On Sat, 29 Apr 2000, John A W Lock wrote:
>
> "At thys courte came Agneys Hopton who was appayraylled in a Mans Rayment
> and kept company with John Salmon Mynstrell beinge a maryed man ,,, [who]
> kept the sayd woman in mannes Rayment and mysused the same woman contrarye
> to the lawes of god and to the right perillous example of all other like
> offensors Wherefore yt is nowe orderyd that the sayd woman shalbe punysshed
> accordinge to the Judgement gevyn in the boke of Dunthorn fo.127 and the man
> on horsbakke wth his face to the horse tayle with a paper on his hed and to
> playe upon his owne Instrument afore her and proclamacon of the cause in
> Chepe and bothe the man and woman to be banysshed for one yere "
>
>
> what is the law of God that is being transgressed?
Well, in addition to adultery, there's Deuteronomy 22.5: Awoman shall
not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on
a woman's garment: for whosoever doeth these things is an abomination
unto the Lord thy God. There may also be the implication that they
were somehow transgressing the spirit if not the letter of Leviticus
18.22: Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind: it is
abomination.
I've no idea about the judgement given in the book of Dunthorn, but I
know that in several English cities in the 15th and 16th centuries
woman who were taken in adultery or fornication were paraded through
the streets in a cart with a minstrel playing before the cart, so it
sounds as tho' here the man, being a minstrel, was forced to take the
minstrel's part in that public shaming..... Now since this is a
'normal' punishment for adultery, that would argue that who ever it
was (Karen?) who pointed out earlier that the couple had committed
adultery if nothing else, has hit the nail on the head, and that the
woman dressed in man's attire is just the icing on the cake!
Abigail
Abigail Ann Young (Dr), Associate Editor/ Records of Early English Drama/
Victoria College/ 150 Charles Street W/ Toronto Ontario Canada
Phone (416) 585-4504/ FAX (416) 585-4594/ [log in to unmask]
List-owner of REED-L <http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reed/reed-l.html>
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reed/reed.html => REED's home page
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reed/stage.html => our theatre resource page
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~young => my home page
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