The Presbyterian Lash is a short satirical play from 1661 by Francis Kirkman, a rogue-ish author, publisher and bibliographer, with an eye for capitalizing on scandal.
Kirkman wrote the play to lambast Anglo-Irish nonconforming minister and controversialist Zachary Crofton. As we’ve seen many times before, one of the easiest ways of assassinating the character of your enemies is to accuse them of deviant sexuality. In this case, Crofton was accused of flagellating his servant girl, Mary Cadman.
The play features “Noctroff, a hot-headed Presbyterian priest”, a knowing hypocrite who justifies his beating of his servant girl, Joan, as being for the good of her soul. His enemies seize upon his abuse as a pretext to get rid of him. Part of the play is a preliminary trial or inquest as Noctroff’s enemies interview Joan about the incident, including questioning why she didn’t cry out. However, Joan’s mother also hopes to profit from this situation, and wants to see whether Joan’s silence or testimony will command the higher price.
Note that the flagellation doesn’t occur on stage; other characters only talk about it. There’s also a long, raunchy song about a woman having sex with a dog and being whipped for it. I would guess this is full of coded references to political and religious figures of the time.
Archive.org has scans of a 1666 edition of the play.
