John Knox, "The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women," 1558: if the sepia is struck with a trident, the male comes to help the female, but the female makes her escape if the male is struck. On the contrary, the male is more ready to help, and, as it hath been said, more brave than the female and. She is also more shameless and false, more readily deceived, and more mindful of injury, more watchful, more idle, and on the whole less excitable than the male. Wherefore women are more compassionate and more readily made to weep, more jealous and querulous, more fond of railing, and more contentious The female also is more subject to depression of spirits and despair than the male. The vestiges of these dispositions exist, as we may say, in all, but are more conspicuous in those which have the strongest moral habits, and most of all in mankind for the nature of the human subject is the most complete, so that these habits appear more conspicuous in mankind than ir other animals. The disposition of the males is opposed to this for they are more passionate and fierce, more straightforward, and less invidious. In other animals the females are more soft and insidious, less simple, more petulant, and more active in the care of their young. The females of all animals are less violent in their passions than the males, except the female bear and pardalis, for the female of these appears more courageous than the male. This is most conspicuous in man, and the larger animals, and in viviparous quadrupeds for the disposition of the female is softer, and more tameable and submissive, and more ingenious as the females of the Lacedemonian dog are more gentle than the males. Though marriage was an unequal partnership, it was less unequal than we might imagine.Īristotle, Historia Animalium, translated by Richard Cresswell:Īnd in all animals in which there is a distinction of the sexes nature has given a similar disposition to the males and to the females. Roles: Because women were thought to be man's inferior in intellect and virtue, women were held to be subordinate and inferior to their husbands, who were considered to be superior partners in marriage.Ĭommon law vested control of property in the man, though dower, inheritance, and settlements gave many wives in the propertied classes some safeguards.Ī good deal of mutual affection existed in most marriages, with wives occupying a separate but subordinate sphere in the family economy. #Elizabethan attitude towards the stars and astrology freeIn practice, marriages ranged over a spectrum running from arranged at one end to completely free at the other.Ĭhristian teaching gave prominence to three purposes for marriage: procreation of children, regulation of sexual activity, and mutual comfort and support. In the upper classes, marriage was seen as a means of gaining property, friends, and allies therefore, marriages among wealthy landowners were more likely arranged than those among people from lower classes. In fact, even the Medieval Church had reminded parents of their duty to consider their children's inclinations in marriage arrangements. In Elizabethan England, there was fairly widespread belief that freedom of choice was a right among marriage partners. Marriage:Ğarly marriage was more common among the nobility and gentry than further down the social scale.
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