ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces a so far neglected species of the cockered child, the cockered daughter. While cockered boys were considered to be stuck in the cold, feminine humoral sphere, which left them immature, vain, and foolish, cockered girls were thought too manly and hot, and thus rebellious, promiscuous, and choleric. The chapter explores female protagonists in several plays, including Nice Wanton (1547–53), Mary Magdalene (1550–66), Eastward Ho! (1605), The Tyde Taryeth No Man (1576), The Taming of the Shrew (1590), and Calisto and Melebea (1527). The analogous ways in which these female characters behave make clear the point that cockered girls were believed to behave in certain orthodox, and morally flawed, ways, ways that provided the mirror image of the moral flaws associated with cockered boys.
