We are experiencing issues with the responsiveness of Cambridge Core and the Cambridge Aspire website. Users may experience website error pages or timeout error pages. Our teams are working to resolve the issues. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Book contents
- British Law and Literature in the Long Eighteenth Century
- British Law and Literature in the Long Eighteenth Century
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 “Every Common Reader”
- Chapter 2 Perpendicular Publics
- Chapter 3 Ambivalence, Survival, and Law in Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year
- Chapter 4 The Court of Justice and the Court of Conscience
- Chapter 5 “A Higher Tribunal”
- Chapter 6 Mansfield, Burrow, and the Reformulation of the Legal Decision
- Chapter 7 Novel Subjects
- Chapter 8 Common Law and Cultural Difference in Scott’s Ivanhoe and Chronicles of the Canongate
- Chapter 9 The Legal Character of Paupers in Early Nineteenth-Century England
- Chapter 10 Liberty in “Parenthesis”
- Chapter 11 Yearning for Restriction in the Romantic Novel
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 1 - “Every Common Reader”
Satire, Libel Law, and the Emergence of Objective Interpretive Procedures, ca. 1670–1730
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 September 2025
Edited by
Book contents
- British Law and Literature in the Long Eighteenth Century
- British Law and Literature in the Long Eighteenth Century
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 “Every Common Reader”
- Chapter 2 Perpendicular Publics
- Chapter 3 Ambivalence, Survival, and Law in Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year
- Chapter 4 The Court of Justice and the Court of Conscience
- Chapter 5 “A Higher Tribunal”
- Chapter 6 Mansfield, Burrow, and the Reformulation of the Legal Decision
- Chapter 7 Novel Subjects
- Chapter 8 Common Law and Cultural Difference in Scott’s Ivanhoe and Chronicles of the Canongate
- Chapter 9 The Legal Character of Paupers in Early Nineteenth-Century England
- Chapter 10 Liberty in “Parenthesis”
- Chapter 11 Yearning for Restriction in the Romantic Novel
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter examines the relationship between English satire and libel law between roughly 1670 and 1730. It takes up the growth of verbal ambiguity and the use of irony, circumlocution, and allegory among satirists such as John Dryden, Alexander Pope, and Delarivier Manley, and demonstrates how the courts responded to verbal ambiguity by refining the supposedly “objective” interpretive standards to be used by jurors. Such standards created mechanisms for delimiting verbal ambiguity and restricting the interpretive latitude of jurors while permitting the crown to skirt technical linguistic issues. These revisions to the law were part of a more general refinement of libel laws, which furnished the government with its primary means of regulating the press during this period. The interaction between libel law and satire had consequences for both legal procedure and literature – consequences that extended well beyond the eighteenth century and that continue to shape legal and literary practice today.
Keywords
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
Accessibility standard: Inaccessible, or known limited accessibility
The PDF of this book is known to have missing or limited accessibility features.
We may be reviewing its accessibility for future improvement, but final compliance is
not yet assured and may be subject to legal exceptions. If you have any questions,
please contact
accessibility@cambridge-org.demo.remotlog.com.
Content Navigation
Table of contents navigation
Allows you to navigate directly to chapters, sections, or non‐text items through a linked table of contents, reducing the need for extensive scrolling.
Allows you to navigate directly to chapters, sections, or non‐text items through a linked table of contents, reducing the need for extensive scrolling.
Index navigation
Provides an interactive index, letting you go straight to where a term or subject appears in the text without manual searching.
Provides an interactive index, letting you go straight to where a term or subject appears in the text without manual searching.
Reading Order & Textual Equivalents
Single logical reading order
You will encounter all content (including footnotes, captions, etc.) in a clear, sequential flow, making it easier to follow with assistive tools like screen readers.
You will encounter all content (including footnotes, captions, etc.) in a clear, sequential flow, making it easier to follow with assistive tools like screen readers.
Full alternative textual descriptions
You get more than just short alt text: you have comprehensive text equivalents, transcripts, captions, or audio descriptions for substantial non‐text content, which is especially helpful for complex visuals or multimedia.
You get more than just short alt text: you have comprehensive text equivalents, transcripts, captions, or audio descriptions for substantial non‐text content, which is especially helpful for complex visuals or multimedia.
Visual Accessibility
Use of colour is not sole means of conveying information
You will still understand key ideas or prompts without relying solely on colour, which is especially helpful if you have colour vision deficiencies.
You will still understand key ideas or prompts without relying solely on colour, which is especially helpful if you have colour vision deficiencies.
Use of high contrast between text and background colour
You benefit from high‐contrast text, which improves legibility if you have low vision or if you are reading in less‐than‐ideal lighting conditions.
You benefit from high‐contrast text, which improves legibility if you have low vision or if you are reading in less‐than‐ideal lighting conditions.