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‘Ah, women, women! come; we have no friendBut resolution, and the briefest end.’

—Cleopatra’s soliloquy after Antony’s death (Antony and Cleopatra, 4.16.91-92)

WHO WAS SHAKESPEARE’S ‘DARK LADY’?

The “female page” role was when a male actor played a woman

who was playing a man (a special challenge to both the actors’ ability to perform as well as to the audience’s

imagination prior to 1660).

7XTHER

E AR

E

as for women in Shakespeare’s plays.

Emelia Bassano LanierA clandestine Jew and illegitimate daughter of the Italian-born court musician, Baptista Bassano, one of a group of Jewish musicians brought from Venice by Henry VIII

Mary FittonA gentlewoman and maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth

Lucy MorganA notorious London prostitute called Lucy Negro, Black Lucy, or Lucy Morgan

Aline FlorioWife to an Italian translator who first met Shakespeare at the home of the Earl of Southampton (Shakespeare’s patron for some time) and later again in London

AS MANY ROLES FOR MEN

84%of Shakespeare

characters are men

CLEOPATRA & ROSALIND ARE THE ONLY 2 female characters in the top 10 biggest roles in Shakespeare’s plays.

16%of Shakespeare

characters are women

CHARACTERS & THEIR LINESMain female characters had far fewer than their male counterparts

= 100 lines

Hamlet in Hamlet Iago in Othello King Henry in Henry V

Rosalind in As You Like It

Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra

InnogenCymbeline

Portia inThe Merchant of Venice

Juliet in Romeo and Juliet

Helena in All’s Well That Ends Well

Isabella in Measure for Measure

Desdemona in Othello

Emilia in The Two Noble Kinsmen

Mary Frith, a notorious London pickpocket and crossdresser, was the subject of several early modern works. She performed onstage once in the 1611 play

The Roaring Girl.

Hamilton, Sharon, Shakespeare’s Daughters, 5. Shapiro, Michael, Gender in Play on the Shakespearean Stage, 16-8. Spevack, Marvin, A Complete and Systematic Concordance

to the Works of Shakespeare. Wells, Stanley, An A-Z Guide to Shakespeare (2 ed.). Wells, Stanley and Gary Taylor, William

Shakespeare: A Textual Companion

WOMEN ON STAGE

In the early modern period, crossdressing was frequently

associated with prostitution, fornication, or other forms of illicit activities.

Legal proceeding records of the time contain numerous cases where women and their helpers were punished for dressing up as a man—no matter illicit sexual activities were involved or not.

CROSSDRESSING OFF STAGE

Shakespeare used “female page” roles throughout his career

Cymbeline The Merchant of Venice

As You Like It Twelfth NightThe Two Gentlemen of Verona

Female roles were almost always played by male

actors until 1660.