Performing Libel in the Provinces : Community Conflict in Early Modern England

Performing Libel in the Provinces provides the first book-length study of the dramatic traditions and literary features of private libel occurring in the provinces of Jacobean England.The early modern phenomenon of private libel saw communal scandals creatively couched in verses, symbols, or mock-ceremonies and read, sung, posted, and published in prominent local places and spaces across the English provinces.By the early modern period, libelling a private individual had been criminalized and was being tried at the court of Star Chamber, alongside cases relating to the slander of monarchy and government.This remarkable conflation and criminalization of private libel brought the ruination of individual reputations in the provinces into the same realms as the circulation of false news of national concern.Performing Libel reads libelling in the provinces as a unique form of communal drama--a novel multimedia practice manipulating personal identities within provincial social networks. Adop