Jane Anger's Her Protection for Women is the first published English defense of women believed to have been written by a woman. Possibly using a pseudonym, Jane Anger responded to Boke His Surfeit in Love, with a farwel to the folies of his own phantasie (1588) by Thomas Orwin. Only one original copy of Protection is known to have survived and until the present time it had not been republished. Like so many other wonderful writings by women, we were in great danger of loosing this work until it was rediscovered and published by our contemporaries.

      Protection is peppered with classical Latin quotes, feminist interpretations of the Bible, jabs at men and their poor logic, and references to events of antiquity, to strong and virtuous women classical and contemporary women, and to women's inherent moral superiority. Well does Anger refute Orwin's claim that women are lustful and untrustworthy.

      Here are two excerpts. First her introduction.

To all Women in general, and gentle Reader whatsoever,

      Fie on the falsehood of men, whose minds go oft a madding, a whole tongues can not so soon be wagging, but straight they fall a tattling. Was there ever any so abused, so slandered, so railed upon, so wickedly handled undeservedly, as are we women. Will the Gods permit it, the Goddesses stay their punishing judgments, and we ourselves not pursue their undoings for such devilish praises: St Paul's steeple and charring cross. I halter hold all such persons. Let the streams of the channels in London streets run to swiftly, as they may be able alone to carry them from that sanctuary. Let the stones be as Ice, the soles of the shoes as Glass, the moats steep like Aetna, & every blast a whirlwind puffed out of Boreas his long throat that these hasten their passage to the Devils haven, Shall Surfeiters rail on our kindness, you stand still, lay naught, and shall not Anger, Stretch the vanes of her vanes, the strings of her fingers, and the lists of her modesty, to answer their surfeiting: Yes truly. And herein I conduce all you to aide and assist me in defense of my willingness, which shall make me rest at your commands.

      Fare you well.

      Your friend,

      J. A.

      And, near the end of the work

      At the end of men's fair promises there is a Labyrinth, & therefore ever hereafter stop your ears when they protest friendship, lest they come to an end before you are aware whereby you fall without redemption. The path which leads thereunto, is Mans wit, and the mile's ends are marked with these trees, Folly, Vice, Mischief, Lust, Deceit, & Pride. These to deceive you shall be clothed in the raiments of Fancy, Virtue, Modesty, Love, True meaning, and Handsomness. Folly will bid you welcome on your way, & Tel you his fancy, concerning the profit which may come to you by this journey, and direct you to Vice who is more crafty. He with a company of protestations will praise the virtues of women, showing how many ways men are beholden unto us: but our backs once turned, he falls a railing. Then Mischief he pries into every corner of us, seeing if he can espy a cranny, that getting in his finger into it, he may make it wide enough for his tongue to wag in. Now being come to Lust: he will fall a railing on Lascivious looks, & will ban Lechery, & with the Collier will say, the devil take him though he never means it. Deceit will give you fair words, & pick your pockets: nay he will pluck out your hearts, if you be not wary. But when you hear one cry out against lawnes, drawn-works, Periwigs, against the attire of Courtesans, & generally of the pride of all women: then know him for a Wolf clothed in sheep's raiment, and be sure you are fast by the lake of destruction. Therefore take heed of it, which you shall do, if you shun men's flattery, the forerunner of our undoing. If a jade be galled, will he not winch? and can you find fault with a horse that springs when he is spurred? The one will stand quietly his back is healed, and the other go well when his smart ceases. You must bear with the old Lover his surfeit, because he was diseased when he did write it, and peradventure hereafter, when he shall be well mended, he will repent himself of his slanderous speeches against our Sex, and curse the dead man which was the cause of it, and make a public recantation: for the faltering in his speech at the later end of his book affirms, that already he half repents of his bargain, & why? because his melody is past: but believe him not, though he should out swear you, for although a jade may be still in a stable when his gall back is healed, yet he will show himself in his kind when he is traveling: and man's flattery bites secretly, from which I pray God keep you and me too.

References:

      * Used in the writing of this work.

      * Susan Gushee O'Malley (ed.), 1996, The Early Modern Englishwoman: A Facsimilie Library of Essential Works, Part 1: Printed Writings, 1500-1640, Volume 4, Defences of Women: Jane Anger, Rachel Speght, Ester Sowernam, and Constantia Munda, Scolar Press, 1996 (complete text of Protection)

      * Katherine Usher Henderson and Barbara F. McManus, 1985, Half-Humankind: Contexts and Texts of the Controversy About Women in England 1540 - 1640, University of Illinois Press, Urbana (complete text of Protection)

      * Moria Ferguson (ed.), 1985, First Feminists: British Women Writers 1578-1799, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana (excerpts of Protection)

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