madwomann.

a1438 Bk. Margery Kempe (1940) i. 193 (MED) Þan þe creatur thowt þat sche ran al abowte þe place, as it had ben a mad woman, crying & roryng.

a1470 T. Malory Morte Darthur (Winch. Coll. 13) (1990) II. 805 So the quene was nyghe oute of her wytte..and waltred as a madde woman.

c1520 tr. Terence Andria i. i, in Terens in Eng. sig. A^v In to the fyre than put she was Thys forseyd syster being in the place ffolyshly and lyke a mad woman All perelowsly in to the fyre ran.

1600 W. Shakespeare Merchant of Venice iv. i. 442 And if your wife be not a mad woman.

1622 T. Scott Belgicke Pismire 15 I remember a witty mad-woman..told a friend of hers [etc.].

a1668 W. Davenant Law against Lovers iii. i That were a sudden change, and would shew More of the Moon in him, than is in a mad-woman.

1742 H. Fielding Miss Lucy in Town 37 And is this bepowder'd, becurl'd, be-hoop'd Madwoman my Daughter?

1842 C. Dickens Amer. Notes I. iii. 108 The rest of the madwomen seemed to understand the joke perfectly.

1845 M. Fuller Woman in 19th Cent. 93 She..will not be pitied, as a madwoman, nor shrunk from as unnatural.

1921 L. Tetrazzini My Life of Song xix. 316 In the mad scene in Lucia, the use of the ‘white voice’ suggests the babbling of the mad woman.

1970 R. Davies Fifth Business iv. iii. 196 Your one human responsibility is a madwoman about whom you cherish a maggoty-headed delusion.

1993 Gnosis Winter 50/1 There were two years when she was a complete madwoman.