars, and merry wives
Ale and female : gossips as players, alehouse as theater
Between women, or, All is fair at horn fair
"O such a rogue would be hang'd!" shrews versus wife beaters
Scandalous pleasures : a coney-catcher and her public
Griselda the fool
Epilogue : the problem of fun