Voix de femmes, cruauté maritale et histoires de fantômes dans l’Angleterre du xviii^e siècle

This article identifies ghost stories as one of the most effective extra-legal narrative strategies that women used to protest against spousal abuse in early modern England. The ghost of Mary Veal that appeared to her friend Margaret Bargrave in Canterbury in 1705 is one of the most richly documented supernatural reports of the period. The affair generated numerous responses from the people of Canterbury, attracted interest from fellows of London's Royal Society, and its details were circulated through newspaper articles and extended published reports that ran to multiple editions. The life of the report's chief narrator, Margaret Bargrave, has attracted little curiosity, in spite of this flurry of public interest in Mary Veal's appearance. This article pieces together Margaret's long history of spousal abuse at the hands of her husband, and examines her motivations for framing her misfortunes within the confines of a ghost story. The case study forms a base for broader reflections on what made early modern ghost reports distinctive and effective narrative strategies to protest against physical, sexual and psychological abuse. These reports are juxtaposed with more familiar legal strategies for redress to discern when, and in what circumstances, reports of wifely abuse were best couched within the conventions of a ghost report. By focusing on non-judicial records, the article expands the range of mechanisms that wives had at their disposal to defend themselves. It also affords rare glimpses of marital breakdowns that never reached the courtroom.