‘Good Friendship’ in the Household: Illicit Sexuality, Emotions and Women’s Relationships in Late Sixteenth-Century England

Abstract

In A Caueat for Commen Cursetors, Thomas Harman recounts a lively jest of a lecherous householder, punished for his wandering eye and lustful intentions. Attempting to proposition a pregnant female vagrant, a ‘walking mort’, the householder finds himself, hose about his ankles, trussed and soundly beaten instead of enjoying anticipated pleasures. This reversal is achieved through the collusions of women: the vagrant woman turns to his wife for help, who in turn enlists the support of her female neighbours. While the wife waits innocently in bed, the neighbourhood women catch the householder in his darkened barn and give him a sound thrashing, before helping the young woman safely out of town.¹