Long Meg of Westminster

Woodcut of a woman striking a man with a cain, causing his wig to fall off.As discussed in the previous sections, chapbooks were read across social and geographic space, which meant that character representation is an indicator of the period’s popular culture.

Female representation in print offered a platform for women and authors to subvert gender stereotypes and in some stories, women were portrayed as heroic, strong, independent figures.  

Like many other chapbook tales, Long Meg of Westminster was first circulated orally in the 16th century and later introduced to street literature in the form of a broadside ballad. A broadside ballad is a narrative poem or song, cheaply printed on one side of a single sheet of paper. As chapbooks became more intertwined with 18th century popular culture, Long Meg was likely added to printed tales alongside other oral tales during this period. The story is a selection of smaller tales that depict Long Meg’s exploits in London, as she protects the people (mainly women) from injustice. ‘In the reign of Henry VIII was born in Lancashire a maid called LONG MEG,’ who on her travels to London, began her quest to become a defender of women’s rights:

after a tedious journey, being in sight of the desired city, she demanded the cause why they [the lasses] looked sad? We have no money, said one, to pay our fare. So Meg replies, if that be all, I shall answer your demands…but as soon as they came to St. John’s Street, Willis demanded their money…and taking a staff in her hand, so belaboured him and his man that he desired her for God’s sake to hold her hand

Title page of The Life and death of Long Meg of Westminster, showing a woodcut portrait of Long Meg

Meg’s chivalrous behaviour serves to subvert the traditionally passive role that women usually took in fantastical novels: here there are no damsels in distress, Meg is the heroine. This depiction inspired women and children to understand not only the importance of justice but that women can also take on ‘manly’ roles.

Meg being a Laundress in the town [Bolougne], raised the best of women, and with a halberd in her hand, came to the walls, on which some of the French had entered, and threw scalding water and stones at them, that she had often obliged them to quit the town before the soldiers were up in arms…

Meg’s military victory against the French is significant because few literary female figures who undertake traditionally masculine activities are praised for doing so. However, even when she is portrayed as a strong heroine, her strength is also ridiculed later in the tale. This is supported by Weiss who, in Katharine Fromm’s work Images of women, categorised the tale under ‘jest’ and ‘humorous fiction.’ Upon Meg’s exploits in France, on her return to England, she marries a gallant soldier:

Meg came to Westminster, and married a soldier, who hearing of her exploits, took her to a room, and making her strip to her petticoat, took one staff and gave her another”… “as he had heard talk of her manhood, he was determined to try her…But Meg held down her head, whereupon he gave her three or four blows, and she in submission fell down on her knees, desiring him to pardon her…therefore use me as you please.

By comparing Meg with ‘manhood,’ the printers diminish the significance of Meg’s victory and elevate masculine superiority. Through being stripped of her petticoat Meg is reduced to a sexual being to serve her husband. Meg is further degraded through her husband’s determination to ‘try her,’ and this alludes to the marital abuse some women experienced in the domestic sphere, adhered to by Meg’s ultimate submission.

Categorised as ‘humorous fiction,’ this tale highlights the mockery that surrounded ‘dominant’ women in the 18th century. The history of Long Meg of Westminster raises the question of whether her creation was intended to empower or humiliate a woman’s sexual identity. Although Long Meg is an empowering figure, she is still in the end reduced to her sexuality. The fact that her husband ‘tries her’ in order to establish his dominion over her raises the possibility that her creation was meant to degrade and undermine women's sexual agency.

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