Hic Mulier

This is one of those rare occasions when the star rating and review do not reflect the content of the book, but rather its historical significance and value. Reviewing the Hic Mulier and Haec Vir is not an easy task, especially the former, but with the mindset of the 1600s, and disregarding modern conventions (as one should when reading a text of this age), things become a little bit clearer.

The Hic Mulier is, essentially, an anti-crossdressing pamphlet targeted at women. The review addresses young women of the time who prefered “broad-brim'd hat[s]” and “French doublet[s]” to long, modest gowns. The author makes a case that women who dress as such go against moral principles set by nature and God, yet praises the virtuous women who follow the normal social conventions:

“... with all honour and reverence do I speak to you: you are Seneca's Graces, women, good women, modest women, true women: ever young because virtuous, ever chaste, ever glorious: when I write of you, I will write with a golden pen, on leaves of golden paper; now, I write with a rough quill and black ink, on iron sheets, the iron deeds of an iron generation.”

Haec Vir