Dictionary of Literary and Dramatic Censorship in Tudor and Stuart England - by Dorothy Mays (Hardcover)

About the Book

The Tudor and Stuart eras have been described as England's golden age, in large part because of the flowering of its literary and dramatic culture. Ironically, repressive government controls over freedom of expression existed side-by-side with some of the greatest literary accomplishments of the age, and many of the same issues we wrestle with today were being hotly debated in Renaissance England. This reference book provides a means for students and scholars to combine the highly popular topics of censorship and Renaissance studies.

The 92 entries in this book highlight the major issues which could provoke the wrath of the censor, the ways in which works were modified in response to censorship, and the fate of the authors who roused the censor's ire. Entries are arranged alphabetically by title of the censored work. Each provides basic factual information, including the name of the author, the publication date, the date of censorship, the type of work, and the offending issue; a discussion of the work's historical context; a synopsis of the contents; an examination of how the work was censored; and a brief bibliography. Although there is a wealth of information on censorship in the twentieth century, this is one of the few reference books to address censorship during the Renaissance.

Book Synopsis

The Tudor and Stuart eras have been described as England's golden age, in large part because of the flowering of its literary and dramatic culture. Ironically, repressive government controls over freedom of expression existed side-by-side with some of the greatest literary accomplishments of the age, and many of the same issues we wrestle with today were being hotly debated in Renaissance England. This reference book provides a means for students and scholars to combine the highly popular topics of censorship and Renaissance studies.

The 92 entries in this book highlight the major issues which could provoke the wrath of the censor, the ways in which works were modified in response to censorship, and the fate of the authors who roused the censor's ire. Entries are arranged alphabetically by title of the censored work. Each provides basic factual information, including the name of the author, the publication date, the date of censorship, the type of work, and the offending issue; a discussion of the work's historical context; a synopsis of the contents; an examination of how the work was censored; and a brief bibliography. Although there is a wealth of information on censorship in the twentieth century, this is one of the few reference books to address censorship during the Renaissance.

Review Quotes

?Dorthy Auchter has comilied a most useful Dictionary of Literary and Dramatic Censorship in Tudor and Stuart England....The entries are intrinsically fascinating, dealing as they do with necessarily incendiary material. This is a very handy compilation and should be of real use as a reference book.?-Students in English Literature

?The advantages of this collection - its compressed, accessible form, the varity of its entries, and its thumbnail bibliographies for each entry - make it an ideal sourcebook for graduate courses on the topic and a terrific way to introduce students to the complicated history of literary censorship in early modern England. Even scholars familiar in one area of censored texts or a particular period will find something new and intriguing in this collection.?-The Sixteenth Century Journal

?This work is recommended for college, university, and research libraries.?-American Reference Books Annual

"Dorthy Auchter has comilied a most useful Dictionary of Literary and Dramatic Censorship in Tudor and Stuart England....The entries are intrinsically fascinating, dealing as they do with necessarily incendiary material. This is a very handy compilation and should be of real use as a reference book."-Students in English Literature

"This work is recommended for college, university, and research libraries."-American Reference Books Annual

"The advantages of this collection - its compressed, accessible form, the varity of its entries, and its thumbnail bibliographies for each entry - make it an ideal sourcebook for graduate courses on the topic and a terrific way to introduce students to the complicated history of literary censorship in early modern England. Even scholars familiar in one area of censored texts or a particular period will find something new and intriguing in this collection."-The Sixteenth Century Journal

About the Author

DOROTHY AUCHTER is Assistant Professor and Librarian for Theatre at The Ohio State University. She is the author of the Dictionary of Historical Allusions and Eponyms (1998) and co-author of The History Highway: A Guide to Internet Resources (1997).