Gambling with Women, Estates and Status in Long Eighteenth Century-Comedy
This article discusses gambling and inheritance as two types of property transfer presented on the long eighteenth-century stage and investigates the relationship each has with gender and social status. Comparing Aphra Behn’s The Lucky Chance (1685) with Susanna Centlivre’s The Basset Table (1705),...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Institut du Monde Anglophone
2021-05-01
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| Series: | Etudes Epistémè |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/episteme/9834 |
| _version_ | 1818847260039970816 |
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| author | Beth Cortese |
| author_facet | Beth Cortese |
| author_sort | Beth Cortese |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article discusses gambling and inheritance as two types of property transfer presented on the long eighteenth-century stage and investigates the relationship each has with gender and social status. Comparing Aphra Behn’s The Lucky Chance (1685) with Susanna Centlivre’s The Basset Table (1705), I show the different attitudes exhibited toward gambling from the aristocratic male and female, and the middle-class female gambler. I argue that gambling provided individuals, and in particular married women, with a different relationship to property, enabling them to participate in the credit economy, manipulating their position as their husband’s property under coverture to transfer debt to their husband as an alternative form of inheritance. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-19T05:58:37Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0ba6531ca5004ff0a589555109329da8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1634-0450 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-19T05:58:37Z |
| publishDate | 2021-05-01 |
| publisher | Institut du Monde Anglophone |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Etudes Epistémè |
| spelling | doaj.art-0ba6531ca5004ff0a589555109329da82022-12-21T20:33:22ZengInstitut du Monde AnglophoneEtudes Epistémè1634-04502021-05-013910.4000/episteme.9834Gambling with Women, Estates and Status in Long Eighteenth Century-ComedyBeth CorteseThis article discusses gambling and inheritance as two types of property transfer presented on the long eighteenth-century stage and investigates the relationship each has with gender and social status. Comparing Aphra Behn’s The Lucky Chance (1685) with Susanna Centlivre’s The Basset Table (1705), I show the different attitudes exhibited toward gambling from the aristocratic male and female, and the middle-class female gambler. I argue that gambling provided individuals, and in particular married women, with a different relationship to property, enabling them to participate in the credit economy, manipulating their position as their husband’s property under coverture to transfer debt to their husband as an alternative form of inheritance.http://journals.openedition.org/episteme/9834Aphra BehnSusanna Centlivregamblinginheritancewomendebt |
| spellingShingle | Beth Cortese Gambling with Women, Estates and Status in Long Eighteenth Century-Comedy Etudes Epistémè Aphra Behn Susanna Centlivre gambling inheritance women debt |
| title | Gambling with Women, Estates and Status in Long Eighteenth Century-Comedy |
| title_full | Gambling with Women, Estates and Status in Long Eighteenth Century-Comedy |
| title_fullStr | Gambling with Women, Estates and Status in Long Eighteenth Century-Comedy |
| title_full_unstemmed | Gambling with Women, Estates and Status in Long Eighteenth Century-Comedy |
| title_short | Gambling with Women, Estates and Status in Long Eighteenth Century-Comedy |
| title_sort | gambling with women estates and status in long eighteenth century comedy |
| topic | Aphra Behn Susanna Centlivre gambling inheritance women debt |
| url | http://journals.openedition.org/episteme/9834 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT bethcortese gamblingwithwomenestatesandstatusinlongeighteenthcenturycomedy |