ABSTRACT

In studying Early Modern women dying badly, one encounters a further difficulty that ranges across class and genre: many more good than bad deaths were recorded and, in many cases, a bad death was dismissed with little elaboration, thus reducing the material available for research. There were, of course, far more reasons to record a good than a bad death. For the purposes of religious instruction, for instance, whilst a poor death could serve as a warning, a good death, lovingly described, full of the assurance that heaven was waiting to welcome the dying woman, was more likely to inspire. Not only were women the weaker sex in general terms when facing death, they also had to contend with specific weaknesses caused by their femininity. Texts posthumously vilifying the images of women, glorying in their poor deaths and lovingly describing in every detail their crimes, claimed a higher purpose than mere misogyny.