Women and the English Duel

Term Paper # 99834

English > Analysis
History > European - 17th Century
Women Studies > Historical Figures

A look at women and duelling in the 17th century, as described in "The Female Duel," attributed to Thomas Toll.

917 words () | 5 sources | APA | 2007 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the history of the English duel in the 17th century. The paper looks at the reasons for duelling - commonly over women, because of rival factions, over public office, because of family quarrels or inheritance and because of disputed honorifics. The paper suggests that far from being the ideal of nobility, duelling was in fact a sport of violence by which comparatively minor offenses were settled by blood. It then specifically analyzes women and dueling at that time and analyzes "The Female Duell," attributed to Thomas Toll.

From the Paper:

"We could expect readers of the era to peruse this tale with a superficial sense of morality and civil decency that perhaps masked a deeper, more perverse, desire to read a story about two women who went out to fight formally over the love of a man. We can expect that then, as now, such a situation might have been the fantasy of more than one Englishman. Despite the fact that there are historical examples of women engaging in duels, fighting in battles, and even living as highwaymen, it was still much more rare than the sight of two men fighting over the love of a single woman. For the situation to be reversed highlights the extremes to which even the fairer sex can go in the name of love."

Sample of Sources Used:

Keane, James R. "Dueling Doctors." Southern Medical Journal. 2006. 16 October 2006 <http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/410621>.
Roth, Ariel A. "The Dishonor of Dueling." Origins 16.1 (1989): 3-7. 16 October 2006 <http://www.grisda.org/origins/16003.htm>.
Toll, Thomas. "The Female Duell, or, The Maidens Combate; Being an Exact Relation of Two Maidens Living Near the Town of Ware in Hartfordshire, Who Being Enamoured on a Young Man of the Same Town, Challeneged the Field of Each Other, and Fought a Deull at Single Rapier, with the Whole Manner and Circumstances Thereof." London: Printed for John Clarke at the Harp and Bible in West Smith-field, 1672.
Wilson, William E. The Arte of Defense: A Manual on the Use of the Rapier. March 1993. 16 October 2006 <http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~wew/rapier.htm#WPTOHTML2>.
"Women as Warriors in the 17th Century." Lothene: Experimental Archaeology. 15 October 2006 <http://www.lothene.demon.co.uk/others/women17.html>.