ABSTRACT
In the attempts to reassess the position of English women in the society of late Tudor and early Stuart times no one, to my knowledge, has looked very closely at their relationship to one of the most popular endeavors: namely, the theatre. We know, of course, that women were not allowed as actors on the regular stage; and yet they performed frequently in other dramatic entertainments, principally masques. Several writers have detected a decline in the status of women after the death of Elizabeth and the advent of the antifeminist Jacobean court, but I do not think that the issue is that simple.1 Indeed, two recent essays find evidence of ‘modern feminism’ and the development of ‘women’s rights movements’ in the literature.2
