Female Silence and Poetic Authority in Jonson’s Volpone and Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure

Abstract

This essay examines the disruptive, even skeptical, potential of female silence in two plays not often discussed together: Ben Jonson’s Volpone (Celia) and William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure (Isabella). These silences – whether voluntary or forced – come after each woman delivers an impassioned speech defending herself from an attempted physical assault. In both instances, their concluding silences help the playwrights critique the very comic conventions they are deploying. For Shakespeare, Isabella’s refusal to respond to Duke Vincentio’s proposals of marriage reflects the play’s skepticism of the Duke’s theatrical manipulations and signals religious and political uncertainty for a woman who begins the play as a would-be nun and effectively betrothed to the Church. For Jonson, Celia’s forced silence before her dismissal to her father’s house sends a similar message of a woman awkwardly positioned neither within nor without marriage. However, Jonson’s silencing of his paragon of virtue reflects his attempt to possess such virtue for himself, recuperating the moral authority of the true playwright. This essay thus contributes to studies of how the Poets’ War involved Shakespeare and continued past its presumed ceasefire in 1601.