The Roaring Girl

by Thomas Dekker, Thomas Middleton, Erica Whyman (Introduction)

Sebastian has a problem: He's in love with a girl but his father won't agree to their marriage. In desperation he turns to the one person who can help him, the fearless and feisty 'roaring girl' Moll Cutpurse.

In a London fuelled by greed and desire, the charismatic, cross-dressing heroine Moll has the world wrapped around her little finger, and she has a plan. Cutting a joyously independent path through the underhand scheming and petty vendettas of the London underworld, Moll proves more than a match for any man.

Dekker and Middleton's provocative comedy is based on the life of Mary Frith. It was premiered by Prince Henry's Men at the Fortune Theatre and first published in 1611. It was revived by the Royal Shakespeare Company as part of its 2014 Roaring Girls season in Stratford-upon-Avon.

This is a Prompt Book edition featuring the text as edited for the RSC production and introductions by key members of its creative team, Erica Whyman and Jo Davies.

Genres: Plays, Classics, Drama, Fiction, School, Read For School, Theatre

130 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1611

About the author

Thomas Dekker (c.1572 - 1632) was an Elizabethan dramatist and pamphleteer, a versatile and prolific writer whose career spanned several decades and brought him into contact with many of the period's most famous dramatists.

Reviews

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to admit that I did not enjoy this City Comedy as much as Every man in his humour but I liked Mad Moll very much.

In a time when women were forced in society's idea of womanhood, Moll dares to live according to her own morals and beliefs. She dresses as she wants, speaks as she wants and acts as she wants. She teaches men manners and is well respected and a friend and helper to most of them. Furthermore, she is the messenger between the classes.

What is most remarkable, however, is that she is neither executed nor burned for her deeds, but celebrated— a fact that makes me give this play 4 stars.

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here we have a woman who does not follow social convention and by the end of this Jacobian play she is neither dead nor married off. Remarkable!

[jules · Rating 3 out of 5]

this play probably doesn’t deserve three stars quality-wise but reading about historical queer people makes me so happy.

[bri]

This play was… definitely not amazingly written, I think it was incredibly disjointed feeling. But it was really really cool to see a literary representation of a potentially trans person and the way that they were viewed in the world!

[caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

about to do the most intensive queer reading of Moll, apologies in advance to my supervisor who is once again going to have to listen to me rant about women for 3000 words

[NaTaya Hastings · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the better plays I've read recently. I really enjoyed it. It takes the notion of woman as a meek and docile housewife and turns it on its head, which was very, VERY unusual for the time period in which this play was written.

I adore Moll. Her 'women are not whores' speech to Laxton? One of my new favorite monologues. I just want to go out and perform it in the middle of town squares. It was AWESOME.

A great play, all in all.

[Anton]

I don't feel like I can give this a rating as I barely paid attention when I read this on audiobook, and only barely got the gist of the story.
Discussing the book for school was, however, quite interesting! Lots of parallels to The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare.

[gabby mola · Rating 4 out of 5]

woo cross dressing woo

[poppy · Rating 1 out of 5]

praying for the day that the english faculty decides to give us something good to read

[cait · Rating 3 out of 5]

everything IS about sex if you think about it...

[Ruby Saggers · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was okay, and quite entertaining. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Moll’s lines, and like the female agency, but I was also pretty desperate to finish it… Sexual innuendos are always a bonus, they make it a little more fun.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moll Cutpurse is an absolute fracking delight.

CW: period typical racism, misogyny, etc

[Laura Pinto · Rating 5 out of 5]

so much penis word play

[erynde · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just... I love this play.

[Moll] Perhaps for my mad going, some reprove me;
I please myself, and care not else who loves me.

Everything about this play (maybe expect for its ending which was sort of odd and the second song I just couldn't fit into the plot) is so entertaining. I enjoyed the gender issues it raised and how it presented Moll even though it had certain "out-dated" (I guess) ideas on marriage. Even they were good to consider because Moll wasn't a character to marry, ever, and her ideas were interesting. I think it's extremely easy to see these characters and occurrences in a feminist setting. It raises many good questions - some still relevant about our society.

[Trapdoor] The love I bear to your heroic spirit and masculine womanhood.

I enjoy most city comedies of that time but this one holds a different place in my heart. I found Moll close to my heart and the other characters (excluding the wives) were equally entertaining.

Also, a play that has homosexual characters and a independent strong bisexual woman as a main character? It was impossible to not love it.

[Alexander] [...]I'll never more
Condemn by common voice, for that's the whore
That deceives man's opinion, mocks his trust,
Cozens his love, and makes his heart unjust.

I especially liked the Prologue and the Epilogue because they were raising an interesting point on audience's expectations and their relationship with plays.

Definitely recommended. I wish I could watch this play (or even play in it).

[Jason Wardell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really fun, if somewhat difficult read, and both for the same reason. Since the play is set in then-modern London, as opposed to the vast majority of Shakespeare which includes a temporal/spacial remove, a lot of the subject matter is now-obsolete pop culture. If you're willing to input the time to research while reading, though, I think it's a worthwhile excursion into City Comedy, and definitely a more culturally enlightening read than I've had in the myriad classes I've taken that spend time in the Early Modern period.

My only gripe, and the thing that keeps this from being 5/5, is the case of the footnotes. The editor seems to have taken it upon herself to scrutinize every single word for the slightest hint of sexual innuendo. Indeed, that is where a large part of the play's humor comes from, but being told that "pipe" is cant for "penis" isn't exactly helpful. I think a focus on the more obscure cultural references would have been a better use of the footnote space, since anyone who is taking the time to read this play has likely spent time with other Early Modern plays and is likely a pro at spotting dirty puns. Hell, it's the one thing I am good at after four years of an English Literature education.

[Resa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am surprised I enjoyed this play as much as I did. The title grabbed me immediately.
"The Roaring Girl" is Mol, a transvestite who is the only honest character in a dramatic play. Mol's adventures are quite entertaining and funny and this play holds an important message about how we, even as readers, judge people based on titles.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful play I read in honor of international women's day! Molly was an independent female in the 1600s. It was rare in this period for woman in plays not to either die or be married off. Molly was based of Mary Frith who was known as a pickpocket, a fencer, and occasionally dressed in men's clothing. She didn't let the time she lived in confine her and her legend lives on in this play

[Lauren]

Conflicted feeeeeeeelings

[imeda · Rating 3 out of 5]

this play deserves a high rating just for having a female character who defies societal norms and doesn't end up changing herself for a man or getting married or dying. it's very radical for its time and i quite enjoyed it. moll they could never make me hate you.

something really interesting is that i read this for a uni course and in this course, we also read shakespeare's the taming of the shrew and there are many, many similarities between katherine and moll. they're both outspoken, defiant women who do not want to get married, but their key differences lie in the way their plays treat them. the taming of the shrew has katherine be "tamed" by a man and change her entire personality in order to become a proper wife. she is repeatedly broken down by the people around her, but also by the narrative itself. katherine's independence is not treated as a good thing. on the other hand, in the roaring girl, moll remains defiant at the end of the play. she doesn't give up her crossdressing nor does she get married. she even repeatedly states that she doesn't want to get married at all and that does not change throughout the whole play. moll's independence is not treated as something to be ashamed of and i honestly really do appreciate that about this play.

also, i was terrified while reading this because i really through they would make sebastian and moll end up together. it would've been a very shakespeare move (if you've read shakespeare then you know what i mean by this). i'm infinitely glad they didn't because not only would it have been a huge disservice to moll's character, but sebastian and mary's relationship was honestly quite cute.

one of my favourite genres of classic literature are ones that are protofeminist which for anyone who doesn't know is basically a term that describes something that may not seem very feminist by modern day standards, but was very radical for its time. works like pride and prejudice, poems by katherine philips, or little women can all be seen as protofeminist works because of how they defy the societal norms of their time even if it all seems very "no shit, sherlock" to a modern audience. the roaring girl is definitely a protofeminist work because while the idea of "outspoken woman doesn't become submissive to serve her husband" doesn't seem like a very big deal to us, it certainly was in the time period when this play was written.

honestly a really fun read especially if you're a fan of shakespeare and other similar authors. you'll have a really fun time reading this. it can be a little dense at times, of course, but overall i enjoyed it. it's definitely easier to read and understand than shakespeare is so it's a great entry point for getting into very old literature.

also moll, my bisexual nonbinary queen. i love the way moll's gender is shown as being so fluid in this play and it's never really seen as anything (except by characters who later change their opinions). there is such a queer interpretation of this play and very easy to argue as being queer. i love you moll, you are such a special character to me <3

[Katheryn Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting play with a lot going on, not least of which is a depiction of early modern London's notorious Mary 'Moll Cut-purse' Frith, who (incredibly) not only gets to wear men's clothing without being disguised as a man, but also gets to have a sword fight! Iconic.

There was a lot in the citizens subplot that I liked, but I also think there was maybe a bit too much going on. The scene involving Goshawk and Laxton was quite confusing, and there is at least one episode (involving the Tiltyards) which isn't acted upon, as if it was perhaps discarded. I do love their introductory scene, though, and I imagine the staging of the shops would be fantastic. I can understand why Middleton and Dekker would want to keep these characters going, but I think we just end up with too many plot-lines.

I read this edition of the play, edited by Elizabeth Cook, but collected in Thomas Middleton Four Plays: The Roaring Girl, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, Women Beware Women, The Changeling.

[Dimitri Bartels · Rating 2 out of 5]

This piece is the most "okayest" play I have ever read.

Discussing it in the course I read it for was riveting, but I fail to see its appeal as a piece of art as opposed to a document to be studied. On its own without discussion, the story fell flat and the intertwining of the various plots made the story confusing to follow. I wished I liked the story more than I did due to its subject matter, but I really didn't.

[David]

A rollicking play from c.1611 of London life, mostly low, full of innuendo and vulgar suggestion, yet also interesting in its concerns with taking responsibility for one's own choices. First heard of in Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time but never before read in full.

[Aysia · Rating 5 out of 5]

moll really said im gonna wife your son and my strap is ready to go

[sasha]

i just can’t get into early modern comedies. no thank you!

[Sarah Cotterill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crossdressing, celibate, female thief xoxo

[Sofia Mancini · Rating 2 out of 5]

Presentation on this and although i love how queer this was it was so difficult to understand bc of the early modern city talk and it was so boring okay bye

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reminded me of Moll Flanders in some ways.

[allie english · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this play for university. It was a quick read but the plot is lacking and there is only one character that I really enjoyed- Moll.
Good to read if you want something from the 17th century that is a bit different but definitely not a favourite of mine.

[Holly Nicholson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Girl that wears oversized trousers, fights and wins a duel with a man, has a boy bestie that doesn’t want to have sex with her AND doesn’t get married? In 1611? You know what, HELL YEAH

[quinn engel]

my favorite line: “why mouse, thy mind is nibbling at something, what is ’t” 🐭🧀