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

A study of the dramatic traditions and literary features of private libel occurring in the provinces during the reign of James I. The book focuses on the libel cases between private individuals tried in the court of Star Chamber from the counties of Devon, Somerset, Dorset, and Cornwall.

List of contents

• Introduction: From Mankind to Personal Morality


• Part I. Legal and Communal Contexts


• 1: Defining Libel at the Star Chamber


• 2: Performing Libel in the Provinces


• Part II. Oral and Literate Libelling Culture


• 3: Early Performance and Jacobean Libel


• 4: Libellous Texts and Early Modern Media


• Part III. People and Place


• 5: Landscapes of Libel Performance


• 6: The Gendered Dimensions of Libel


• Conclusion: Provincial Libels and the 'Ship of . . . Common Wealth'

About the author

Clare Egan is a Senior Lecturer in Medieval and Early Modern Literature at Lancaster University. Prior to her current post, she was a research assistant at the University of Huddersfield and a visiting lecturer at the University of Southampton. Dr Egan completed an AHRC-funded doctorate on early modern libel at the University of Southampton (2015). Recent publications include an article in the Past & Present supplement Beyond Truth: Fiction and Disinformation in Early Modern Europe (vol. 257, 2022), a chapter in Star Chamber Matters (University of London Press, 2021), an essay in Early Theatre (vol. 23, 2020), and articles in Medieval English Theatre.

Summary

A study of the dramatic traditions and literary features of private libel occurring in the provinces during the reign of James I. The book focuses on the libel cases between private individuals tried in the court of Star Chamber from the counties of Devon, Somerset, Dorset, and Cornwall.

Product details

• Authors: Clare Egan, Clare (Senior Lecturer in Medieval and Early Egan
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 12.06.2025, delayed
• EAN: 9780198955511
• ISBN: 978-0-19-895551-1
• No. of pages: 304
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General, LAW / General, Literary studies: general, Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800, Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers, Law & society, Law and society, sociology of law, LITERARY CRITICISM / Novel as Form