In Revenge, Tattle-well and Hit-him-home propose a jury of "twelve good women and true" to try Sir Seldom Sober author of "those most pitiful pamphlets called the Juniper Lectures and Crabtree Lectures." As a preliminary to the trial, they analyze the character of the author and show that he could not be a tailor, artist, scholar or poet and that he lacks knowledge of the classics and of the elementary rules of numbers and grammar. They state the charges against him then show their evidence. In a forceful yet balanced manner, Tattle-well and Hit-him-home acquit women of Sir Seldom Sober's accusations. Their basically serious arguments are laced with humorous, satirical passages. In their serious moments, they state that not all men are bad and not all women are good, just as not all men are good and not all women are bad. In their satirical passages, they staunchly defend womankind by showing men in a not-very-positive light.

      Their comments on the creation story are found in the satirical passages. They use a by-now old argument with a twist: woman is made of the best part of a man, the place next to his heart, while man is made of the dust of the earth. The difference in the raw materials used to create man and woman are reflected in their complexions: man's complexion is "dull, earthy, and melancholy" with a "very forest upon his chin" while woman's faces is soft and smooth, a "true representation of a delectable garden of intermixed Roses and Lilies." They also note the old adage about women not being made from Adam's head to rule him, not being made from his foot to be trod upon, but being made from Adam's side to be his equal.

      In their final reference to the creation story (which is reproduced below), they bring together many by-now familiar arguments for a prolonged discourse on women's innate equality, and perhaps superiority, to men. Yet, to the old "man is made from dust and woman is made from a refined material" argument, they contribute new understandings: that man is created in a wide open field while woman was created in Paradise, that Adam means "Clay" or "red earth" and that Eve or Hevah means "Life," and that the man and the other creatures were created before Eve was created so that Adam would not appear before Eve unadorned.

      "Now to show we are no such despised matter as you would seem to make us, come to our first Creation, when man was made of the mere dust of the earth. The woman had her being from the best part of the body, the Rib next to his heart, which difference even in our complexions may be easily decided. Man is of a dull, earthy, and melancholy aspect, having shallows in his face and a very forest upon his chin, when our soft and smooth Cheeks are a true representation of a delectable garden of intermixed Roses and Lilies.

      [Women do have faults, but men are subject to the same vices. In fact, scholars have stated that a pure and beautiful woman is "the prefect image of her Creator, the true glory of Angels, the rare miracle of Earth;. . . the man who is married to a peaceable and virtuous wife, being on earth hath attained heaven." Although Sir Seldom Sober considers women contemptible, ancient and modern poets have addressed to them "Odes, Hymns, Love songs, and Laudatories." page 314

      "Man might consider that women were not created to be their slaves or vassals; for as they had not their Original out of his head (thereby to command him), so it was not out of his foot to be trod upon, but in a medium out of his side to be his fellow feeler, his equal, and companion." page 317

      "As for the first Man, he was made of Earth, Clay (yea, of the very slime of the earth): also, he was created in the open wide field (as all other the rest of earthly Creatures were). And being made, I must confess, he was perfect and full of perfection, yet doth his very Name demonstrate that he was of a mean and pure substance, for the Word (or Name) Adam doth signify Clay or red earth. But when that earth and slime was purified and made perfect with being fully possessed with a Reasonable Soul, then man being in Paradise, a most pleasant and delectable place, there in that choices and principal Garden of delight (man being refined from his dross) was woman Created. There was she named Eve (or Hevah), which is as much to say "Life," because she was the Mother of all men and women that should ever live or have living. She was made out of the side of the man near to his heart because he should heartily love her. And as all the rest of the Creatures were created before man to show that he was not brought into a bare and naked world (although himself was so), but it was Gloriously and Magnificently adorned and beautified with all things fitting for the entertainment of so glorious an Image (or Deputy to the Greatest). Yet in that great state he was alone without anyone to have a participation or joyful fellow sympathetic feeling of his felicity. Then did it please the Great Creator to Create the noble Creature Woman to be his Helper, associate and companion. Therefore, I conclude that, as man was made of pollution, earth, and slime, and woman was formed out of that earth when it was first Refined, as man had his Original in the rude field and woman had her frame and composure in Paradise, so much is the woman's Honor to be regarded and to be held in estimation amongst men." pages 318-319

      The womens sharp revenge: Or an answer to "Sir Seldome Sober" that writ those railing Pamphlets called the "Juniper" and "Crabtree" Lectures, &c. Being a sound Reply and a full confutation of those "Bookes:" with an "Apology" in this case for the defense of us women." by Mary Tattle-well and Joane Hit-him-home, spinsters, imprinted in London by IO and are to be sold by Ia. Becket at his shop in the inner Templegate (1640) found in Katherine Usher Henderson and Barbara F. McManus, Half Humankind: Contexts and Texts of the Controversy about Women in England,1540-1640 (Urbana, Ill, University of Illinois Press, 1985)

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