Swetnam the Woman-Hater and the Red Bull – Long Forgotten Ties
Patrick Perrault
1205898
Tuesday, October 27th, 2015
Dr. Melinda Gough
The play Swetnam the Woman-Hater and the Red Bull theatre are both under-researched and under-taught in terms of their place in the early 17th century theatre scene. With no author formally attached to it and a unique plot would have made Swetnam even more intriguing in the early 17th century, with its keen if lighthearted focus on woman’s rights. The launching point of discussion refers to the type of audience that the Red Bull was known to attract, mainly that the theatre itself was thought to be “… of lower note…” Throughout the rest of this introduction that is dedicated to Swetnam the Woman-Hater, it will be conclusively shown that the play was indeed planned to be performed at the Red Bull, which was due to both the play and the locale itself being more suitable for the ‘low-brow’ audience that the play was aimed towards.
Swetnam the Woman-Hater is a play that was intended to ‘expose’ the way woman were treated in 17th century England, with a particular focus being placed upon the ‘patriarchal’ society. This theme is continued throughout the entire play, with further elaboration on how women had to endure systematic “… legal and economic disempowerment.”
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By ‘low-brow’, it is meant that the Red Bull was seen (and utilized) as a theatre for the lower-class. However, despite the mocking reputation that the Red Bull received that eventually turned into “… cultural fashion…” the Red Bull was also respected for what it did. Indeed, the Red Bull was seen as a part of a group of “… guardians of old dramatic and theatrical traditions [and] also competitive players in a market.” In a sense, the Red Bull theatre functioned as a legitimate playhouse despite the known audience it