Description |
1 online resource (xvi, 368 pages) : illustrations |
Contents |
Introduction. Being economical with the truth in early modern England -- I. Lying and the culture of oaths -- 1. The oath of supremacy -- 2. The oath of allegiance -- II. Modes of lying in early modern England -- 3. The religious culture of lying -- 4. Rhetoric, commonplacing, and poetics -- 5. Courtesy, lying, and politics -- 6. Testimony -- 7. Othello and the culture of lies between conscience and reputation |
Summary |
Lying in Early Modern English Culture is a major study of ideas of truth and falsehood in early modern England from the advent of the Reformation to the aftermath of the failed Gunpowder Plot. The period is characterized by panic and chaos when few had any idea how religious, cultural, and social life would develop after the traumatic division of Christendom. While many saw the need for a secular power to define the truth, others declared that their allegiances belonged elsewhere. Accordingly, there was a constant battle between competing authorities for the right to declare what was the truth and so label opponents as liars. Issues of truth and lying were, therefore, a constant feature of everyday life and determined ideas of individual identity, politics, speech, sex, marriage, and social behaviour, as well as philosophy and religion. This book is a cultural history of truth and lying horn the 1530s to the 1610s, showing how lying needs to be understood in action as well as in theory. It concentrates on a series of particular events, reading them in terms of academic theories and more popular notions of lying, covering a wide range of material such as the trials of Anne Boleyn and Thomas More, the divorce of Frances Howard, and the murder of Anthony James by Annis and George Dell; works of literature such, as Othello, The Faerie Queene, A Mirror for Magistrates, and The Unfortunate Traveller; works of popular culture such as the herring pamphlet of 1597; and major writings by Castiglione, Montaigne, Erasmus, Luther, and Tyndale.-- Book jacket |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
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Includes bibliographical references (pages 311-359) and index |
Notes |
Online resource; title from PDF title page (EBSCO, viewed September 13, 2017) |
Subject |
Truthfulness and falsehood -- England -- History
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Oaths -- England -- History -- Early works to 1800
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Political culture -- England -- Early works to 1800
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Church and state -- England -- Early works to 1800
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POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Cultural Policy.
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SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural.
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SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Popular Culture.
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Truthfulness and falsehood
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Church and state
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Oaths
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Political culture
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Literary studies: general.
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Literary studies: plays & playwrights.
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History.
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Literature.
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England
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Genre/Form |
History
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Early works
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Form |
Electronic book
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ISBN |
9780192506580 |
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0192506587 |
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9780191831287 |
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019183128X |
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