The Value of Virginity
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The Rise of Capitalism and the Shifting "Commodity"
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| "I bring thee up to turn thee into gold wench, and make thy fortune shine like your bright trade. A goldsmith's shop sets out a city maid... Here you must pass for a pure virgin."
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Sexuality finds no more prominent place in the world of commerce as it does in Thomas Middleton’s A Chaste Maid in Cheapside. In fact the title alone brings together what Janelle Jenstad calls “the twin obsessions of city comedy, the marketplace and female sexuality.” [35] Cheapside was indeed the “principal marketing street of the city ,” [6] and thus the notion of a “Chaste Maid” in Cheapside literally depicts sexual purity put up for sale. A pun on the word “chaste” meaning sexually pure, and “chased”, a term describing a plate “ornamented with embossed work, engraved in relief” (Oxford English Dictionary) or a jewel set in gold or silver (also “enchased”) underscores the notion of sexuality as a marketable object. |  The image above depicts Cheapside, the primary marketplace of London. On the right were the streets, Bordhawelane and Gropecuntlane. The streets in Cheapside were named after the commodity that was sold there, so these particular street truly capture the irony of the title "A Chaste Maid in Cheapside." [5] |
| In
Middleton’s Cheapside, there are “two circuits of exchange
into which the sexed object “woman” is alternatively forced”:
prostitution, where virginity has no exchange value whatsoever, or
marriage, where virginity is the highest standard of value [12].
This polarization is epitomized in the contrast between the Welsh
Gentlewoman (Sir Walter’s whore), and the one true chaste maid
in Cheapside, Moll Yellowhammer, (a dichotomy very reminiscent of
the Dutch Courtesan, Franceschina, and the divinely pure Beatrice.)
Both the Welsh Gentlewoman-Moll and the Dutch Courtesan-Beatrice dichotomies
reflect the two perceptions of female sexuality available: the “abject”
versus the “pure”, the “lustful whore” versus
the “chaste wife”, or the “ramping cannibal”
versus the “dove-like virgin” [1].
In both the Dutch Courtesan and A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, these
two extremes of female sexuality are set up against each other in
a pattern of exchange that presents an opportunity for upward social
mobility. In The Dutch Courtesan, Freevill must give up his
lust for Franceschina in exchange for the “health, strength,
and name” only available to him through marriage to the virgin
Beatrice. For the Yellowhammers, upward mobility into the gentry relies
on one simple exchange with Sir Walter: the marriage of the Welsh
Gentlewoman (the whore) to Tim in exchange for the marriage of Moll
(the virgin) to Sir Walter.
Consequently,
both the Welsh Gentleman and Moll are constantly portrayed in terms
of their exchange value by their respective vendors. For example,
just as a gentleman enters Yellowhammers’ shop to sell him
a chain for “a hundred pound”, Sir Walter enters simultaneously
with his commodity, the Welsh whore, to sell to Yellowhammer in
exchange for Moll. However, while Yellowhammer can detect a poor
bargain in the chain (“A hundred marks the utmost, ‘tis
not for me else”), he is fooled by Sir Walter’s ability
to “turn thee [the whore] into gold”, where she must
“pass for a pure virgin” (I.i.98,102). This imagery
of gold is echoed in act 3, when Yellowhammer decides he must “lock
up this baggage [Moll] / As carefully as my gold” (III.i.50-51).
The difference between the two instances is clear: lacking the intrinsic
value of virginity, the prostitute, as counterfeit gold, is able
to be passed from one buyer to the next, accumulating value as she
goes; Moll on the otherhand, cannot enter “circulation”
without sacrificing her intrinsic worth, for in her case, as a virgin,
she derives value not from mass consumption, but rather from her
status as a rare and authentic commodity that promises exclusivity
to her buyer. |
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