“But leaving Shakespear’s Works to their own Defence, and his Detractors to their Envy”. Women’s Early Defence of Shakespeare and their Role in the Rise of Shakespearean Criticism: the Case of Margaret Cavendish

Moving from the debates within women’s and gender studies and Shakespeare studies, and indialogue with the studies dedicated to the analysis of the relationship between the plays ofShakespeare and the writing of Margaret Cavendish, the essay investigates Cavendish’s reading ofShakespeare’s plays and its role within the rise of Shakespeare criticism at a time whenShakespeare’s plays started to be adapted for the stage but only few people encountered them astexts. The aim is to show how Cavendish’s reading of Shakespeare’s plays not only focuses onaspects that would be at the core of Eighteenth-century Shakespeare criticism, but also on issuescrucial for future feminist readings of Shakespeare which, since the 1980s, have been unpackingthe plays of Shakespeare, exploring the representation of gender, class, race, sexuality, and theirhold on women in Shakespeare’s time and beyond.