This essay takes seriously
Thomas Raynalde’s advice in The Womans Booke that
women might read this work aloud. The evidence I use to sketch the scene of
reading includes Raynalde’s advice to readers in his long prologue, and also
the kind of reading practice that his own writing represents. But I also go
outside the text, considering what we know about the experience of listening to
a book, and emphasizing the link between this practice and rhetorical
education. I also examine the evidence left behind by two male readers: William
Ward, who marked his copy of the 1565 edition privately, and Edward Poeton of
Petworth, who represented instead a semipublic or shared reading: the
evaluation of The Womans Booke and
other books of generation by a Midwife and her Deputy in a fictional dialogue
“The Midwives Deputie” (ca. 1630s).
Below: Thomas Raynalde, The Birth of mankynde, otherwyse named the womans booke (London, 1585?), title page. Wellcome Library, London (EPB 5514/B).
Below: Thomas Raynalde, The byrth of mankynde, otherwyse named the womans booke (London, 1545), Figures III–XII. Wellcome Library, London (EPB/B/7358/B).
Below: James Wolveridge, Speculum Matricis, or the Expert Midwives Handmaid (London, 1671), front fly leaf, verso. Wellcome Library, London (EPB/A/53412/A).
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Professor of early modern literature and culture in the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics at Newcastle University
More at: https://twitter.com/hiv_insight
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