"Poor Senseless Bess, Clothed in her Rags and Folly" : Early Modern Women, Madness, and Song in Seventeenth-Century England

Much has been written on the state of early modern women's lives. Much has been written about madness, and much has been written about English music. But rarely are these three elements considered together. This article discusses the intersection of these three areas in the social context of seventeenth-century London, by focusing on a song by Henry Purcell (1659-1695) entitled 'Bess of Bedlam', and also known as 'From silent shades' published in 1683. 'Bess' was the first mad song composed by Purcell and was not written for a specific theatre work, as was the case with his later commissioned songs. My aim is to show how this particular song, as well as the ballad/poem ' Mad maudlin' from which it drew inspiration, reflects contemporary societal attitudes, which readily linked women and madness