"Containing the Mad Merry Prankes She Played in Her Life Time"
July 26, 2020 11:59 AM   Subscribe

David Nicol (Henslowe's Diary ... as a Blog! 2/14/2019), "14 February, 1595 - Long Meg of Westminster": "The most important repository of Long Meg tales is a jest-book (a collection of short, funny stories) entitled The Life of Long Meg of Westminster, which was first published in 1590, although the earliest surviving copy dates from 1635 ... Meg at first works in a tavern in Westminster, but then sets up her own in Islington ... She frequently cross-dresses and beats up men who annoy her. Later she goes to the wars in France and performs valiant acts as a soldier." See also Patricia Shaw's "Mad Moll and Merry Meg" [PDF] or Patricia Gartenberg's "An Elizabethan Wonder Woman" [preview only]. Henslowe's Diary is on hiatus until Oct. 27 because "increase of sickness is feared."
posted by Wobbuffet (4 comments total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
 
I wonder if Long Meg is somehow related to the Mad Meg (Dulle Griet) from the Flemish folkore. They're different characters with different origin stories, but they share some traits, e.g. both lead an army of women into battle .
posted by elgilito at 12:48 PM on July 26, 2020 [3 favorites]


I deleted my Facebook account a week ago so I could spend more time on MetaFilter. Now I remember why. Thanks for this! <3
posted by ZenMasterThis at 3:43 PM on July 26, 2020 [2 favorites]


Hm, I was just digging around a little further and ran across this, which seems really worth mentioning here too: Maggie Ellen Ray, 2016, "John Taylor and the Ghost of Long Meg of Westminster: Authorship and Poetic Authority in 'The Womens Sharpe Revenge'" [preview only]: "In The Womens Sharpe Revenge (1639), the pseudonymous authors Mary Tattle-well and Joane Hit-him-home resurrect a ghost from England's folkloric past--the raucous ghost of Long Meg of Westminster--to argue the worth of women." Full text of The Womens Sharpe Revenge.
posted by Wobbuffet at 3:53 PM on July 26, 2020 [3 favorites]


This is so great! Looking forward to learning more about Long Meg. I'd only run into her as a reference before, in Jonson among others:

"[...]Westminster Meg
With her long leg,
As long as a crane,
And feet like a plane,
With a pair of heels
As broad as two wheels
To drive down the dew,
As she goes to the stew:
And turns home merry,
By Lambeth ferry."

--Ben Jonson, Masque of the Fortunate isles and their Union
("stew" = brothel)

Mad Moll (Moll Cutpurse) previously on MeFi: The Roaring Girls of Queer London
posted by Pallas Athena at 2:54 PM on July 27, 2020 [1 favorite]


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