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“The face is the dial of the mind”: Samuel Butler and the Science of People Watching
In dozens of brief essays, the 17th-century poet and satirist wittily catalogued and lampooned the personalities of Restoration England.
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How England’s Sale of Dunkirk to France in 1662 Helped Shape the US Constitution
Charles II courted scandal by pawning off the territory only four years after its stunning capture. The Founding Fathers recalled this cautionary tale when debating the powers of presidency.
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The Zealous Book Collector Who Chronicled the English Civil War
Between 1641 and 1661, the publisher George Thomason compiled more than 22,000 pamphlets, newsbooks, and ballads covering the tumultuous politics of the English Revolution and Interregnum.
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The Unsavoury History of England’s Pancake Day Protests
We’ve been feasting on pancakes on Shrove Tuesday for more than 500 years — but London’s apprentices, armed with cudgels and hammers, once gave the day a reputation for violence.
Recommended read
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What Can a Crude Woodcut of a 17th Century Family Tell Us About Domestic Abuse in Early Modern England?
Adorning a ballad sold by a popular publisher in 1638, this wholesome picture of a family at the dinner table in is not all that it appears to be.
Early Modern Scribbling is a history site about the Tudor and Stuart periods in England — and, in particular, the role of popular printed literature and storytelling. Inexpensive pamphlets exploded in popularity at this time, powered by a colourful cast of booksellers, printers, and writers. Some of these writers were labelled ‘scribblers’ by their detractors. Their works are invaluable for understanding popular religious belief, social history, and the emergence of journalistic writing.
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Were People Really Better at Writing in the Past?
The prose of bygone years was more florid, wordy, and syntactically unconventional than our own. Does that really mean it was superior?
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Jailing Santa Claus and Plum Pudding Riots: 17th-Century Puritans’ War on Christmas
Forget today’s faux outrage over “Happy Holidays” and Starbucks’ festive cups, England’s godliest Protestants launched a proper attack on the holiday nearly 400 years ago.
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The Dramatist Who Dared Document England’s Forgotten Plague of 1625
Forty years before the Great Plague of London, the pestilence killed tens of thousands in England’s capital city — and was documented in grisly detail by Thomas Dekker.
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How Boozy Church Ales Brought Tudor and Stuart Communities Together — Before Tearing Them Apart
Merry feasts, lavish drinking, and colourful pageants put England’s church ales on a collision course with miserable Puritans. Things came to a dramatic head in Somerset in 1607.
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Ram Alley: The London Passageway That Was a Notorious Criminal Refuge in the 1600s
An obscure legal loophole meant an inconspicuous lane on Fleet Street became a criminal sanctuary, loved by overdue debtors and feared by London’s constables.
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Claiming to Know Fairies, a Fake Fortune Teller Became Tudor England’s Most Notorious Scammer
Judith Phillips humiliated a rich farmer in Hampshire by riding him like a donkey, conned a wealthy widow out of her fortune, and became a scandalous celebrity in Elizabethan London — inspiring ballads, pamphlets, and possibly a play.
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What Was Life Like for a Pamphleteer in Elizabethan England?
Early professional writing was a poorly remunerated, creatively restricted, and generally disreputable career. How on earth did it produce some of England’s greatest minds?
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This 17th-Century Handbook Promised to Satisfy All Curiosities, From Magic Tricks to Firework Dragons
John White’s instructive 1651 pamphlet offered readers guidance for all kinds of experiments, illusions, and eccentric contraptions.
Did you know that…?
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