Two Cross-dressing Female Pirate Protagonists and Their Use by Thomas Heywood and Maturin Murray Ballou
The article analyzes two cross-dressing female protagonists who go to sea and assume the position of pirate captains. They are Bess Bridges in Thomas Heywood’s dramatic work entitled The Fair Maid of the West; or, a Girl Worth Gold, and Fanny Campbell in The Female Pirate Captain. A Tale of the Revolution by Maturin Murray Ballou. The article shows distinct parallels between Bess and Queen Elizabeth Tudor, and demonstrates that Fanny’s seafaring adventure was inspired by that of Bess. Both heroines are also examined with a view to their contribution to the shaping of national identity and destiny of their respective countries.
Ann Radcliffe’s Gothic Romances and the Sea
Biographical materials and the writer’s journals show that Ann Radcliffe had some personal knowledge of the sea and to some extent of sailing. She was also a lover of nature, an enthusiast of 17th -century landscapists, a connoisseur of Pre-Romantic poetry, who was also familiar with contemporary esthetic tastes and theories. In this context, the article analyzes seascapes, maritime and nautical references, motifs of storm and shipwreck in Radcliffe’s Gothic romances, including some poetical lines inspired by the sea with which The Mysteries of Udolpho is interspersed. The writer’s descriptions of the sea and her use of this element in her works are discussed in relation to her fictional ch…