Revised reading assignment

1. Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (complete)

2. Christine de Pizan, City of Ladies

Adobe link

3. Issue to think about

What scene or sequence of scenes from the play best capture the relationship of the sexes in Renaissance Europe?

How would you adapt these particular scenes to contemporary America?

Lecture 26

Renaissance Women

I. Introduction--Origins of Women’s History

II. Ideas about Women

III. The Female Life Cycle

A. Childhood and Adolescence

B. Sexuality

C. Marriage

D. Pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood

E. Widowhood and old age

Eve as Pandora

Christine de Pizan

Catalina de Erauso

Birth of Mary--Typical 16th-century birth scene