Performing libel in the provinces : community conflict in early modern England / Clare Egan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Egan, Clare, author.

Series:

Oxford scholarship online.

Oxford scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

England. Court of Star Chamber.

England.

Libel and slander--England--History--17th century.

Libel and slander.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (427 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, [2025]

Summary:

'Performing Libel in the Provinces' provides a book-length study of the dramatic traditions and literary features of private libel occurring in the provinces of Jacobean England. The early modern phenomenon of private libel saw communal scandals creatively couched in verses, symbols, or mock-ceremonies and read, sung, posted, and published in prominent local places and spaces across the English provinces. By the early modern period, libelling a private individual had been criminalized and was being tried at the court of Star Chamber, alongside cases relating to the slander of monarchy and government. This remarkable conflation and criminalization of private libel brought the ruination of individual reputations in the provinces into the same realms as the circulation of false news of national concern.

Contents:

Cover

Performing Libel in the Provinces : Community Conflict in Early Modern England

Copyright

Acknowledgements

Contents

Abbreviations

Introduction From Mankind to Personal Morality

Reading Mankind in a Culture of Defamation

From Mankind to Early Modern Libel

Methodology: A Regional Approach

Part I: Legal and Communal Contexts

1: Defining Libel at the Star Chamber

Medieval Defamation and Early Modern Libel

Star Chamber Definitions of Libel

Libel and Slander: Publication as Performance

Star Chamber Procedure: Westminster and the Provinces

The Law and the Multitude

2: Performing Libel in the Provinces

Libellous Plays

Libellous Jigs

Borderlines: May Games, Mock-Proclamations, and Picturing a Person

May Games

Mock-Proclamations

Picturing a Person

Performing Verse Libel

Signs of Shame and Multiple Unity

Connecting the Manners of Libel

Part II: Oral and Literate Libelling Culture

3: Early Performance and Jacobean Libel

Moral Drama and Vicious Libel

Libels and the Backbiting of Youth

The Ambiguity of Backbiting

Gallows Humour

Moral Play and Playing Cards

The Clown and the Playhouse

Biblical Drama and Occasional Misrule

Libelling with Biblical Figures

Cornish Theatrical Verse

The Parish Church and Ghostly Misrule

Subverting Festive Drama

The May Traditions of Wells

A Libel upon a Mummers' Play?

Robin Hood and Libellous Aggression

Continuity and Redefinition

4: Libellous Texts and Early Modern Media

The Voice of Libel

Puns and Impersonation

Anonymity and Pseudonymity

Making Libels

The 'Social Rhetorics' of Libel

Letters, Epitaphs, and Commandments

Skeltonics and Proverbs

'Buckram Bags' and Printed Satire

Pamphlets and Epistles

Publishing Libel

Part III: People and Place.

5: Landscapes of Libel Performance

Interactions: Space, Status, Story

The Mobility of Libel: Streets, Passageways, and Boundaries

The Spatiality of Libellous Letters

Drama and Communal Space

The Church as Performative Space

News and Punishment in the Marketplace

'The Streate . . . or Outter Most Doore' of Domestic Dwellings

'The Place Where Company Was': Gentlemen's Houses

'A Subtle and Dangerous Kind of Libel'

6: The Gendered Dimensions of Libel

Questions of Gender: Libel and Slander

The Gendered Language of Libel

Depicting Masculine Misconduct

Reading Women in Libel Records

Women Spectating and Performing Libel

Engineering Libel Performance: Marie Fortescue

The Gendered Dynamics of Libellous Letters: Mary Norris and Mrs Edwards

Women Enacting Libel

Gendered Authority and Women's Networks

Libels and Gender Relations

Conclusion

Appendix Devon, Dorset, Cornwall, and Somerset Libel Verses

Dorset and Cornwall Libel Texts

Dorset Libels

Cornwall Libels

Somerset Libel Texts

Devon Libel Texts

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Manuscript Sources

Printed Sources

Secondary Sources

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource and publisher information; title from PDF title page (viewed on May 8, 2025).

ISBN:

0-19-895554-5

0-19-895552-9

OCLC:

1518927017