Great Britain, World, Criticism & Theory, United Kingdom, 1800-1899, Satire, Robin Hood, Law in literature, Fiction, Criticism, Interpretation, Revolution, English Revolution 

"In the plays and popular folklore of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are many expressions of liberty against the law. Taking this literary theme as his starting point, Christopher Hill examines how seventeenth-century society and its laws looked to the mass of the landless and lawless classes. The colourful beggars and highwaymen of The Jovial Crew and The Beggar's Opera voice the paradoxical claim that beggars are more free than people of property. These. Fiercely satirical plays show the crafty beggar as no worse than the eminent politician or courtier. The ballads of Robin Hood, at their height of popularity, personify the opposition between liberty and property, the freedom of the outlaw in the greenwood versus the constraints of power, money and society. Other groups opted out too: there are stories of ladies eschewing material comforts to go with the gypsies; colonists in North America 'went native'; and the idea of. The 'noble savage' dates from this period. With their rejection of the state church, religious dissenters also challenged the prevailing orthodoxy, and so the law of the state. This hero-worship of the 'outlaw' reflects vast social and economic changes. The lives of the peasantry were irrevocably altered, and Christopher Hill considers how they were affected by enclosures, the loss of many traditional rights and draconian punishments for minor transgressions. However. The time when discontent would be expressed in political action was still far in the future. These expressions of contempt for the law challenge the equation of law with property that came about in the Glorious Revolution. They begin to pose the question, 'Freedom for whom?'." - Voila 

Contents:

I. Introduction. 1. From A Jovial Crew (1641) to The Beggar's Opera (1728). 2. Customary Liberties and Legal Rights -- II. Lawlessness. 3. Vagabonds. 4. The Poor and Wage Labour. 5. Robin Hood. 6. Robin Hood, Possessive Individualism and the Norman Yoke. 7. Forests and Venison, Game Laws and Poachers. 8. Smugglers. 9. Pirates. 10. Highwaymen. 11. 'Gypsy Liberty' -- III. Imperial Problems. 12. 'Going Native': 'The Noble Savage'. 13. Impressment and Empire -- IV. Christian Liberty. 14. The Ambiguities of Protestantism. 15. Church Courts and Fees. 16. Marriage and Parish Registers. 17. The Mosaic Law and the Priesthood of All Believers. 18. Antinomianism -- V. Society, Law and Liberty. 19. History and the Law. 20. Liberty and Equality: Who are the People? 21. Whose law? and whose liberty? 22. 'Away with Lawyers!' -- VI. Aftermath. 23. Gerrard Winstanley: The Law of Freedom. 24. The Society of Friends and the Law. 25. Apocalypse and After. 26. John Clare, 1793-1864. 27. Some Conclusions. 

Donated by Graham Price.