The Inns of Court
摘要
Though almost entirely male spaces in early modern London, the four Inns of Court were nonetheless porous. Evidence of a female presence around, and even in, the Inns is clear from the records kept by Inner and Middle Temple, Gray’s Inn, and Lincoln’s Inn from the period. Their servant women feature in contemporary drama as sexually available, and women more generally are sexualized and objectified in the texts of the performances at the lawyers’ revels. The men of the Inns were keen to involve women as audience members and as dance partners in sections of such festive events, though often they were seen by the benchers who governed the Inns as a disruptive presence.