Nature's cruel stepdames : murderous women in the street literature of seventeenth century England / Susan C. Staub.

Pittsburgh, Penn. : Duquesne University Press, [2004], ©2004.

x, 356 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Pt. 1 : the contexts. -- Women's crimes in the popular press -- The femme covert uncovered: representations of murderous wives -- Bloody mothers: representations of child murder -- "To avoid their shame": representations of infanticide -- The popular press and providence: explaining the miraculous recovery of Anne Greene -- Pt. 2. The texts. Editorial policy -- A true discourse of the practises of Elizabeth Caldwell / Gilbert Dugdale -- The adultresses funerall day / Henry Goodcole -- Murther, murther; or, A bloody relation how Anne Hamton, dweling in Westminster nigh London, by poyson murthered her deare husband -- A hellish murder committed by a French midwife -- A pittilesse mother, that most unnaturally at one time, murthered two of her owne children -- Blood for blood; or, Justice executed for innocent blood-shed / N. Partridge and J. Sharp -- Fair warning to murderers of infants -- The bloudy mother / Thomas Brewer -- Deeds against nature, and monsters by kinde -- Natures cruell step-dames; or, Matchlesse monsters of the female sex / Henry Goodcole -- Newes from the dead; or, A true and exact narration of the miraculous deliverance of Anne Greene / Richard Watkins.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 299-347) and index.