This Jacobean city comedy is a curiosity in that it presents a
real-life character, the notorious cross-dresser Moll Frith, who
probably was among the first audiences of 'her' play before she was
taken up for public misconduct. Middleton and Dekker's 'roaring girl'
may outrage her society with her pipe, bluster and swagger, but she
turns out to be the moral centre of the play. Her code of honour leads
her to call the bluff on rogues and conspicuous consumers, to thrash a
hypocritical gallant in a duel, and to act as go-between for the young
lovers thwarted by parental tyranny. This wry dramatisation of female
deviancy exposing male ineffectuality is as much to the point today as
it was in King James's England. An appendix helps the modern reader to
appreciate the canting terms used by the low-life characters.

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Yes, you can access The Roaring Girl by Thomas Dekker, Thomas Middleton, Elizabeth Cook in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & Drama. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Publisher

Methuen Drama

Year

2014

ISBN

9781408144190

Edition

Topic

Literature

Subtopic

Drama

Index

Literature

Like 

other 

theatres, 

the

Fortune 

also 

offered 

rich 

pickings 

for

cutpurses. 

In

V.i.269–70 

Moll 

identiﬁes 

one

of

the

cutpurses 

she

encounters 

as

one

she

once 

‘took 

.

.

.

i’the 

twopenny 

gallery 

at

the

Fortune’: 

the

fact 

that 

the

historical 

Moll 

Frith 

is

known 

to

have

frequented 

this 

theatre 

conﬁrms 

the

underworld 

link. 

Her

ﬁctional

representation 

on

stage 

exists 

to

chastise 

the

likes 

of

her

historical

self.

A

trapdoor 

was

a

standard 

part 

of

Elizabethan 

stage 

design, 

and

the

presence 

of

a

character 

named 

Trapdoor 

seems 

to

require 

the

use

of

such 

a

stage 

property. 

Trapdoor’s 

appearance 

from 

and

dis-

appearance 

into 

his

namesake 

–

an

opening 

in

the

stage 

into 

the

below-stage 

area 

known 

as

‘hell’ 

–

would 

have 

accentuated 

the

in-

fernal 

atmosphere 

he

carries 

with 

him.

34

In

the

Fortune 

Theatre

xxiv

INTRODUCTION

34

Chambers, 

II,

528

London 

and

the

northern 

suburbs

Cover
Contents
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
Further Reading
THE ROARING GIRL
Appendix: Cant and Canting