ABSTRACT
The “monsters” in this chapbook both engaged in sexual relations outside of marriage, came to resent these acts, and committed murder to remove the shame of their “wickedness”. The author makes it clear that the reader is not supposed to be sympathetic to the murderers, even if one was a cripple and the other a hapless woman. Instead, the author frequently refers to the murderers as subhuman creatures. John Arthur is described as an “unperfect wretch”, a “decrepit creature”, and a “deformed lump of flesh”, while Martha Scambler is a “she-wolf, more unnatural than either bird or beast” and a “caterpillar of nature”. Even the title of this chapbook, Deeds against nature, and monsters by kind, emphasizes the inhumanity and animalistic tendencies of these two criminals and thus clearly distinguished them from civilized, law-abiding people. The cripple’s “complaint” and the strumpet’s “repentance” are particularly interesting aspects of this chapbook. Although it was not unusual for chapbooks to show how convicted murderers confessed and repented before their executions, this author evidently elected to reproduce these in poetic form. Even though these poems are written in the first person, it is clear that the same person – likely the anonymous author – wrote them both, and of course it is possible that no such penitence was demonstrated by Arthur or Scambler at all. The semi-literate and common audience that would have read and experienced this chapbook likely found these poems especially satisfying, particularly if they were read out to a wider audience.
