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This study examines the role of emotions – specifically fear – in the development and early stages of settlement at Jamestown. More so than any other factor, the Protestant belief system transplanted by the first settlers to Virginia helps explain the hardships the English encountered in the New World, as well as influencing English perceptions of self and other. Out of this transplanted Protestantism emerged a discourse of fear that revolved around the agency of the Devil in the temporal world. Reformed beliefs of the Devil identified domestic English Catholics and English imperial rivals from Iberia as agents of the diabolical. These fears travelled to Virginia, where the English quickly ʻsatanizedʼ another group, the Virginia Algonquians, based upon misperceptions of native religious and cultural practices. I argue that English belief in the diabolic nature of the Native Americans played a significant role during the “starving time” winter of 1609-1610. In addition to the acknowledged agency of the Devil, Reformed belief recognized the existence of providential actions based upon continued adherence to the Englishʼs nationally perceived covenant with the Almighty. Efforts to maintain Godʼs favor resulted in a reformation of manners jump-started by Sir Thomas Daleʼs Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiall, and English tribulations in Virginia – such as Opechancanoughʼs 1622 attack upon the settlement – served as concrete evidence of Godʼs displeasure to English observers. A religiously infused discourse of fear shaped the first two decades of the Jamestown settlement. / Master of Arts

This thesis explores the circumstances leading up to and surrounding the executions of London Separatist leaders Henry Barrow and John Greenwood on 6 April, 1593. Occurring after a lengthy prison term punctuated by official examinations conducted by authorities, the executions took place only after the men had been twice reprieved, performed so early as to avoid a crowd yet still in the appointed place of public execution. Focusing on Henry Barrow and the London Separatists, this thesis explores how a national climate of fear and violence led to a greater crackdown on religious dissidents, and argues that the strange circumstances of Barrow’s execution might be attributed to a reluctance to punish a fellow Protestant in the same manner as a Catholic recusant, and the great differences of opinion among both ecclesiastical and temporal state officials regarding the punishment of religious dissent. Though Conformist officials and authoritarianism would ultimately triumph over Puritan efforts to speed reform in the Church of England, the case of Henry Barrow illustrates the fractured state of opinion which was present even among the highest reaches of government.

Thesis advisor: Caroline Bicks / Routinely recognized as deeply patriarchal, early modern England is an era in which men and characteristics of the male gender are assumed to have held unrelenting sway over their female counterparts. This description is largely justifiable, particularly given the era's legal codes. However, this thesis seeks to enrich discussions on early modern England by examining its male-female relationships through a markedly different lens. By highlighting the close relationships that existed alongside patriarchal mandates in the era - husband and wife, father and daughter, mother and son - a fuller portrait of the period is sketched. Through an examination of how a variety of genres - medical, religious, and dramatic - grappled with moments of union between the two sexes, particularly physical union and its concurrent or resultant emotional bonds, this thesis offers greater insight into how walls to male-female connection were both raised and bridged in the time period. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: English. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

The act of wearing a mask, of concealing one’s identity, has been one of the most enticing but controversial cultural practices since the 1500s. Masking evoked an even bolder act of self-fashioning when enacted by the female sex, since the gesture came to be read as a materialization of the deceitful and duplicitous character of woman’s nature, proclaimed by the major state and religious institutions of the early modern era. The ubiquity of this cultural and religious trope, however, has overshadowed a parallel dimension of this phenomenon: women’s appropriation of masking as means to obtain cultural agency and public (in)visibility in the context of a number of sartorial, theatrical, and entertainment practices. How visual representations of female masking served both maskers and audiences to navigate the social, moral, and cultural implications of this reality constitutes the subject of the present study. This dissertation explores the gendering of the act of (un)masking and its dissemination in visual culture during the early modern period in England, looking at four different cultural and chronological settings: the Carnival, the Stuart court masque, the Restoration urban space, and the Georgian masquerade. Through the examination of women’s uses of masks and their artistic representations in these different contexts, the author argues that the iconography of the (un)masked woman not only pervaded contemporary imagery, but also acted as a primary vehicle to comment on, formulate, and negotiate models of femininity throughout the early modern period. As this was a quintessential form of self-fashioning, central to a number of pageants, entertainments, and rituals, the analysis of women’s masking and its depictions reveals the core of early modern attitudes to power, gender, and class, in both the public and private realms. In order to flesh out such ideological discourses, this study considers a wide range of visual depictions and cultural practices, including drawings, prints, paintings, ephemera, costumes, fashion accessories, cosmetic customs, and architectural settings. In methodological terms, this dissertation applies an interdisciplinary, feminist, and art-historical perspective to the study of early modern masking in England, engaging at the same time with a number of interpretative tools from the fields of the history of costume, dance, theatre, and literature.

"Motivation" is the force that drives an individual to perform a certain action. Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), an American psychologist profoundly influenced by the existential and teleological paradigms, expounded a motivation theory that remains precise and replicable, as well as applicable to other spheres of study, including the humanities. Indeed, psychology experts and non-specialists are by and large familiar with Maslow's Pyramid of Human Needs. Moreover, despite the abundance of literary criticism that utilizes Freudian-based theory to analyze the motivations of literary characters, critics have largely neglected the use of other paradigms, including Maslow's. In this thesis, I use Maslow's texts as support for identifying the motivations of women characters who dress as men in Shakespeare's dramas. I also simultaneously employ Maslow's theory to illuminate the parallels in these characters' motivations and the varying need levels that Maslow develops in his hierarchy. After a comprehensive review of the literary criticism that addresses the dramatic motif of cross-dressing in early modern England and an extensive explanation of the history of motivation theory up to and including that of Abraham Maslow, I treat the following plays by William Shakespeare: The Two Gentlemen of Verona, As You Like It, and The Merchant of Venice in conjunction with Maslow's Pyramid of Human Needs. Through this analysis, I demonstrate that Julia cross-dresses to satisfy needs on the level of Love/Belonging; Rosalind cross-dresses for reasons that correspond to the Safety level, then to the Esteem level; and Portia demonstrates motivations that correspond to Maslow's Love/Belonging and Esteem levels.

The Reformation was a period of change in which there was a distinct break between the medieval tradition and the Early Modern Period. Divine Right to Rule, the doctrine that states monarchs derive their right to rule from and are only answerable to God, became a central point in Early Modern political theories, such as in The Six Bookes of the Commonwealth by Jean Bodin. Sovereignty was described in absolutist terms that stressed obedience to the ruler and denied resistance under any circumstances. The cultural phenomenon of obedience and non-resistance largely emerged through the doctrines of Reformation writers such as Martin Luther and William Tyndale. This thesis attempts to trace the intellectual origins of the Divine Right theory from the medieval antipapal polemics to Bodin¡¦s concrete definition of sovereignty. This thesis uses a cultural studies approach to trace the ideas which eventually led to the emergence of the Divine Right theory. It finds similarities in the historical circumstance, which influenced the production of each, individual work, and finds similarities between the texts of different historical periods. It also explores the influence each text had on its contemporaries and on later generations. To start, Bodin¡¦s The Six Bookes of the Common-Weale will be examined to determine the definition of absolutism defined by divine right as seen by sixteenth century intellectuals. It is important to note that Bodin did not always support royal absolutism, but like many other political thinkers, the chaos of the French Civil Wars led him to the conclusion that only a strong king has the ability to unify a country. Bodin¡¦s Six Bookes set out to clearly define the meaning of sovereignty and the obligations of the sovereign. He determined a sovereign has to have supreme, unshared power that is not limited by any subject. Moreover, a sovereign ruler recognizes no higher authority, save God. Therefore, Bodin justifies royal absolutism through Divine Right. This becomes clear through his stance on resistance¡Xactive resistance, rebellion and tyrannicide are forbidden under all circumstances. The ideas highlighted in Six Bookes will be compared with the philosophy presented by Marsilius of Padua in Defensor Pacis. It may seem strange to compare thought of Marsilius against that of Bodin, for Marsilius actually had a profound dislike of absolutism (Copleston 310), however Marsilius¡¦ doctrine plays a crucial role in the foundations of divine right. Appalled by papal interference into secular affairs, Marsilius created an antipapal polemic, which attempts to destroy the papacy¡¦s claims on temporal power and places the state above the church in earthly affairs. Both the medieval and modern standpoints will then be compared with the ideas of Reformers. Like Marsilius, both Luther and William Tyndale begin their respective works with antipapal rhetoric. Luther¡¦s An Appeal to the Ruling Class of German Nationality as to the Amelioration of the State of Christendom (1520) attacks the ¡§three walls¡¨ he felt protected the pope¡¦s erroneous actions. In Secular Authority: To What Extent It Should Be Obeyed, Luther agrees with Marsilius¡¦ opinion that the pope had no coercive power or jurisdiction in earthly affairs, and identifies the king as God¡¦s representative on earth. Thus a good Christian has the duty to obey the king and not resist his orders. Tyndale¡¦s The Obedience of a Christian Man further developed Luther¡¦s political theory, in particular with the idea of obedience. Tyndale emphasizes the divine right to rule and that usurping a sovereign ruler is equivalent to usurping the will of God. In his eyes, disobedience breeds disobedience and the result of rebellion is chaos. While still based on theology, the political thinking of both Luther and Tyndale act as a bridge between merely attacks against the pope and the sophisticated political philosophies justified by history and civil law. In conclusion, Reformation writers were immeasurably useful in providing intellectual support for secular claims for supremacy, obedience and non-resistance, particularly in the ecclesiastical split between Henry VIII and Rome. The Reformation doctrine of obedience developed from the antipapal polemics of the medieval period and become a defining point in Early Modern political tracts. Obedience and non-resistance also enabled the claim of Divine Right to Rule by sixteenth and seventeenth century rulers.

The works of William Shakespeare reflect the society in which he lived, and they can therefore be studied for the light they shed upon certain aspects of this society that may otherwise have been ignored or misrepresented by other surviving documents. This is especially true of prostitution. Women in this shifting English society were marginalized, and the prostitute occupied an especially precarious place since her profession identified her as an outsider, legally and morally. Surviving historical documents address the legality or morality of this institution, but fail to reveal how it was perceived by society as a whole. Shakespeare receives much praise for his keen observations of human behavior, so his plays can be seen as a type of historical document themselves. I am interested in how the characters of prostitutes function in his oeuvre and whether they uphold or subvert the attitudes implied by the other existing documents and scholarship on the topic.

This dissertation reintegrates the Mediterranean into the history of the development of the early modern British Empire. During the seventeenth century, the Mediterranean emerged as a distinct political, legal and commercial space within the wider currents of English expansion. The political and legal regimes of the sea shaped the evolution of the English presence there and the rulers of the Ottoman Empire, the North African regencies, and Italian states such as Tuscany and Genoa limited the expansion of English sovereignty. As a result, the sea offers a different perspective on the history of English expansion than that found in imperial histories set in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The development of the English presence in the Mediterranean highlights the relative weakness of the early modern English state and the extent to which other polities limited the expansion of its sovereign authority. However, this dissertation also aims to move beyond an imperial historiography that distinguishes the wider development of English trade and navigation from the growth of English empire. Through the latter half of the seventeenth century and first half of the eighteenth, the Crown's claims to jurisdiction over its subjects and their ships projected English authority into the Mediterranean. This dissertation examines how the English state extended its authority within a pluralistic maritime environment that lay largely beyond the reach of its claims to empire. By studying the jurisdictional contests that arose when the Crown’s claims to authority over its subjects and their ships collided with the sovereignty of Mediterranean polities, it shows how the intersection of diverse sovereign and legal authorities defined the organization of English trade and navigation. Moreover, as the English state extended its authority overseas during the early modern period, it called into question the location of sovereignty and jurisdictional authority in Mediterranean waters as well as in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. English expansion in the Mediterranean and the political evolution of the sea were part of a global process whereby states and empires sought to establish their authority over oceanic space and networks of trade. / History