Dramatic characters (created by Shakespeare and contemporaries) worry endlessly about being the subject on the left in this image: a cuckold. The term describes the husband of a wife who has cheated or had an adulterous liaison or affair. This engraving shows a well-dressed man in a long cloak and ruff. His wife holds a pair of horns above his head—the symbol of cuckoldry.<br /> <br /> The motto reads:<br /> <br /> “My dotard Husband gives not mee / those halfe of dues, which needful be / And therefore since I such things lack / Thus horne I him behind his back.”<br /> <br /> The sophisticated dress of these figures captures their elevated social status. It emphasises the importance of sexual propriety for the middling sorts in particular. Moral rectitude was fundamental to their authority and their status. After all, many middling individuals were responsible for maintaining good behaviour through their various community roles and the outward perception of a well-run and prosperous household. The term “cuckold” was not just a joke in literature and drama, but part of social practice.<br /> <br /> This woodcut comes from a collection called <em>English Customs</em> (1628), illustrating the very real (if regionally distinct) shaming rituals practised across the country. Adultery undermined the head of the household in a patriarchal society that emphasised male authority as a moral virtue. Accordingly, knowledge of adultery was not only the subject of harmful gossip but was publicly policed by communities. On the right, a woman rides on the back of a man with horns in his hat showing her physical dominance and sexual immorality. In order to bring such disorderly households into public fame (and shame) the community might stage a spectacle, known as “skimmingtons” or “charivari”— dances or processions that displayed the inversion of rightful social order and that advertised the reputational harm to the married couple. <br /> <br /> Similar rituals, such as the “Scold’s Bridle,” which was worn on a woman’s head (and with a metal bit in her mouth) as punishment for excessive talking, demonstrate the essentially misogynist roots of these practices and capture their anxiety about women’s sexuality and agency.
Satirical print (English Customs), 1628

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Satirical print

Satirical print (English Customs), 1628

Dramatic characters (created by Shakespeare and contemporaries) worry endlessly about being the subject on the left in this image: a cuckold. The term describes the husband of a wife who has cheated or had an adulterous liaison or affair. This engraving shows a well-dressed man in a long cloak and ruff. His wife holds a pair of horns above his head—the symbol of cuckoldry.

The motto reads:

“My dotard Husband gives not mee / those halfe of dues, which needful be / And therefore since I such things lack / Thus horne I him behind his back.”

The sophisticated dress of these figures captures their elevated social status. It emphasises the importance of sexual propriety for the middling sorts in particular. Moral rectitude was fundamental to their authority and their status. After all, many middling individuals were responsible for maintaining good behaviour through their various community roles and the outward perception of a well-run and prosperous household. The term “cuckold” was not just a joke in literature and drama, but part of social practice.

This woodcut comes from a collection called English Customs (1628), illustrating the very real (if regionally distinct) shaming rituals practised across the country. Adultery undermined the head of the household in a patriarchal society that emphasised male authority as a moral virtue. Accordingly, knowledge of adultery was not only the subject of harmful gossip but was publicly policed by communities. On the right, a woman rides on the back of a man with horns in his hat showing her physical dominance and sexual immorality. In order to bring such disorderly households into public fame (and shame) the community might stage a spectacle, known as “skimmingtons” or “charivari”— dances or processions that displayed the inversion of rightful social order and that advertised the reputational harm to the married couple.

Similar rituals, such as the “Scold’s Bridle,” which was worn on a woman’s head (and with a metal bit in her mouth) as punishment for excessive talking, demonstrate the essentially misogynist roots of these practices and capture their anxiety about women’s sexuality and agency.

Object Type English Customs
Year 1628
Material Woodcut
Owned By Folger STC 10408.6
Keywords satrical; print; english customs;
Image Credit English Customs (1628), woodcut. Folger STC 10408.6. Used by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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