Liberty against the law : some seventeenth-century controversies

Liberty against the law : some seventeenth-century controversies /

In the plays and popular folklore of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are many expressions of liberty against the law. Taking this literary theme as his starting point, Christopher Hill examines how seventeenth-century society and its laws looked to the mass of the landless and lawless class...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hill, Christopher, 1912-2003
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: London : New York, N.Y. : Allen Lane ; Penguin Books, 1996.
Edition:First edition.
Subjects:
1500 - 1714
1500-1714
English literature > Early modern, 1500-1700 > History and criticism.
Literature and society > Great Britain > History > 17th century.
Liberty in literature.
Law in literature.
English literature > Early modern.
Law.
Liberty.
Literature.
Literature and society.
English literature.
Great Britain > History > Stuarts, 1603-1714.
Great Britain.
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
History.
Table of Contents:
  • I. Introduction. 1. From A Jovial Crew (1641) to The Beggar's Opera (1728). 2. Customary Liberties and Legal Rights
  • II. Lawlessness. 3. Vagabonds. 4. The Poor and Wage Labour. 5. Robin Hood. 6. Robin Hood, Possessive Individualism and the Norman Yoke. 7. Forests and Venison, Game Laws and Poachers. 8. Smugglers. 9. Pirates. 10. Highwaymen. 11. 'Gypsy Liberty'
  • III. Imperial Problems. 12. 'Going Native': 'The Noble Savage'. 13. Impressment and Empire
  • IV. Christian Liberty. 14. The Ambiguities of Protestantism. 15. Church Courts and Fees. 16. Marriage and Parish Registers. 17. The Mosaic Law and the Priesthood of All Believers. 18. Antinomianism
  • V. Society, Law and Liberty. 19. History and the Law. 20. Liberty and Equality: Who are the People? 21. Whose law? and whose liberty? 22. 'Away with Lawyers!'
  • VI. Aftermath. 23. Gerrard Winstanley: The Law of Freedom. 24. The Society of Friends and the Law. 25. Apocalypse and After. 26. John Clare, 1793-1864. 27. Some Conclusions.

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