The Roaring Girl is a fictional dramatization of the real life of Mary Frith, a seventeenth-century virago (or masculine woman) with a reputation for crime, cross-dressing, and general societal insubordination. By the time Frith – later known as Moll Cutpurse – died in 1660, she had created quite a life for herself, so much so that Dekker and Middleton sought to dramatize it for the stage around the year 1607.
Mary Frith was a domineering, cross-dressing woman who put her stamp upon the criminal underworld of London. She was an expert forger, but she was best known for traveling to the busy byways of London and pickpocketing unknowing victims with expert flare. In addition to these criminal talents, Mary Frith also bears one of the more curious and dubious claims to fame in history: she is said to be the first woman ever known to smoke tobacco in public.
That which is known for sure about Marty Frith is subject to debate over where historical accuracy ends and where the process of mythologizing begins. Much of that mythology can be placed at the hands of the two Toms: Dekker and Middleton's collaboration on the Jacobean production of The Roaring Girl inflated the legendary myth of Mary Frith on her way to becoming Moll Cutpurse. In many ways, the play itself is credited with creating Frith's reputation as a transgressive rebel force in early modern English society.
