Women of Will: that would be scanned…

We all know women, and particularly the roles Will wrote for women, were never acted by women on the Elizabethan stage. There is the exception of Moll Firth the cross dressing roaring girl who is supposed to have crashed her premiere and taken the stage. We know also of an Italian commedia del arte group that performed in England, whose main actress may have inspired Isabella in Sh’s Measure for Measure. But structurally men or boys rather took the women’s roles. (Cross-dressing seemingly being in the English genes from Panto to POW camps ever since). The French allowed women on their stages, the Spanish too. So why not the English?

So were women just tools to be manipulated by a misogynistic playwright?
Were the boy actors that good at impersonating large amounts of their audience?
English women we know accompanied one another to the theatre. And there’s the titillating aspect to be dealt with too. We know of the gentle-lady who was groped in the upper boxes finding it exciting and pleasant but revealing to hubby at home that she had been thus robbed.

Our Will don’t forget, accepting the biog as writ, had a momma from a good station in life, related peripherally to his patron the Earl of Southampton, another young man highly influenced by his mother.

There is a certain amount of rape in Sh’s early plays: 2 Gentlemen of Verona, Titus Andronicus, Venus and Adonis (a reverse rape being goddess on mortal youth), the Rape of Lucrece were all popular.

Yet in Will’s later plays, namely

Innogen (Imogen) in Cymbeline,
Portia in Merchant of Venice,
Rosalind in As You Like It,

all have the most lines and therefore carry the play. Somebody played women well. Women are integral to the telling of the majority of his plays.

Viola and Olivia in Twelfth Night are at the heart of it,
Isabella in Measure for Measure yo-yo’d between the Duke and his brother,
Helena messed around on in All’s Well that Ends Well,
Joan of Arc in Henry the Sixth part one ignites the story to a more problematic level,
Queen Margaret’s rise and decline in Henry the Sixth parts two and three, and her madness and prophesying to
Queen Elizabeth in Richard the Third,
Constance suffers a mother’s ultimate loss in King John,
Hostess tag teams Falstaff in Henry the Fourth part two,
broken-spoken franglais English Catherine in King Henry the Fifth,
Queen Katherine in King Henry the Eighth,
Marina forced into prostitution in Pericles,
steadfast Paulina in Winter’s Tale,
Miranda the only woman in the Tempest,
Tamora Goth Queen in Titus Andronicus,,
no Romeo without Juliet in Romeo and Juliet,
suffering swallowing hot coals Portia in Julius Caesar,
suicidal Ophelia and poison drink imbibing Queen Gertrude in Hamlet,
self-will’d Katherina bowing to her man (or does she) in Taming of the Shrew,
not Cressida in Troilus and Cressida,
Desdemona and Emilia both fated to die in Othello,
the two evil and self-serving older daughters Regan and Goneril,
and the good honest youngest daughter Cordelia in King Lear,
the empress Cleopatra suicided out by an asp in Antony and Cleopatra,
Lady M sent into madness in Macbeth,
Volumnia reminding her boy of his civic duties in Coriolanus.

Now a whole bunch of other girls arise as support and to enliven the situation in subtle ways.
Anyways here’s the list of female roles with their line counts:

ROSALIND As You Like It Female 685. That’s twice as many lines as Orlando who’s 2nd in amount of lines. Let’s not forget she is dressed as the boy Ganymede for more than half the play.

CLEOPATRA Antony and Cleopatra Female 678. All woman this one. Anthony is first in line count with 839.

INNOGEN Cymbeline Female 594. Leads the line count above Postumus, Iachimo, Belarius with the title character in fifth place.

PORTIA The Merchant of Venice Female 574. Leads the line count above Shylock and Bassanio. Lest we forget she does dress as a man boy to defend the merchant in Court.

JULIET Romeo and Juliet Female 542. All girlie girlie and stays so, second in line count after Romeo.

HELENA All’s Well That Ends Well Female 478. The original orphan Annie helped by the Countess of Roussillon to gain her ingrate son. Leads the line count and perfects the bed-trick ie swopping the partner so someone is sleeping with someone they think is someone else.

ISABELLA Measure for Measure Female 424. Second in line count stuck between the Duke in 1st place and his brother Angelo in 3rd place. The poor virgin struggles to maintain her maidenhead between these two and is the play’s ultimate loser. Silenced or made tongue-tied by authority as sonnet 66 says.

DESDEMONA Othello Female 391

VIOLA Twelfth Night Female 335
PAULINA The Winter’s Tale Female 332

MISTRESS PAGE The Merry Wives of Windsor Female 328
JULIA The Two Gentlemen of Verona Female 322

QUEEN Henry VI Part 2 Female 316
OLIVIA Twelfth Night Female 314
VOLUMNIA Coriolanus Female 311

CRESSIDA Troilus and Cressida Female 301

COUNTESS All’s Well That Ends Well Female 291

PRINCESS Love’s Labour’s Lost Female 288
CELIA As You Like It Female 282

QUEEN Henry VI Part 3 Female 279
BEATRICE Much Ado About Nothing Female 279
NURSE Romeo and Juliet Female 277
QUEEN ELIZABETH Richard III Female 272

CONSTANCE King John Female 264
ADRIANA The Comedy of Errors Female 263
QUEEN KATHERINE Henry VIII Female 261

LADY Macbeth Female 259
TAMORA Titus Andronicus Female 257
PUCELLE Henry VI Part 1 Female 254

EMILIA Othello Female 243

MISTRESS QUICKLY The Merry Wives of Windsor Female 236
HELENA A Midsummer Night’s Dream Female 230

KATHERINA The Taming of the Shrew Female 221

QUEEN MARGARET Richard III Female 218
COUNTESS King Edward III Female 214
HERMIONE The Winter’s Tale Female 211

GONERILL King Lear Female 199
MISTRESS FORD The Merry Wives of Windsor Female 192
MARINA Pericles Female 190
REGAN King Lear Female 190

OPHELIA Hamlet Female 173
HOSTESS Henry IV Part 2 Female 171

QUEEN Cymbeline Female 168
ROSALINE Love’s Labour’s Lost Female 165
HERMIA A Midsummer Night’s Dream Female 164

SILVIA The Two Gentlemen of Verona Female 158
QUEEN Hamlet Female 157
ANNE Richard III Female 157
MIRANDA The Tempest Female 153

MARIA Twelfth Night Female 149
DUCHESS OF YORK Richard III Female 141
TITANIA A Midsummer Night’s Dream Female 141

DIANA All’s Well That Ends Well Female 138
HERO Much Ado About Nothing Female 132

PERDITA The Winter’s Tale Female 126

DUCHESS Henry VI Part 2 Female 119
CORDELIA King Lear Female 117
KATHERINE Henry VIII Female 115
QUEEN ISABEL Richard II Female 115
LADY CAPULET Romeo and Juliet Female 115

CHARMIAN Antony and Cleopatra Female 109
BAWD Pericles Female 104

And beyond this a further 100 odd female characters with under a hundred lines. So yes there are enough women in Will to study. We think Will knew his women would one day be played by women. That said. Tina Packer is coming to Europe soon. This would be scanned some more…