Pleasure and Danger: Measuring Female Sexuality in Measure for Measure Author(s): Mario Digangi Source: ELH, Vol.

60, No. 3 (Autumn, 1993), pp. 589-609 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2873406 . Accessed: 24/10/2011 22:04
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PLEASURE AND DANGER: MEASURING FEMALE SEXUALITY IN MEASURE FOR MEASURE

BY MARIO DIGANGI -a Despite its initialpromiseofequityand levity balanced titleand a Folio classification a comedy- Measurefor Measure deliverswhat as many readers have feltto be a skewed and dismal account of sexual desire. Feminist and psychoanalytic critics,respondingto this antifestivecomedy's persistentreiterationof the manifolddangers that accompany sexual unions and desires, have usefullyconsidered how femalesexuality particular linkedto "shame" and "contamination"; in is figured the "originalsin as treatedwith"disgust"and "deep distrust"; thatbringsdeath intothe world"; reduced to the "bloodyassociations" of rape and beheading.' Ironically,however, feminist responses may to also be inhibitedby the verycentrality femalesexuality the play's of ideology, the unpleasantnessof which leads Kathleen McLuskie, in her trenchant Bard," to deem the play impenessay "The Patriarchal etrable to feministcriticism.Although McLuskie demonstratesthe inadequacy of monolithicempirical and psychologicalapproaches to an ideologicallyinformedfeminist reading of Measure for Measure, she curbs those interventions (her own and others')thatcould provide new theoreticalparadigms,insistingthat

its to feminist criticism thisplayis restricted exposing ownexof It of into the clusion from text. hasnopoint entry it,for dilemmas the ofthenarrative thesexuality and underdiscussion constructed are in completely maleterms.2 McLuskie specifically regretsthe exclusion of "pleasure" thatresults fromreading the textagainstits sexistgrain: to reject its tendentious construction femalesexuality to refuse"the pleasure ofthe drama is of and the text,"which "focusesthe spectator'sattentionand constructs it as male."3 Yet, as JeanHoward and Stephen Orgel have persuasivelyargued, the London theater allowed many women to become desiring spectatorsdespite the factthatit ideologicallyobjectifiedthem as desired spectacles and materiallyexcluded them, as McLuskie notes, from or being "shareholders,actors,writers, stage hands."4In "Scriptsand! asks: "Is it possible thatin versus Playhouses," Howard provocatively
ELH 60 (1993) 589-609 C 1993 by The JohnsHopkins UniversityPress

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the theatre womenwere licensedto look-and in a largersense to judge whattheysaw and to exerciseautonomy-inwaysthatprob-

lematised women's status as object withinpatriarchy?"5 Unravelling Stephen Gosson's prescriptionson the female playgoer, Howard stressesthecomplications thatarise in considering femalespectator the not only as an endangered object of the male gaze, but as a gazing subject who endangers patriarchalcontrol. Orgel briefly surmisesin "Nobody's Perfect"thatwomen enjoyed the "liberating theatrical freedom" not only of attendingthe London playhouses but also of seeing therethe enactmentoffemalelibertyin the subjects of "love matches and cuckoldry."6 In his subsequent paper "Call Me Ganymede,"Orgel, firstquestioning the standard notion that women were officially "banned" from stage,develops thisargument the the regarding London theaters'pleasurable representations female power. He findsthat of "the powerfulside ofcuckoldry plots fromthe woman's perspectiveis the conviction thather sexuality powerful is and attractive, threatening to husbands, and under her own control,"and he adduces Portia'sand Nerissa's ringtrickat the conclusionof The Merchantof Venice as an of example ofa theatrically constructed "fantasy femalesexual power."7 If we take into account Howard's and Orgel's historicization the of female spectator'spleasure, mightwe not findthatMeasure for Measure likewise constructs positionthatmay elicit a female (or, in our a age, feminist) subject's pleasure? Might not thatpleasure come prewiththe purpose ofdiscovering the ciselyfrom readingoppositionally, kindoffemaleagencythose "male terms"would exclude and restrict? In pursuingsuch a reading here, I will argue thatthe relentlessdefinitionand manipulationof female sexualityin Measure for Measure is the graphicsymptom male anxiety of about femaleagency:to unravel male-constructed meaningsforeroticpleasure, pregnancy,and aborto a tionis to discovera fearofthe dangersthought ensue from woman's controlover her own body. Because it measures the perceived cost of a woman's autonomyin maritaland reproductiveaffairs, Measure for Measure foregrounds femalesexual desire onlyto deny the desirability the centralemof seekingpleasure forpleasure's sake. Paradoxically, ofthisdangerousdesire is the pleasure-seeking blem body ofa woman who is excluded both fromthe personae of the drama and fromthe pages of criticaltexts: MistressElbow.8 MistressElbow, as one mightwell not recall, is the only legal wife of in the play. In order to understandthe significance her status,we must firstdetermine what is at stake in play's implicitand explicit allusion to the commonplace Renaissance marital paradigm-maid! 590 Pleasure and Danger

wife/widow-whose central space is occupied by Mistress Elbow alone.9 Mariana, who is "Cnothing," according to the Duke, because but "neithermaid, widow, nor wife,"frustrates does not subvertthe maparadigm,as McLuskie notes, forthe logic of comedy ultimately neuvers her into the central slot.'0 Nevertheless, in privilegingthe "coherent maleness" of the maid/wife/widow paradigm to which the Duke heavy-handedly directs (male?) attention,McLuskie loses the opportunity demonstratethe paradigm's failure as an ideological to measuringdevice." As Lucio observes, the Duke's seeminglycomprehensive list of female socio-sexualroles is incomplete: "My lord, she may be a punk; formany of them are neither maid, widow nor wife" (5.1.180-81). Likewise, a reading that places pressure on the meaconventionalsystemcan superimposeupon the Duke's tripartite sure of marital status a parallel and more problematic measure of sexuality. What I am calling the measure of female sexualitywould account forthe number and kind of a woman's sexual partners:the virgin (none), the wife (one/legal),and the whore (more than one/ illicit). Following this line of inquiryallows not only the examination ofan earlymoderndiscoursesurrounding and constructing barren the or pregnantfemale body, but a reexamination, throughMistress Elbow, of the normativecategoryof "wife," the middle term of both systems,as inherently unstable and challenged. of It is crucial to maintainthe analyticdistinctness these two "measures," even while notingtheir areas of overlap or intersection.We then realize that, before her marriage,Mariana threatensorder not paradigm,but because onlybecause she disruptsthe maid/wife/widow she simultaneouslyand equivocally occupies the sexual position of "wife" in the virgin/wife/whore paradigm. Juliet,before she legally becomes a wife,occupies the sexuallycharged space between "wife" and "whore." And Isabella occupies the space of resistance and loss -a space thatis collapsed by the apparbetween "virgin"and "wife" entlyseamless passage from"maid" to "wife." Such ideological gaps between fixed, normativeroles and shifting, unruly sexualities are smoothed over by Carol Thomas Neely's argumentthat "women are definedand containedthroughtheirplace in the marriageparadigm. ... These roles are in turndefinedby the mode ofsexuality appropriate to them: virginity maidens, maritalchastityforwives, and abstifor nence forwidows.'2 Because it attachesan "appropriate"sexualityto the maritalroles throughwhich women are always already defined, thisformulation does not acknowledgethatthe maritalparadigm,with its chronological progression essential roles in which the "wife"can of Mario DiGangi 591

Mariana, Isabella, and Julietpose to its containingand defining strategies-the resistancesposed in the overlappingand contested spaces between virginand wife,between wife and whore. As the only wife in the play, Mistress Elbow most powerfully and paradoxically representsthe unrulyresistancewithinmaritalsexuality: the possibility the waywardwife,who is at once promiscuous(like of the stereotypical widow), and, as I hope to show, opposed to fertility (likethemaid). The logicofcomedymayrequirethatIsabella, Mariana, and Julietprogressfromtheir unstable maritalroles and sexualities into the nominallystable maritalrole and sexualityof the "wife." Yet thatsuch a resolutionis fictive, she for MistressElbow demonstrates provokes,instead of dispelling,the anxietiesthatsurroundand interpret (Juliet's) active sexual desire on the one hand and (Isabella's) virginity the other. Since femalesexualityin Measure for Measure on is tendentiously"read" through specific bodily characteristics, the "grosscharacters"" inscribedin Juliet's pregnant,ideologicallywhorish of body reveal "all th'effect love" and inciteothersvolublyto evaluate all the causes. Isabella's virginalbody, by contrast, allows others(and herself)onlyveiled, sublimated,allusions to a deferredsexualitythat will blossom with ripe time. I will assess the male anxietiesthatconhow they structJuliet'sand Isabella's bodies before demonstrating MistressElbow's equivocal body, which,absent convergeto construct and silent,is the cipher onto which various meaningsforfemale sexualityare projected, and throughwhich feminist criticismcan make the crisis of marriage intelligible. I begin with a reading of Juliet's indelibly pregnant body,thefirst from text whichdifferently-interested readers-the bawds, Claudio, Duke Vincentio,Angelo-disseminate the signifieds female sexuality. of Preparingus forthe dramatic processionin whichClaudio and Juliet are publicly humiliated, Mistress Overdone and Pompey initiate a central concern of the play: the observationand classification the of womanthrough body,whichis "credulousto falseprints"(2.4.129). her Pregnant,marked with the printsof sexual intercourse,Juliet'sexcessive body is, appropriately, read cumulatively:male judgments of what her belly reveals-sexual appetite, uxorial docility,ethical and theologicalshame, legal infraction-amasschargesofculpable agency and carnal passivity. When Mistress Overdone asks if Claudio has gottena "maid withchild by him," Pompey deftly responds, "No: but there's a woman with maid by him" (1.2.84-85). Mistress Overdone 592 Pleasure and Danger

neverbe a "maid"or "widow,"itself obscuresthe resistances that

maid'sbody;Pompey is sensitive howsex has alteredthe (former) to non-maiden, and as insists naming new status the specifically on her marital intermediate "woman" all he has availableto him.Juliet's is indicates name,but her bodysufficiently status mayconfer fixed no notesthat her Lisa thesexuality which marred reputation. Jardine has went contraception, andpregnancy "sex due totheabsenceofeffective hence,"thepregnant handin handin the Renaissance imagination"; Moreover, the imageoffemale sexuality."'3 woman theRenaissance is produced, acin popularity Englandofa Galenicviewofconception knowl"a culture procreational of cording Angus to McLaren, common and sexualpleasure was seen bothbylaymen edge in which women's 14 is woman therefore doctors necessary fecundity." The pregnant as for narrative an imageofherownfulfilled sexuality, bellyan eloquent her is ofherillicit expressive body,which boththeritual desires.'5 Juliet's discourse, explains of and of object publicscrutiny thesubject Claudio's the silenceofhertongue. is that Claudioreigns relationship "mutual,"" Even as he insists their her whenhe reclaims sexuality in Juliet's expressive and expansive the of Retaining liberty speechdenied bodyas hispersonal property. admitsthat who onlylaterand underthe Duke's prompting Juliet, his hersinful was "mutually"" committed (2.3.27),Claudiodefends act that my (1.2.136).He sexualindiscretion insisting "sheis fast wife" by of but resents onlythelaw'sregulation hissexuality itsusurpation not . of his rights a truehusbandwho "upon a truecontract . . got as bed" (1.2.134-35). As a husband,he would possessionof Julietta's her property, including bed, buthis indeedhavecontrol hiswife's of to loose sexualenergies reducesJuliet's legalistic ofsynecdoche use to bed. the status an objectthatcan be bound"fast" the conjugal of Peter Stallybrass observesthat"woman"is producedas a property in Englandnot onlyin such legal discourse, category earlymodern as enclosureof the but also in economicdiscourse, "the fenced-in 16 arisof landlord." For example, the spokesman the conservative as The in tocracy Dekkerand Middleton's RoaringGirl,Sir Alexander that"the best pronounces upon the occasionof his son's marriage lands, shapesto manbetide,/Arefertill joyes,/Thatcan in worldly if of Bride."'""Likewise, Lucio'sdescription Juliet's anda faire fruitfull and invokes whatMarjorie Garbercallsa "fruitful proimpregnation value ofsexuality" otherwise absentin theplay,it also casts ductive from fertile fair whoproduces fruit Claudioin the roleofthelaborer
lands:'8

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Yourbrother his loverhave embrac'd, and As thosethatfeedgrow full, blossoming as time Thatfrom seednessthebarefallow the brings To teeming foison, even so herplenteous womb Expresseth fulltilth husbandry. his and (1.4.40-44) Though Julietat firstresembles one who satiates herselfwith food, she is finally shown to provide the "bare" materialupon which male sexual labor generates the female labor of childbirth.The pander in Pericles clearly exposes the violent overtones of this commonplace view offemalepassivity when he threatensto rape Marina: "An ifshe were a thornierpiece of ground than she is, she shall be ploughed" (Pericles,4.6.136-37). Juliet a less thorny is piece ofgroundand Claudio is a gentlerplower, but he similarly considersthe female body as the available site of male inscription:"The stealth of our most mutual entertainment With charactertoo gross is writon Juliet"(1.2.143/ 44).19 While "gross" is relevant in that it means large letters, clear evidence, or ripe fruit,it also associates the woman's reproductive body withthe uncontrollably grotesque body ofan unrulyFalstaff, "a gross fat man" (1 Henry IV, 2.4.486).20 Despite the pleasure, then, thatJulietmay have experienced in her sexual "entertainment" with her lover,both Lucio and Claudio, by stressing body's compliance her to male instrumentality, attemptto controlits boundless sexuality. Given Claudio's putative dominance in erotic agency, it is ironic that the Duke findsJulietmore blameworthy the couple's sexual for indiscretion.Even thoughJuliethas apparentlydone no more than passively express Claudio's "husbandry,"the Duke requires her to acknowledge a greatershare of guilt in the pregnancy.By disguising himselfas a religiousfatherand addressingJulietas a daughter,the Duke can re-establishthe authority the paternal birch-rod,previof ously "more mock'd thanfear'd"(1.3.27). He succeeds in this project by encouragingJulietto confessher legal infraction an ethical and as theologicalone: a "mostoffenceful (2.3.26). When he asks,"Repent act" you . . . ofthe sin you carry?"(2.3.19), the Duke equates the content of Juliet's protrudingbelly with the illegal act that caused it; her offending body therebybecomes an index of her moral and spiritual degeneration.She avows her repentanceand her willingnessto "bear the same most patiently"(2.3.20). As Lisa Jardineastutelyremarks, will "bear it-carry it to term,supportthe shame, and give birth Juliet in the pain which is woman's punishmentforthe concupiscence she

594

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acquired at the Fall."2' And doubtless, she is "groaning"in prisonwith the pain ofher labor (2.2.15).22 Because bothDuke Vincentioand Juliet accept the ideology which posits a woman's chastityas her essential virtue,theyagree thatJuliet'ssin is of "heavier kind" than Claudio's (2.3.28), despite the factthatthe law will punish him more severely, with death. Furthermore,Escalus, Lucio, and the Provostall regard whichmerelyprovesthathe has natural as Claudio's fornication a trifle, Juliet,however,is always said to have ruined her masculineinstincts. she mustbear the unequal weightofsocial censure forthe reputation: mutualactionin whichClaudio lefthis impressionon her heavybody. The Duke's focus on Juliet'sunborn child as a "sin" implies that to even aftertheirmarriage,in which Claudio is instructed "restore" will be stainedwitha child his wrongedwife(5.1.522), her reputation born. Angelo, legallyprecise in begottenifnot unlawfully unlawfully in neitherthe Provost'sclass terms describes Juliet his categorization, nor physicaltermsas "fair as "'gentlewoman" the Duke's disturbingly her as the "fornicatress" (2.2.23), thus investing one" (2.3.10, 19), but and name, (whichPompey witha local habitation nothing far-from-airy was unable to do). The punitivezeal whichseeks Claudio's death seeks with grosscharacters.Therefore,the to over-write Juliet'sreputation in Provost'sclaim thatJuliethas "blister'dher report"by "falling the flawsof her own youth" (2.3.11-12) shows more than his masteryof metaphor. His image of a painfulimprinton the body aligns Juliet who was branded on the with another"fallenwoman": the prostitute Conseforeheadby the state or who carried the syphiliticblister.23 quently, Juliet'sbody shares the "shame" imputed to the common body of the whore (2.3.36), ifnot the actual markimpressed upon it. Through the example of Juliet,one sees that patriarchalideology constructs two positionsforactive female sexuality:eitherits confinement withinthe "outwardorder" of formalmarriage(1.2.138), or its which threatens marital values. On the whorish transgressiveness, for for otherhand, the virginis threatening her verylack of sexuality, can and gender roles. IfJuliet her denial ofnormative sexual functions as be identified a "fornicatress" the blossomingofher womb, then by the the truevirgin, unpluckedrose, can also be recognizedby outward signs.Thus Lucio addresses Isabella: "Hail, virgin,ifyou be-as those cheek-roses/ Proclaimyou are no less" (1.4.16-17). While the deceptiveness of appearances is an anxietywhich the play-and playing itself-brings sharplyinto focus, Isabella's unsullied hue convinces Lucio that she indeed is a virgin.But againstwhat standardis Lucio

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What would it mean to be quantifying and measuringher virginity? proclaimed "less" than a virgin? provides a significant Angelo's attemptto defineIsabella's sexuality Juliet, answer. In contrastto the corporeal language used to identify froma rich use of the essential ideological Angelo's language profits verb "to be," which appears seven times in the firstthree lines of Angelo's demand thatIsabella submitto his desires.24In his exasperher, ation at Isabella's refusalto understandthe exchange he offers Angelo bluntlyarticulatesthe burden of her sexual destiny: Angelo: Be thatyouare, if Thatis, a woman; yoube more,you'renone. Ifyoube one-as youare well express'd warrants-show now, it By all external on livery. By putting thedestin'd I have no tongue one; gentlemylord, but language. you Let me entreat speaktheformer

Isabella:

(2.4.133-39)

Accordingto Angelo's logic, being more thana woman is takingwomwhich paradoxicallythrusts anly chastityto its extreme of virginity, her past the boundaries of dependent womanhood into the realm of the self-sufficient saint. Angelo's corrective requires thatshe act more like the "woman" her appearance proves she "is" and less like the virginthatin makingher more thana woman, makes her less human.25 than For both Lucio and Angelo, the category"virgin"is more rarified thatof "woman," makingthe maid an "immortalspirit"instead of an impressionablepiece offlesh(1.4.35). David Sundelson argues thatin this scene of "female potency"Angelo "fearsthat Isabella may really be a man."26 Far fromthis, however, Angelo's doubt, discovered in his evasive grammar,reveals an anxietyabout female autonomy(as the super-feminine virgin)and its threatto male desires forownership and control. Isabella tempers this meditationon female ontologyby asserting the honestyofher tongue,which metonyinically proclaimsher sexual "honesty"or chastity.Her simple reply that she has "no tongue but one" further implies that Angelo's slippery discourse reveals more about his own hypocrisythan about her need to "be one" woman. Ending the guessinggame, but stillhidinghis largermeaningin equivocal language, Angelo commands: "Plainly conceive, I love you" (2.4.140). To be "a woman," Isabella mustconceive, become pregnant. If she will show her essential femininity "plainly"(or, punningon the 596 Pleasure and Danger

French plein, "fully"),she needs to exhibitmore "externalwarrants" than mere attireand complexion. In an earlier speech on the nature ofjustice (2.1.17-31), Angelo uses "pregnant"in its sense of"obvious, a usage derivingfromthe Latin premere,to press. That Juliet'spregnantbody registers "pregnant"evidence ofpressingmakes her subject to the Duke's fornication law. By requiringIsabella to become pregnant, Angelo directs her into a similarposition of sexual lucidityhe can understandand manipulate. Unlike Angelo, Duke Vincentio understandsIsabella all too well; instead of batteringher with essentialistdefinitions "woman," he of worksunderhandedlyto transform virginalbody into a womanly her one. The Duke's ostensible aim in arranging the bed-trickis to have Mariana express "all th'effect love" (5.1.198), the conditionthatwe of see in Juliet,and that Angelo yearns to see in Isabella. But because he conceals his desire more carefully than does Angelo, the language ofthe Duke's interchange withIsabella is loaded withdouble entendre thathides personal interestunder the cloak of fatherly beneficence: Duke: The maidwillI frame, makefit his and for If well to carry as you this attempt. youthink of defends the may,thedoubleness thebenefit deceitfrom Whatthink ofit? reproof. you The imageofit givesme content and already, I trust willgrowto a mostprosperous it perfection. It lies muchin yourholding up.

Isabella: Duke:

(3.1.256-62)

Strangely here, but notin lightofthe Duke's laterproposalto Isabella, the language of pregnancyis ascribed to her part in the deceit: if she can "carry"and "hold up" her part,his idea will "grow"to a successful end, its "image" givingher "content,"or substance.27 Impressed by his authority, Isabella reactivelytakes up the Duke's sexual puns in whatmaybe considereda passive, and therefore "prone and speechless dialect" (1.2.173). What the Duke offers returnforher prone comin plicityin his plot is a supine sexual position-"'Tis well borne up," he later assures her (4.1.48). In the contextof this suggestivepassage and the later one in which Isabella promises to meet Angelo "[u]pon the heavy middle of the night"(4.1.35), "doubleness" may refernot only to the advantage accruing to each woman's honor, but to the swelling of her belly. Likewise, "benefit" may referto this double belly's being well made (L. bene + facere) by the man forwhom her framehas been made "fit,"producing"perfection" per + facere). (L. Mario DiGangi 597

for RecallingElbow's misplacementofhis "two notoriousbenefactors" (2.1.50-52), the equivocal language ofthispassage blurs "imalefactors" and of between the legal malefaction Claudio and Juliet the distinction to of the moralbenefaction the Duke, given his intentions fitIsabella to his own attempt.The Duke himselfrealizes the suspiciousness if of notthe culpability his plan. In askingthe provostto leave, the Duke his proffers anticipatesan accusationof sexual motiveand defensively "Leave me a while with disguise as a guaranteeofhis good intentions: the maid; my mind promiseswith myhabit no loss shall touch her by my company" (3.1.175-77). No loss, but perhaps a tangiblegain. of metaphors growth of As the Duke's interpellation Isabella through indicates, female sexualitybecomes intelligible(hence manageable) of not only by the identification the virginalor the whorishbody, but also by the measurementof that body's movementalong a temporal scale. Women accomplish a physiologicalprogressionthroughthree stages, which are analogous to stages of botanical growth:the young the old "rotten"whore. "fresh"virginbecomes the "ripe" wifeand/or but In the different paralleleconomyofthe brothel,the epithet"fresh" is reserved forthe healthyand young, "rotten"forthe diseased and Lucio refersto "your freshwhore and your powdered experienced.28 bawd; an unshunned consequence; it must be so" (3.2.57-58). The becomes the old bawd withpowdered hair, inevitably youngprostitute tub. that resembles the beef-powdering who soaks in a sweating-tub called "hoar" or More generally,Shakespeare's whores are punningly merely"old": Lucio refersto Kate Keepdown as "the rottenmedlar," a fruit rottenbeforeripe (4.3.171-72).29 the Given the above constructions, language of "fittime" or "ripeof Shakespeare's plays is connected withChrisness" whichin several relevance tian patience and trustin providence has special figurative the age of marriageand term of in Measure for Measure, regarding pregnancy.Ripeness refersto marriageableage fora young woman; Capulet will be "ripe to be a bride" at sixteenyearsofage (Romeo Juliet addresses the heavand Juliet,1.2.11). When Isabella conventionally me in patience, and with ripen'd time / Unfold the evil ens, "Keep whichis here wraptup / In countenance"(5.1.119-21), she is unaware thather words apply to her own ripeness to be plucked by the Duke in his comic finale. Even more problematic,because decidedly anticomic, are the text's images of abortion,the fataldeliveryof unripe Thomas the fruit. a treatisecalled The Byrth mankynde, physician In of in Raynaldedescribesabortion(miscarriage) these terms:"Aborcement or untimely birthis, when the woman is delyveredbeforedue season, 598 Pleasure and Danger

"30 biological of be the andbefore fruite rype. His metaphor thewoman's "blossoming in image, which Lucio'sploughing recalls as time a harvest to foison" (1.4.41-43); the the "bare fallow" "teeming time"brings reproduction makesbiological is since connection significant ideology system. role "natural" inthesocio-economic the andnurturing woman's who Marianahad a brother in It is worthnoting this regardthat andheropportunity her dowry at losing marriage "miscarried" sea,thus (3.1.210). and of in toparticipate theprocesses marriage reproduction withlifeequatesthe field bursting as The imageofJuliet a ploughed labor; laborwiththatofeconomic of productivity femalegenerative as equates the the imageofthe shipwreck a miscarriage conversely, in of vessel"withthat thefetus of untimely destruction the"perished female vessel(3.1.217).3' the aborting evoketheunnaturalness repeatedly to The play'sallusions abortion Oddly,however, economy. this ofdenying disrupting reproductive or mostof these allusionsare associatedwithmen-Angelo and the to uniquepower Duke-whose legalpowerto killis linked women's and female malecontrol between The effect thehomology of to abort. of the overlifeis notto empower men (by theirappropriation "the witha monstrously themfor their association feminine") to indict but cornin Whereas Love'sLabor'sLostBerowne destructive prerogative. of to appearance a rosein birth" theunseasonable paresan "abortive or winter snowin May (Love's Labor's Lost, 1.1.104),Angelogoes must aborted be as in children "evils"that further figuring illegitimate law He the are before they "hatch'd." praises newly-awakened which:

likea prophet what future in that evils, Looks a glass shows new Either or new, byremissness conceiv'd, to and Andso inprogress be hatch'd born, degrees, Arenowtohavenosuccessive Buterethey live,toend.

(2.2.95-100)

thosewho"coinheaven'simage/ In stamps law Angelo's willdestroy thatare forbid" easilyas he couldstampout the lifeofa fertilized as and ungenerative" an egg (2.4.45-46). Callingthe deputya "motion he that has neiagent"(3.2.108,167-68),Lucio implies "ungenitured in a rupture a nor thathe represents freakish thergenitor genitals, of in himself articulates thelanguage aborchain.Angelo procreational of rapeofIsabella: tiontheself-destructive consequences hissupposed / "This deed unshapesme quite; makesme unpregnantAnd dull to the its allproceedings" (4.4.18-19).Through corruptness, actbywhich MarioDiGangi 599

he impregnates another notlife-affirming is butannihilating:destroys it his honor,his "grace,"and his unified subjectivity"Nothing goes right; would,and we wouldnot"(4.4.32). we In Angelo's sterile legalism product sexis death,butsexand the of deathare conflated the Duke's original and in the meansfor in law fulfilling theexecutioner it, Abhorson. David Sundelson, among others, comments the components "his highly on of suggestive name ('abhor,' 'whore,' 'whoreson')," noton thefact theentire but that name "32 is a virtual homonym "abortion. In his Breviarie health, for of for 33 instance, Andrew Boorduses thealmost identical form "abhorsion. The Renaissance pun on "to die" as the moment sexualclimax of is in anthropomorphized Measurefor Measure:the former bawd who facilitated sexualunionsmustas executioner's destroy aide "fornicahimself symbolically is tors";conversely, executioner the associated withthe destruction the product sexualunion.34 the literal If of of execution thelaw is figured abortion, of as thenthe Duke's obsession with"fit time"can be seen as a desireto deflect attention awayfrom theabortive, laws"ontohisthedeforming justiceofhis "most biting his deferred of Mariana that atrically display mercy (1.3.19). Assuring will the bed-trick growto a prosperous conclusion, Duke echoesthe harvestmetaphor withwhichLucio announced Juliet's pregnancy: "Ourcorn's reap,for ourtithe's sow"(4.1.76).Bywithholding to to yet certain information whichhe thendispensesat carefully engineered of the himself as theguarantor an evil not moments, Duke establishes law"byremissness but who new-conceiv'd" as theonefigure canreveal truth ripetime. in That abortion figuratively is linkedin Measurefor Measurewith destruction withan unnaturally harshlaw thatmeasures and costly out untimely indicates whatis at stakein a deathforsexualactivity for wife'sregulation and responsibility her "ripetime."Far from of the choiceofa woman whodesires control fertility, to her being rational of desires abortion intelligible as theconsequence thedangerous is only ofa pregnant a Mistress Mistress wife, Elbow.Namedafter bodily joint, at directed the Elbow is the pivoton whichturnthe male anxieties of of fertilityJuliet's bodyand theinfertilityIsabella'sbody.Her pregof nantbody,likeJuliet's, legibleas a signifier sexualdesire,but is Mistress Elbow'sthreateningly leads herto seek misplaced sexuality and pleasurein a dangerous place promoting "fornication, adultery, I all uncleanliness," including, wouldargue,abortion. The copiousness thewhoreand thebarrenness thevirgin of of are as counters Measurefor Measure,against in presented ideological 600 Pleasureand Danger

whichthe exclusive closureof the chastewife("won"by and "one" the for husband) the should posited theidealmeasure. be as Although man, wife's onlydoubleness should comefrom stamp thesingle the of theplay'sonlywifegenerates crisis sexualand linguistic a of doubleness,indeterminacy, "misplac[ing]" and (2.1.87): Elbow: Mywife, whom detest sir, I before heaven your and honourEscalus: How? Thywife? Elbow: Ay,sir:whom thank I heaven an honest is womanEscalus: Dost thoudetesthertherefore?

Elbow: I say,sir, willdetest I myself as wellas she,that also, if it this of house, itbe nota bawd's house, is pity her life, itis a naughty for house.
Escalus: How dostthouknowthat, constable?

if Elbow: Marry, bymy sir, wife, who, shehadbeena woman in have accused fornication, cardinally might been given, and there. adultery, alluncleanliness Elbow: Ay,sir, Mistress by Overdone's means; as shespit but him. inhisface, shedefied so (2.1.68-83)
Escalus: By thewoman's means?

Despite his misplaced readings his wife'smisplaced of body,Elbow manages affirm the "woman's to that means"is Mistress Overdone's notes,Esintermediary bawd,Pompey; as Frankie or but Rubinstein The calus'svaguequerycarries moregeneral a meaning.35 "woman's means"maybe synonymous whattheBawdofPericles with calls"the that wayofwomenkind" (4.6.141),theinherent feminine wantonness a marital sexuality may actually encourage.For instance, flustered her Isabella deducesfrom brother's her behavior kindofincest") ("a mother's infidelity herfather, to whosebloodcouldnothaveproduced "sucha warpedslip ofwilderness" (3.1.138, 141). She displacesher at familial bothmen and ontothe disgust illicit sexuality awayfrom when is mother.36 irrational The mother also targeted untrustworthy withchild"withher Mistress Elbow'sbeing"great Pompey connects servedin . "longing . . forstewedprunes,"whichwere commonly Andhisbawdy ofFroth's brothels "cracking (2.1.88-89).3 description thestones" thetworemaining of revealsa crudemaleviewof prunes whatpregnant womenwant (2.1.107). In responseto the justice's to "whatwas done to Elbow's wife, exasperated attempt determine done to once more?"Pompey asserts, "Once, sir?Therewas nothing heronce" (2.1.138-40).Elbow mayindeedbe anxious knowwhat to hiswifedid withFroth, nameRubinstein a glossesas both"semen," MarioDiGangi 601

construction knownas "negexpresses his innuendo by a grammatical ative pregnant,"which the OED definesas "a negative implying also an affirmative." was done to Mistress Seeminglydenyingthatanything Elbow, he in factaffirms that somethingwas done to her. of In this scene, male suspicion and misunderstanding female sexinto moralnegativity. ualitytranslates expansivenessofpregnancy the The wife's being "great-bellied"proves that somethingwas done to her at least once, but also makes her susceptible to the charge that nothingwas done to her only once: she was either "respected" (that is, suspected) with her husband before marriage(2.1.172), or "overdone" by Frothafter canmarriage.Though the justices' interrogation not determine what the wife wanted or what Froth did, Mistress the reckElbow's presence in a bath-housebrothelmerelyconfirms lessness imputed to the pregnantwoman. Elbow claims thathis wife was discovered in a "hot-house"run by MistressOverdone (2.1.65).39 J. W. Lever, who believes thatOverdone ran a tavern,takes Elbow's claim as "a mere gag." However, Lever concedes that bath-houses "were notoriouslyblinds for houses of ill fame; hence the word 'stews,"' and he cites Jonson'sEpigram 7, "On the New Hot-House, in supportof this connection(2.1.65n): many famous a whore, Wherelately harbour'd A purging uponthedore, bill,nowfix'd So Tells youit is a hot-house: it ma', Andstillbe a whore-house. Th'areSynonima. Given this corroboration and Elbow's manifest anxiety,it seems unlikely that Elbow is makinga "gag" about the brothel,which is euphemistically described as a "common house" and a "tap-house," but never called a "tavern" (2.1.43, 206). Furthermore,the allusions to stewed prunes and the sweating"tub" (3.2.55), the suggestivenames "Overdone" and "Froth," and the Duke's complaintthathe has seen boil and bubble / Till it o'errun the stew" all add weight "corruption to the reading of the brothel as a bath-house (5.1.316-17). Mistress beElbow's presence in a hot-housewould be especially threatening cause, according to Thomas Raynalde, pregnantwomen should "exchewe much bathingor going to the hot houses in theirteemyng,for that may do hurtthree wayes": the extremeheat can variouslywork to force the child out of the womb prematurely.40 Because of an ir602 Pleasure and Danger

but and (from sexualrubbing, Pompeyanswersequivocally, "frot") nothing done was implying nothing doneto herat all or that that was repeatedly.38 Pompeyappropriately to her merely once, but rather,

evil"? -Mistress rational maternaldesire forstewedprunes -a "thirsty Elbow risksnot only her and her husband's reputations,but the life of theirunborn child. Moreover, another reading could see Mistress Elbow's seemingly and deliberate decision. In recklessvisit to the stews as an informed an examinationof birth controlpractices in early modern England, Angus McLaren concludes that married women employed several for methods and justifications abortion:they "were not passive in retheywanted to controlit and were willingto lation to theirfertility; go to considerable lengths to do so. "41 Fearful of such autonomy, AndrewBoord refusesto listcertainpurgativesin his treatiselest any "light woman" willfullyuse them to induce abortion.42Such light women are the objects of Ben Jonson'ssatire in Epicoene, in which the following exchangetakesplace between the inquisitiveyoungwife and the leader of the amazonian Collegiates: Epicoene: receits,madame,to And have you those excellent bearing children? of keepe yourselvesfrom we our Haughty: 0 yes,Morose.How should maintayne youth of makeher and beautie,else? Manybirths a woman barren.43 old, as many cropsmaketheearth

in The passage is striking that Haughty uses the botanical metaphor -too muchfertility ofwomen'stimeto linkripenessdirectly sterility to accelerates barren aging-while she blithely articulatesthe double (femjustification barrenness:its interminable threatofa self-imposed inine vanity)and its immediate availability.As long as citywives are vain about their appearance, the passage implies, so long will such "excellent receits" be in demand. Like Jonson'spresentationof the of domineeringHaughty,Shakespeare's presentation MistressElbow, or dangerous in either her feverishirrationality her cold calculation, provides ammunitionformale fearsabout a woman's power in pregnancy. The sole depiction of conjugal relationswithinthe play, the scene concerningMistress Elbow adds the wife to the virginand whore as a focus of male anxietyabout female sexuality.The marriageitself,a violateson several of problemstheplaytreats, microcosm all themarital which countsthe ideologyofthe Elizabethan "Homilyon Matrimony," . held that the "originalbeginningof matrimony . . is institutedof God, to the intent that man and woman should live lawfullyin a and to avoid fornifruit, fellowship,to bringforth perpetual friendly of cation."45 In thismarriage,the fruit the union risksuntimelydelivand ery,the wifeis implicatedin fornication, the husband's parapraxis Mario DiGangi 603

fellowthathe "detest[s]" wifereflects his ironically the "friendly on position of ship"theyare supposedto maintain. the intermediate If towards which thebetrothed createsconfusion, does themarriage so as the betrothed, the logicof comedy,move. Constructed the and becomes sceneofa sexualripeness that mustbe controlled, marriage of theunstable middle term between self-repressed the sexuality maidof The enhoodand thepublicly-monitored sexuality prostitution. ripe is of proswife uneasily situated between rottenness theoversexed the of titute thebarrenness the childless and maid. Elbow Previouscriticism clearly is mistaken, then,in relegating of and his wifeto the harmless irrelevancy a bawdy"subplot."Since thissceneofconjugal and thoseissues discord accentuates epitomizes offemale signifsexuality permeate entire that the play,itsconcerns of Because noneof icantly inform four the marriages thecomicfinale. mutual thecoupleswhich at affection crystallize theend demonstrate the of redeemed andcommitment, arenomore heralds a renewed, they society thanElbowand hiswife.Instead, liketheDuke's unanswered of scene matrimonial "motion" Isabella(5.1.532),themotion thefinal to a of a of constitutesdeferment resolution, suppression thedangers of of an unsanctioned pleasurethrough institution whichposes dangers itsown. The four womenwho becomewivesat the play'send movefrom (more) their marginal positions along virgin the (none)/wife (one)/whore Yet into spectrum thecentral, nominally stable, position. theproblems thistransition to and brings notlimited the lackofcompatibility are Mistress the The concerning mutuality couplesdemonstrate. dialogue about Elbow strongly impliesthatmarriage displacesmale anxiety female the and onto sexuality awayfrom virgin whore figures thewifethe mother itself. Each womanoccupying normative position figure of "wife"maybe economically legallysubjectto her husband and wouldhaveit,the but ("one"/"won"), hersexuality-asLuce Irigaray his It the "sexwhich notone"-slips awayfrom control. is precisely is calls play'sharsh focus whatIrigaray on affirmatively the"multiplicity that offemale desire," plurality female the of sexuality, openstheway it fora feminist of reading female pleasureand the dangers poses to male rule.46 the time" As a resultofthe unruliness the wife'ssexuality, "fit of that of comicmarriage a activates new measureof sexualsuspicion the time.Atonepole,thewife, demonizes women's emulating whore's her excessive promiscuity, escapes the husband'scontrolthrough pleasure.Here, the ripenessof timebecomesthe ripe wombthat 604 Pleasureand Danger

certifies onlythe husband'ssexual stampbut the wife'ssexual not pleasure,and her likelysearchforfurther gratification. double The and belly,a double signifier avaricious of gastronomic libidinal appetites,compelsMistressElbow to satiateits hungerfor"stewed prunes," signifier foodand sex. In other a of words, Juliet's pregnant her body signifies ability satisfy own desires her to -"as thosewho feedgrow full," saysLucio-ratherthanherobligation express to and fulfill Claudio's"husbandry." the otherpole, thewife,emulating At thevirgin's barrenness, defies husband's the control through danher gerous autonomy. Here, theanticipation fit of time becomesthewoman's powerto truncate in abortion. life the Ignoring authority both of and "before physician husband,Mistress Elbow entersa hot-house due season,"an actionwhichcould lead to premature birth.As for at themaincoupleofthecomicfinale, there's leastreasonto surmise that Isabellawillbe particularly tosuspicions this open of nature, given thather history homosocial of independence cherished and virginity and pregnancy. And the suggests her likelyresistance marriage to liable to suspectsuch behavior, Duke, forhis part,is particularly the in and his considering past experience observing circumventing subordinate. abortive deeds ofan "unpregnant" ColumbiaUniversity
NOTES I borrow my title fromthe collection of essays edited by Carole S. Vance entitled Pleasure and Danger: ExploringFemale Sexuality(London: Pandora, 1989). The essays "Towardsa PoliticsofSexuality," arose from Scholarand the FeministIX conference, the held on 24 April 1982 at Barnard College. profited from patientand incisivereadingsof David the This essay has immeasurably Scott Kastan and Jean E. Howard. 1 The quotations come respectivelyfromCarol Thomas Neely, Broken Nuptials in Shakespeare's Plays (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1985), 101, and "Constructing London, Windsor, Vienna," in FemFemale Sexualityin the Renaissance: Stratford, Roof(Ithaca: Cornell Univ. inismand Psychoanalysis,ed. RichardFeldstein and Judith Press, 1989), 225; Richard Wheeler, Shakespeare's Development and the Problem Comedies: Turn and Counter-Turn(Berkeley: Univ. of CaliforniaPress, 1981), 96 and 114; JanetAdelman, SuffocatingMothers: Fantasies of Maternal Origin in Shakespeare's Plays, Hamlet to The Tempest (New York: Routledge, 1992), 87; Meredith in for Skura, "New Interpretations Interpretation Measure for Measure," Boundary 2 criticsof the play have discussed how sexualityis 7 (1979): 52. Many psychoanalytic feared, loathed, regulated, and ultimatelylinked with corruptionand death. Skura notes that sex "threatensonly the males with death," and "is always a trap" forthem and (51). Wheeler examines how imagerypresents sexual impulses as "self-devouring halfof the play moves towards (109). Neely posits that "the first self-contaminating" the Duke's lecture to Claudio, of the substitution death forsexuality,"until,following "sexualityis substitutedfordeath, marriagesforexecutions" (Broken Nuptials, 99); in "ConstructingFemale Sexuality" she findsthat the play representsmale sexualityas

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essential and sexuality "paradoxically as and "unrestrainable degrading," female and who and (225 central subordinated" and229). Adelman, fatal, voluntary enforced, and and traces believesthat,to the Duke, "sexualtouchper se is abominable beastly," dependence" (87origin maternal and of at characters' effacement and disgust "sexual a view arguesthat Stateconstructsnegative the materialist, 88). Dollimore, cultural a are into sexualoffenders brought of sexuality: "Diverse and onlylooselyassociated of (the in by renewedsurveillance the State;identified law as a category offender to demonised a threat law" ("Transas theyare thereby lecherous, iniquitous), the in for Measure,"in PoliticalShakespeare: New gression and Surveillance Measure [London: Dollimore and Alan Sinfield ed. Essaysin CulturalMaterialism, Jonathan Manchester Univ.Press,1985],73). 2 Kathleen Criticism Shakespeare: and Bard:Feminist McLuskie,"The Patriarchal in (note1), 97. Shakespeare for KingLear and Measure Measure," Political that hereresembles ofLyndaE. Boose: 3McLuskie (note2), 97 and96. Mycritique in completely one's pleasurein is "To be a feminist McLuskie'sterms to renounce correctness. comforts ideological of and embraceinsteadthe rigorous Shakespeare by in of can . . . If Shakespeare be accusedofparticipating thereification patriarchy participated the in his reproduction it, thensurelyMcLuskiehas here likewise of upon whichshe of-the feminist exclusion reproduction of-if not the production of Studies;or-Studies in the Family in insists" (724). See "The Family Shakespeare Quarterly (1987):70740 Renaissance or-The Politics Politics," of Shakespeareans; 42. 4 McLuskie, 92. Production the and Playhouses: Ideological and/versus 5Jean E. Howard,"Scripts Feminist Criticism of Materialist Renaissance PublicStage,"in TheMatter Difference: ed. of Shakespeare, ValerieWayne(Ithaca:CornellUniv.Press,1991),225. 6 Stephen Perfect: Whydid theEnglishStageTake Boysfor Or, Orgel,"Nobody's in and in Women?" Displacing Gay Homophobia: MalePerspectives Literature Culture, Duke Univ.Press, Moon(Durham: John Clum,andMichael M. ed. Ronald Butters, R. 1989),19. and Shakespeare's Apprentices the Repre7Stephen Orgel,"Call Me Ganymede: sentation Women," of conference paper,13 and 14. I wouldliketo thank unpublished to this Professor Orgelformaking paperavailable me. 8 In "Measure Power,"Shakespeare and for Measure,New Historicism, Theatrical to attention Mistress unusual B. Quarterly (1988):328-41,Anthony Dawsonaccords 39 but stewed Elbow.He notesthat "is defined chiefly herdesirefor by she prunes, that and meanings" of simpledesireleads to a tangle contradictory vagrant (336). I agree but stablemeaning, notwithhis that Elbowchallenges withhis assessment Mistress "comic," opposedto the"morethreatening" as are feeling herchallenges tonally that in scenes. offered theAngelo-Isabella and challenges epistemological political see in of of discussion this paradigm theliterature theperiod, Linda 9 Fora thorough Literature theNature Woand Women theEnglish Renaissance: and of Woodbridge, 84 Univ.ofIllinois Press,1984),especially andchapter 1540-1620 (Urbana: mankind, these therewas within 9. Carol ThomasNeely asks "whatroomformaneuvering Wivesof Windsor and definitions women"in Shakespeare's of society in The Merry Female Sexuality" and Measure Measure("Constructing [note1], 213). for 10 Measure are to 5.1.178-79.Allreferences Measure Measure from for forMeasure, theArdenEdition,ed. J. W. Lever,(New York:Routledge, 1988),and willbe subto will William in References other Shakespeare: plays be from sequently given thetext. Viking-Penguin, 1977). The Complete ed. Harbage(New York: Works, Alfred " McLuskie(note2), 97. 12 Female Sexuality" CarolThomasNeely,"Constructing (note1), 213. 13 Women Dramain theAgeofShakeand Lisa Jardine, Harping Daughters: Still on Univ.Press-Morningside, 130-31.Dorothy 2nd Columbia 1989), speare, ed. (NewYork: in in and McLaren("Marital 1570-1720," Women EnglishSociety Fertility Lactation

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1500-1800, ed. Mary Prior [New York: Methuen, 19851) shows, however, thatwomen could increase intergenesicintervalsby breastfeeding.While prolonged lactationgenerallylead to lower fertility, "extentto which thiswas consciouslycontrolledis not the known" (43). 14 Angus McLaren, Reproductive Rituals: The PerceptionofFertility Englandfrom in the SixteenthCentury to the NineteenthCentury (London: Methuen, 1984), 21. In this regard see chapterfive("Sexualityand Conception") ofAudrey Eccles, Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Tudor and Stuart England (London: Croom Helm, 1982); and Thomas Laqueur, "Orgasm, Generation, and the Politics of Reproductive Biology," Representations14 (1986): 1-41. 15 In a readingofcharacters' "attemptsto make the fleshword" againstthe "pervasive refusalof the flesh to acquiesce in the imagination'splots and compacts," Ronald R. Macdonald ("Measure for Measure: The Flesh Made Word," Studies in English Literature 30 [1990]: 265-82) similarly sees the "mute spectacle" ofJuliet'spregnantbody as "more eloquent finallythan any of the sermons and bookish theories offeredby other charactersin the play" (279). 16 Peter Stallybrass, "PatriarchalTerritories:The Body Enclosed," in Rewriting the Renaissance: The Discourses of Sexual Differencein Early Modern Europe, ed. MargaretW. Ferguson, Maureen Quilligan,and NancyJ.Vickers(Chicago: Univ. ofChicago Press, 1986), 127. 17 The Dramatic Worksof Thomas Dekker, ed. Fredson Bowers, 4 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1958), 3:5.2.202-4. 18 Marjorie Garber, Coming of Age in Shakespeare (London: Methuen, 1981), 131. 19 In "The PoliticsofStyle: Discourses ofLaw and Authority Measurefor Measure," in Style 16 (1982): 22-37, David Aers and GuntherKress posit thatlower class characters use a kineticdiscourse-"verbal, concrete, active, I-centered" (33)-to challenge auis while the language ofthe powerful static,"markedby a prevalence ofnominal thority, forms,""agentless passives," and synecdoche (32). Aers and Kress consider Claudio's speech heavily staticwith its nominals ("stealth," "entertainment," "characters")and Their conclusionaccordswithmyargument about Claudio's passives ("is writon Juliet"). relationshipto Juliet:"Here the experience of (sexual) love is pressed into the forms of the static,alienatingdiscourse, with ugly results:human love is presented in terms of contracts, possession of a bed, which seem of the same order as denunciation of outward order, or propagation of a dower" (35). 20 In a psychoanalytic reading of the Henriad, Valerie Traub ("Prince Hal's Falstaff: PositioningPsychoanalysisand the Female Reproductive Body," Shakespeare Quar40 terly [1989]: 456-74) arguesthatFalstaff "representsto Hal notan alternative paternal image but rather a projected fantasyof the pre-oedipal maternal whose rejection is the basis upon which patriarchalsubjectivity predicated" (461). She notes that Falis staff's feminized"belly (463), demonstratesthe grotesque body, with its "increasingly corpulence and openness thatearly modern societies attributedto the maternalbody. 21 Jardine(note 13), 133. 22 Keith Wrightsonnotes in English Society: 1580-1680 (New Brunswick: Rutgers Univ. Press, 1982) that"death in childbed was common enough. Quite apart fromthe risk of death, suffering childbirthcould be appalling in an age lacking either anin aestheticsor gynecologicalsophistication, and in whichthe aid ofthe village mid-wives could be as much an additional danger as a help" (105). 23 See Frankie Rubinstein, A Dictionary of Shakespeare's Sexual Puns and Their 2nd ed. (London: Macmillan, 1989), 26. Compare Joseph Swetnam, The Significance, Araignmentof Lewd, idle, froward and unconstantwomen: or, the vanitie of them; chuse you whether(London, 1615): "Againe, Lust causeth you to doe such fouledeedes, which makes yourforeheadsforever afterwards seeme spottedwithblacke shame and everlastinginfamy, which meanes, yourgraves afterdeath are closed up with times by scandall" (sig. El'). 24 I am thinking here ofAers's and Kress's (note 19) claim thatin the staticdiscourse

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in ofpower "the verb to be appears frequently, ideologicallyprominentspeeches" (32). 25 In "Sexuality in the Reading of Shakespeare: Hamlet and Measure for Measure" (Alternative Shakespeares, ed. JohnDrakakis [New York:Routledge, 1988]), Jacqueline Rose findsin Angelo's statement"the more and less that the woman becomes when she failsto contain forthe man the sexualitywhich she provokes" (97).
26

9 (1981): 83-91, especially 85-86. 27 Elizabeth Sacks also discusses in Shakespeare's Images of Pregnancy (London: Macmillan,1980) the sexual imageryofthisand otherpassages in the play. Her method, images of pregnancy however, which depends upon locating"literal" and "figurative" in Shakespeare, leads to thisunhelpfulappraisal ofMeasure for Measure: "[It] portrays devoid of illusions, as its equivalent spiritualand physical terthe world realistically, minologymakes quite clear" (61). 28 See Pericles, where "fresh ones" must replace those whores who "with continual action are even as good as rotten" (4.2.10-11). Also, As You Like It: "And so, from hour to hour we ripe and ripe, / And then, fromhour to hour we rot and rot" (2.7.2627). 29 See Rubinstein (note 23), 177.
30

Women's Studies for "Misogyny Rulein Measure Measure," and David Sundelson,

(1545; London, 1560), folio82, sig. N5". 31 For a discussionofbeliefsabout and images forpregnancy in and miscarriage early modernEurope (especially France), see Jacques GCdis,Historyof Childbirth:Fertility, Pregnancyand Birthin Early Modern Europe, tran. RosemaryMorris(Boston: NortheasternUniv. Press, 1991). Chapter five,"The Body in Pregnancy,"examinesbotanical metaphors for fetus and womb; chapter sixteen, "The Falling of the Flower," deals with miscarriage,and chapter seventeen, "The Unripe Fruit," with prematurebirth. 32 Sundelson (note 26), 84. 33Andrew wherin remedies, all maner for dothfolow, Boord,TheBreviarie health: of of sicknesses & diseases . . . (1547; London, 1598), page 7, sig. A7v. 34 Many criticshave noted the play's "literalization the pun that identifiesdeath of and orgasm" (Adelman [note 1], 87). No critic,to my knowledge, has connected this central pun to abortion/Abhorson. 35 Rubinstein (note 23), 156. 36 Jacqueline Rose (note 25) similarly of reconstruction her reads Isabella's fantastic "mother's sexual crime" (108). Adelman (note 1) discusses this scene at length, conwith the motherwho can exist forher only as cluding: "Threatened by identification the protectiveimage ofa pure father a site ofcorruption, Isabella responds by invoking between her and the maternallegacy thatboth Angelo and who can serve as a buffer Claudio bid her to assume" (97). 37 Jacques Gdlis (note 31) describes the dangersthatthe mother'sirrational "cravings and imaginings"were believed to pose to the unborn child (53-58). 38 Rubinstein(note 23), 106. 39The OED's primarysense for "hot house" is "a bathing-housewith hot baths, vapour-baths,etc."; the second sense is "a brothel." 40 Raynalde (note 30), folio 85, sig. N8'. On the various precautions recommended forreducingthe chances of "spontaneous abortion,"see Linda A. Pollock, "Embarking on a roughpassage: the experience ofpregnancyin early-modern society," Womenas Mothers in Pre-IndustrialEngland, ed. Valerie Fildes (New York: Routledge, 1990). 41 McLaren (note 14), 111. See his chapter, "Abortionas birthcontrol," which attempts to demonstrate,"first,that concerns for health and familywell-being could have led many to contemplate abortion; second that there existed a wide range of in miscarriages;and third techniques that were believed to be effective precipitating thatthe concept of'quickening'permittedwomen to consider the action as legitimate. role For these reasons we have to conclude thatabortionplayed a farmore important

namedthewomans booke The Byrth mankynde, otherwise ThomasRaynalde, of

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than been believed"(111). in theregulation fertility pastgenerations has usually of in whodesired breastfeed, to perhaps Dorothy McLaren (note13)argues rich that women or their decision with husbands toreduce their fertility, havehadtonegotiate battle may and friends (27-28). 11 Clarendon, BenJonson, C. H. Herford PercySimpson, vols.(Oxford: ed. and 1954),5:4.3.57-61. 44 A striking in of Elbow's inscribed themistrust Mistress parallel themaleanxieties to in accountof the abortion movement sexuality appearsin Carol Smith-Rosenberg's campaign, malephysicians theAMAconof Victorian America. their In anti-abortion the of bourgeois wife,[who]by rejecting structed mythic a figure the "autonomous for domestic and maternal role bourgeois men had constructed her" deceivedboth and as husbands doctors. and "The AMAlinked doctor husband theequallywronged and innocent wife, contrast, unnaturally in was selfish ruthand parties. The aborting less" (236). In theAMA ideology, in Andrew Boord,"themother potentially was as couldprotect malefetus" the (242).I thank lethal and insane;onlythemalephysician Smith-Rosenberg's Disorderly Conduct: DavidScott Kastan drawing my for to attention (New York:Oxford Univ.Press,1985). Visions Genderin Victorian of America 45 "An in Sermons Homilies or on of Appointed Homily theState Matrimony,"Certain Christian 1908), to be Read in Churches for Knowledge, (London:Society Promoting 534. withCarolyn 46 Luce Irigaray, Porter ThisSex Which Not One, tran.Catherine Is Burke(Ithaca:CornellUniv.Press,1985),30.
43

42

Boord (note sig.A8S. 33),

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