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incursion into a patriarchal territory where women’s silence
was considered an appropriate form of conduct, even a virtue,
which is why Leontes says to Hermione (though ironically he is
here prompting her to speak): “Tongue-tied, our queen? Speak
you” (1.2.27). A women’s silence was considered, in the early
modern period, to be a large part of her duty as a woman, for
a loose tongue was thought to imply a loose body, that is, a
predisposition to commit sexual transgressions. “Silence, the
closed mouth,” as Peter Stallybrass notes, “is made a sign of
chastity. And silence and chastity are, in turn, homologous to
women’s enclosure within the house” (1986: 123-144).
Hermione’s silence when she first comes on stage is thus in
accordance with the contemporary books on a woman’s proper
conduct in the presence of her husband and his male friend.
Thus what Leontes finds objectionable in Hermione has
more to do with her female wit and eloquent powers of speech
than with her chastity, and his sudden jealousy masks his
anxiety about his wife’s feminine power, one that could
potentially overpower and dominate him. This echoes the
thinking of the early modern European Church and the courts
(governments), where women who seemed too clever or wise,
in particular the women healers, were accused of witchcraft for
their use of magical herbs or words (spells). In facing his
queen’s mysterious and enchanting verbal power, Leontes
confronts his own inner fear, his insecurity about the validity
of his authoritative male subjectivity. That is, his wife’s
superior ability to talk to, and to persuade, Polixenes shames
him, as does the thought that he may lose his power to control
her, in particular to control her skill in using her linguistic
talents and wit and thereby “winning” (1.2.86) her verbal duels
with him
—
as might an evil enchantress in the early modern
society.
The enchantress in the early modern era, by using her
tongue to exercise her power, can create medicinal effects: