ABSTRACT
In Chapter 2, “Triangulating The Two Gentlemen: Maids enable gender expression in love,” status and gender representation affect the agency of Early Modern cisgender female characters. This examination compares the speech and actions of cisgender female and gender-fluid characters in Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona , Jorge Montemayor’s Diana and Luigi Pasqualigo’s Fedele. The noblewomen transgress norms to marry the noblemen whom they love. Both Julia and Felismena adopt male gender identities to win love at a high cost. Julia coerces her maid Lucetta into helping her dress as a page. In The Diana, outcomes of cisgender female characters are less aligned with status. Diana remains unhappily in an arranged marriage. Felismena adopts a male gender identity to fight for her love, but Princess Celica dies of unrequited love for the disguised page. In Il Fedele, Vittoria manages adulterous affairs with noblemen. When Fedele extorts Vittoria, she hires a hitman and takes sleep-inducing poison. Fedele revives Vittoria to continue their extramarital affair. In a bed trick, most maids keep jobs by fulfilling desires of nobles. Balia arranges for the wrong man to take the virginity of her ward who agrees to marry her rapist. Noblewomen hold legitimate power, but servants affect agency.
