Introduction: Thicker than Water: Evaluating Sibling Relations in the Early Modern Period

While the relationship between parent and child has been a staple of critical inquiry since antiquity, the bonds between siblings have received far less attention. Despite early feminist acclamations of sisterhood, as well as the explosion of scholarly interest in reconsidering both the complexity of gender roles and the significance of domesticity in the early modern period, actual sisters and brothers have been rather neglected. A survey of recent studies of domesticity, the family and gender in the early modern period – including our own previous collection, Maternal Measures ¹ – reveals multiple entries for mothers, fathers, nurses, sons and daughters, but virtually no mention of siblings. Rephrasing Mary Beth Rose’s famous question, ‘where are the mothers in Shakespeare?’ we might ask, ‘where are the brothers – and sisters, too?’