Description
Book SynopsisThis is a detailed 2002 study of the political significance of the seventeenth century's most notorious and sensational court scandal - the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury. The book examines the production and circulation of news about the scandal and assesses the political significance of contemporary depictions of the affair.
Trade Review'… this is such an interesting book and one with so many important insights to offer … The Politics of Court Scandal in Early Modern England is a truly interdisciplinary book, one whose approach to early modern culture should be a welcome provocation to historians and literary scholars alike.' Early Modern Literary Studies
'[Bellany's] sensitive and scholarly account reminds us that if a single preoccupation dominated the political thinking of the English Renaissance, it was the provision of good counsel to kings.' London Review of Books
Table of ContentsList of illustrations; Acknowledgements; Note on quotations and dates; List of abbreviations; Introduction: poison in the fountain - understanding the politics of Jacobean court scandal; 1. The court politics of the Overbury scandal; 2. News culture and the Overbury affair; 3. The sins of the Overbury murderers; 4. 'The powder poison': popish plots and the Overbury scandal; 5. Stamping the print of justice? Vengeance, mercy and repentance; 6. Afterlives: the Overbury affair as history and memory; Bibliography; Index.
