Articolo
Abstract

It is the story of a headless child, whose birth occurred on 25 July 1615 in Faversham, Kent: a vagabond named Martha Haydnot is suddenly seized with painful contractions and forced to give birth in a barn. As in the previous case, the female protagonist’s irregular life and the resulting divine punishment are instrumentally used by the author to contribute to the debate on the unresolved matter of vagrancy.

Keywords: Female Marginality; Gender History; Headless Monster; Monstrous Birth; Vagrancy.