ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to establish to what extent the unusually prominent women's roles in the drama of Crete, produced in the last century of the island's rule by Venice, corresponds to the real lives of Veneto-Cretan women at that period, as reported in contemporary archives and reminiscences. Upon marriage, a woman passed from the authority of her father to that of her husband, but gained thereby no greater freedom; a man's honour depended on the discretion and chastity of his womenfolk. Women do, however, seem to have been permitted to attend the theatre, and were not even excluded from bawdy comedies like Katzourbos. The Cretan Renaissance adaptations of Italian plays, taken as a whole, show a heightened respect for the capacities and feelings of female readers and auditors, as well as an informed interest in their appearance, dress, and behaviour.
