Marriage and Violence: The Early Modern Legacy » (New Edition)

Frances E. Dolan is Professor of English at the University of California, Davis. Among her books are Dangerous Familiars: Representations of Domestic Crime in England, 1550-1700 and Whores of Babylon: Catholicism, Gender, and Seventeenth-Century Print Culture.

Marriage is often described as a melding of two people into one. But what—or who—must be lost, fragmented, or buried in that process? Dolan reveals the contradiction that lies at the very heart of modern marriage. We have inherited from early modern England a model of marriage, she contends, so flawed that its logical consequence is conflict.

Introduction 1

1 One Flesh, Two Heads: Debating the Biblical Blueprint for Marriage in the Seventeenth and Twentieth Centuries 26

2 Battered Women, Petty Traitors, and the Legacy of Coverture 67

3 Fighting for the Breeches, Sharing the Rod: Spouses, Servants, and the Struggle for Equality 97

4 How a Maiden Keeps Her Head: Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I, and the Perils of Marriage 132

Afterword 164

Notes 169

Index 225