Roger W. Shuy
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195391329
- eISBN:
- 9780199866274
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195391329.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
This book shows how linguistic analysis can be useful to lawyers on either sides of defamation lawsuits. It gives a brief overview of the parts of defamation law that linguistics can address, and ...
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This book shows how linguistic analysis can be useful to lawyers on either sides of defamation lawsuits. It gives a brief overview of the parts of defamation law that linguistics can address, and then illustrates how phonetics, grammar, semantics, speech acts, pragmatics, conveyed meaning, and lexical choices were used in eleven defamation cases. The book also assesses what progress has been made from the early days in which language disputes were settled by bloody duels to the modern days of their replacement by libel and slander lawsuits.Less
This book shows how linguistic analysis can be useful to lawyers on either sides of defamation lawsuits. It gives a brief overview of the parts of defamation law that linguistics can address, and then illustrates how phonetics, grammar, semantics, speech acts, pragmatics, conveyed meaning, and lexical choices were used in eleven defamation cases. The book also assesses what progress has been made from the early days in which language disputes were settled by bloody duels to the modern days of their replacement by libel and slander lawsuits.
Lawrence McNamara
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199231454
- eISBN:
- 9780191710858
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199231454.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Law of Obligations
The first study of what reputation is, how it functions, and how it is and should be protected under the law, Reputation and Defamation addresses the inconsistencies and failures of the common law ...
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The first study of what reputation is, how it functions, and how it is and should be protected under the law, Reputation and Defamation addresses the inconsistencies and failures of the common law that have been observed for over a century. It develops a theory of reputation and uses it to analyse, evaluate and propose a revision of the law. Using the concept of reputation as the vehicle for a study of the history and theory of libel, slander and honour it becomes apparent that, contrary to the legal orthodoxy, defamation law did not aim and function to protect reputation until the early 19th century. Consequently, the historically derived tests for what is defamatory do not always protect reputation adequately or appropriately. The ‘shun and avoid’ and ‘ridicule’ tests should be discarded. The principal ‘lowering the estimation’ test is more appropriate but needs re-working. Christian tradition and Victorian moralism are embedded in the idea of ‘the right-thinking person’ that provides the test's conceptual foundations, but these are problematic in an era of moral diversity. Instead, ‘the right-thinking person’ should be associated with an inclusive liberal premise of equal moral worth and a shared commitment to moral diversity; any departure from this must be justified on sound, expressly stated ethical grounds. That demand serves to protect reputation appropriately and effectively in an age of moral diversity.Less
The first study of what reputation is, how it functions, and how it is and should be protected under the law, Reputation and Defamation addresses the inconsistencies and failures of the common law that have been observed for over a century. It develops a theory of reputation and uses it to analyse, evaluate and propose a revision of the law. Using the concept of reputation as the vehicle for a study of the history and theory of libel, slander and honour it becomes apparent that, contrary to the legal orthodoxy, defamation law did not aim and function to protect reputation until the early 19th century. Consequently, the historically derived tests for what is defamatory do not always protect reputation adequately or appropriately. The ‘shun and avoid’ and ‘ridicule’ tests should be discarded. The principal ‘lowering the estimation’ test is more appropriate but needs re-working. Christian tradition and Victorian moralism are embedded in the idea of ‘the right-thinking person’ that provides the test's conceptual foundations, but these are problematic in an era of moral diversity. Instead, ‘the right-thinking person’ should be associated with an inclusive liberal premise of equal moral worth and a shared commitment to moral diversity; any departure from this must be justified on sound, expressly stated ethical grounds. That demand serves to protect reputation appropriately and effectively in an age of moral diversity.
Marion Turner
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199207893
- eISBN:
- 9780191709142
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199207893.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This book explores the textual environment of London in the 1380s and 1390s, revealing a language of betrayal, surveillance, slander, treason, rebellion, flawed idealism, and corrupted compaignyes. ...
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This book explores the textual environment of London in the 1380s and 1390s, revealing a language of betrayal, surveillance, slander, treason, rebellion, flawed idealism, and corrupted compaignyes. Taking a strongly interdisciplinary approach, it examines how discourses about social antagonism work across different kinds of texts written at this time, including Geoffrey Chaucer's House of Fame, Troilus and Criseyde, and Canterbury Tales, and other literary texts such as St. Erkenwald, John Gower's Vox clamantis, Thomas Usk's Testament of Love, and Richard Maidstone's Concordia. Many non-literary texts are also discussed, including the Mercers' Petition, Usk's Appeal, the guild returns, judicial letters, Philippe de Mézières's Letter to Richard II, and chronicle accounts. These were tumultuous decades in London: some of the conflicts and problems discussed include the Peasants' Revolt, the mayoral rivalries of the 1380s, the Merciless Parliament, slander legislation, and contemporary suspicion of urban associations. While contemporary texts try to hold out hope for the future, or imagine an earlier Golden Age, Chaucer's texts foreground social conflict and antagonism. Though most critics have promoted an idea of Chaucer's texts as essentially socially optimistic and congenial, this book argues that Chaucer presents a vision of a society that is inevitably divided and destructive.Less
This book explores the textual environment of London in the 1380s and 1390s, revealing a language of betrayal, surveillance, slander, treason, rebellion, flawed idealism, and corrupted compaignyes. Taking a strongly interdisciplinary approach, it examines how discourses about social antagonism work across different kinds of texts written at this time, including Geoffrey Chaucer's House of Fame, Troilus and Criseyde, and Canterbury Tales, and other literary texts such as St. Erkenwald, John Gower's Vox clamantis, Thomas Usk's Testament of Love, and Richard Maidstone's Concordia. Many non-literary texts are also discussed, including the Mercers' Petition, Usk's Appeal, the guild returns, judicial letters, Philippe de Mézières's Letter to Richard II, and chronicle accounts. These were tumultuous decades in London: some of the conflicts and problems discussed include the Peasants' Revolt, the mayoral rivalries of the 1380s, the Merciless Parliament, slander legislation, and contemporary suspicion of urban associations. While contemporary texts try to hold out hope for the future, or imagine an earlier Golden Age, Chaucer's texts foreground social conflict and antagonism. Though most critics have promoted an idea of Chaucer's texts as essentially socially optimistic and congenial, this book argues that Chaucer presents a vision of a society that is inevitably divided and destructive.
Jerome Neu
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195314311
- eISBN:
- 9780199871780
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195314311.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language
The law of defamation seeks to provide remedies for some of the harms in insult, in particular damage to reputation. New York Times Co. v. Sullivan limits those remedies with respect to public ...
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The law of defamation seeks to provide remedies for some of the harms in insult, in particular damage to reputation. New York Times Co. v. Sullivan limits those remedies with respect to public figures, and this chapter considers some of the distinctions and principles involved in providing remedies, including the nature of reasonable expectations.Less
The law of defamation seeks to provide remedies for some of the harms in insult, in particular damage to reputation. New York Times Co. v. Sullivan limits those remedies with respect to public figures, and this chapter considers some of the distinctions and principles involved in providing remedies, including the nature of reasonable expectations.
SARAH WOOD
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199653768
- eISBN:
- 9780191741678
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199653768.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature, Poetry
This chapter examines Conscience's first appearance in the B text of Piers Plowman, his debate with Meed in passus 3. Earlier readers typically interpreted this scene as ‘topical’ satire, in which ...
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This chapter examines Conscience's first appearance in the B text of Piers Plowman, his debate with Meed in passus 3. Earlier readers typically interpreted this scene as ‘topical’ satire, in which Langland's personifications represent real historical figures. By contrast, this chapter demonstrates that the first vision of Piers Plowman feels topical not so much because Langland alludes to particular historical events, as because he draws on a series of literary modes—debate, slander and complaint—which are also employed by other authors, including historians such as Thomas Walsingham and the authors of debate poems such as Winner and Waster, in their own analysis of contemporary crises. In a manner typical of debate poetry, Meed is able to exploit the literal level of Conscience's representation, as a failed king's knight and leader of a retinue, in order to call into question his allegorical identity as ‘conscience’.Less
This chapter examines Conscience's first appearance in the B text of Piers Plowman, his debate with Meed in passus 3. Earlier readers typically interpreted this scene as ‘topical’ satire, in which Langland's personifications represent real historical figures. By contrast, this chapter demonstrates that the first vision of Piers Plowman feels topical not so much because Langland alludes to particular historical events, as because he draws on a series of literary modes—debate, slander and complaint—which are also employed by other authors, including historians such as Thomas Walsingham and the authors of debate poems such as Winner and Waster, in their own analysis of contemporary crises. In a manner typical of debate poetry, Meed is able to exploit the literal level of Conscience's representation, as a failed king's knight and leader of a retinue, in order to call into question his allegorical identity as ‘conscience’.
GRAHAM GOULD
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198263456
- eISBN:
- 9780191682551
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198263456.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
This chapter deals with problems and obstacles to the proper conduct of relationships which issues such as anger and judgement create. There are sayings in which relationships are rejected or in ...
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This chapter deals with problems and obstacles to the proper conduct of relationships which issues such as anger and judgement create. There are sayings in which relationships are rejected or in which pessimistic comments are made about the deleterious effects of a monk's relationship with God. Arsenius and Theodore of Pherme are two monks who feature in the Apopthegmata as subjects who were unwilling to engage in relationships. The discussion explores a group of related problems such as slander, anger, judgement, and praise which are dealt with, with consistent and severe attitudes of rejection.Less
This chapter deals with problems and obstacles to the proper conduct of relationships which issues such as anger and judgement create. There are sayings in which relationships are rejected or in which pessimistic comments are made about the deleterious effects of a monk's relationship with God. Arsenius and Theodore of Pherme are two monks who feature in the Apopthegmata as subjects who were unwilling to engage in relationships. The discussion explores a group of related problems such as slander, anger, judgement, and praise which are dealt with, with consistent and severe attitudes of rejection.
Andrew King
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198187226
- eISBN:
- 9780191674662
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198187226.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This chapter explores the themes of displaced youths and slandered ladies in a number of Middle English verse romances designated as the ‘Eustace-Constance-Florence-Griselda Legends’: Sir Isumbras, ...
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This chapter explores the themes of displaced youths and slandered ladies in a number of Middle English verse romances designated as the ‘Eustace-Constance-Florence-Griselda Legends’: Sir Isumbras, The King of Tars, Sir Eglamour of Artois, Octavian, Le Bone Florence of Rome, Sir Triamour, and Sir Torent of Portyngale. In the romances of displaced youths, great value is attached to aristocratic birth as the prerogative of chivalric nobility is seen; even if the character's behaviour is boorish or incompetent because of his displaced upbringing, his birth ensures that he will eventually regain his correct position in society. In contrast, the female characters are judged not according to their birth but entirely by their deeds or alleged misdeeds. Although these women are usually of aristocratic birth, their social nobility is never seen by characters in the text as evidence that they are virtuous and chaste, or noble in a behavioural sense.Less
This chapter explores the themes of displaced youths and slandered ladies in a number of Middle English verse romances designated as the ‘Eustace-Constance-Florence-Griselda Legends’: Sir Isumbras, The King of Tars, Sir Eglamour of Artois, Octavian, Le Bone Florence of Rome, Sir Triamour, and Sir Torent of Portyngale. In the romances of displaced youths, great value is attached to aristocratic birth as the prerogative of chivalric nobility is seen; even if the character's behaviour is boorish or incompetent because of his displaced upbringing, his birth ensures that he will eventually regain his correct position in society. In contrast, the female characters are judged not according to their birth but entirely by their deeds or alleged misdeeds. Although these women are usually of aristocratic birth, their social nobility is never seen by characters in the text as evidence that they are virtuous and chaste, or noble in a behavioural sense.
Lawrence McNamara
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199231454
- eISBN:
- 9780191710858
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199231454.003.0004
- Subject:
- Law, Law of Obligations
Histories of defamation regularly observe that the common law is riddled with anomalies and its development exhibits little doctrinal coherence. To escape the strictures of this traditional doctrinal ...
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Histories of defamation regularly observe that the common law is riddled with anomalies and its development exhibits little doctrinal coherence. To escape the strictures of this traditional doctrinal analysis and with a view to garnering richer insights, the history of defamation law is analysed through the prism of reputation. This chapter explains the extent to which reputation was protected — and not protected — in jurisdictions where defamation laws predated the common law action. Section I explains the methodology used to cast light on the relationships between law and reputation. Section II examines those relationships in the local courts, the ecclesiastical courts, and under the scandalum magnatum statutes. This and the following chapters show that the conceptual and doctrinal dimensions of the common law cannot be fully understood without a grasp of the relationships between defamation and reputation in the jurisdictions that preceded it.Less
Histories of defamation regularly observe that the common law is riddled with anomalies and its development exhibits little doctrinal coherence. To escape the strictures of this traditional doctrinal analysis and with a view to garnering richer insights, the history of defamation law is analysed through the prism of reputation. This chapter explains the extent to which reputation was protected — and not protected — in jurisdictions where defamation laws predated the common law action. Section I explains the methodology used to cast light on the relationships between law and reputation. Section II examines those relationships in the local courts, the ecclesiastical courts, and under the scandalum magnatum statutes. This and the following chapters show that the conceptual and doctrinal dimensions of the common law cannot be fully understood without a grasp of the relationships between defamation and reputation in the jurisdictions that preceded it.
Lawrence McNamara
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199231454
- eISBN:
- 9780191710858
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199231454.003.0005
- Subject:
- Law, Law of Obligations
This chapter explains how and why the common law approached the actionability of words as it did. At first, only certain forms of words were actionable and these were neither connected nor ...
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This chapter explains how and why the common law approached the actionability of words as it did. At first, only certain forms of words were actionable and these were neither connected nor underpinned by any clear conceptual or doctrinal rationale. Later, influenced by the Star Chamber's criminal libel laws, the action for written defamation became more broadly based and was founded upon a generalized principle that made damage to reputation actionable. This shift marked the birth of modern defamation law because it sat within the intellectual framework of Enlightenment philosophy and science. In the 19th century treatises, there is a new claim that the common law protected reputation and there are attempts to derive general statements of legal principle from the disparate body of cases. These developments were to have a profound influence on the shape of the modern common law and its relationship to the protection of reputation.Less
This chapter explains how and why the common law approached the actionability of words as it did. At first, only certain forms of words were actionable and these were neither connected nor underpinned by any clear conceptual or doctrinal rationale. Later, influenced by the Star Chamber's criminal libel laws, the action for written defamation became more broadly based and was founded upon a generalized principle that made damage to reputation actionable. This shift marked the birth of modern defamation law because it sat within the intellectual framework of Enlightenment philosophy and science. In the 19th century treatises, there is a new claim that the common law protected reputation and there are attempts to derive general statements of legal principle from the disparate body of cases. These developments were to have a profound influence on the shape of the modern common law and its relationship to the protection of reputation.
Maximillian E. Novak
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199261543
- eISBN:
- 9780191698743
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199261543.003.0023
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
Almost everything Daniel Defoe published provoked attacks upon him and his ideas. He was now a public figure, and if he had some right to complain about slanders concerning him and his life, he also ...
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Almost everything Daniel Defoe published provoked attacks upon him and his ideas. He was now a public figure, and if he had some right to complain about slanders concerning him and his life, he also had to expect them. Defoe also had his defenders. William Colepepper, his lawyer in the trial over The Shortest Way, had been threatened with bodily harm by friends of Sir George Rooke, and he eventually took legal action against them. Naturally enough, Defoe came to his friend’s defence. As he did with the beginning of the Review, he began by attacking the quality of other newspapers, including the Review itself. His commitment to fighting the enemies of the Dissenters may be seen in his ongoing exchanges with Charles Leslie, one of the most effective representatives of Jacobite views in England. Some time during the summer of 1704, Robert Harley decided that Defoe would be more useful as a collector of information within England than as an agent on the Continent.Less
Almost everything Daniel Defoe published provoked attacks upon him and his ideas. He was now a public figure, and if he had some right to complain about slanders concerning him and his life, he also had to expect them. Defoe also had his defenders. William Colepepper, his lawyer in the trial over The Shortest Way, had been threatened with bodily harm by friends of Sir George Rooke, and he eventually took legal action against them. Naturally enough, Defoe came to his friend’s defence. As he did with the beginning of the Review, he began by attacking the quality of other newspapers, including the Review itself. His commitment to fighting the enemies of the Dissenters may be seen in his ongoing exchanges with Charles Leslie, one of the most effective representatives of Jacobite views in England. Some time during the summer of 1704, Robert Harley decided that Defoe would be more useful as a collector of information within England than as an agent on the Continent.
David Cressy
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199564804
- eISBN:
- 9780191701917
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199564804.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Cultural History
This chapter examines a variety of ‘abusive words’ and the circumstances of their expression. It describes the language of insult between parties, and the damage done by rumour and false news. It ...
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This chapter examines a variety of ‘abusive words’ and the circumstances of their expression. It describes the language of insult between parties, and the damage done by rumour and false news. It looks into the ways in which private exchanges became part of the public transcript using the records of local and national courts, councils, governors, magistrates, and diarists to recover the words that early modern authorities deemed transgressive. In attempting to reconstruct the circumstances of these exchanges in order to eavesdrop on past conversations, it offers a sample of the disorderly speech that came into the courts. The records show antisocial language, insult, and scolding; scandal, slander, defamation, libel; and the spreading of rumour and false news. These were products of social interactions that gave voice to the sins of the tongue.Less
This chapter examines a variety of ‘abusive words’ and the circumstances of their expression. It describes the language of insult between parties, and the damage done by rumour and false news. It looks into the ways in which private exchanges became part of the public transcript using the records of local and national courts, councils, governors, magistrates, and diarists to recover the words that early modern authorities deemed transgressive. In attempting to reconstruct the circumstances of these exchanges in order to eavesdrop on past conversations, it offers a sample of the disorderly speech that came into the courts. The records show antisocial language, insult, and scolding; scandal, slander, defamation, libel; and the spreading of rumour and false news. These were products of social interactions that gave voice to the sins of the tongue.
Kirsten Fischer
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195112436
- eISBN:
- 9780199854271
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195112436.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This chapter examines European American's ideas about race in North Carolina's expanding of the slave society. The damaging rumors of illicit sex that European settlers circulated about each other ...
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This chapter examines European American's ideas about race in North Carolina's expanding of the slave society. The damaging rumors of illicit sex that European settlers circulated about each other reflected and reinforced the racial ideology by which they identified themselves as “white” and as distinct from African Americans. Slanderers who used allegations of interracial sex to malign their wealthier neighbors or to denigrate white women as “whores,” melded together notions of race, class, and gender, implicating each concept in the construction of the others. This chapter discusses in particular how demonstrations of insulting allegations of illicit sex through slander suits aided the construction of racialist thought among European Americans. In the context of North Carolina's growing slave economy, sexual slurs bolstered the racism that accompanied the entrenchment of slavery and this provides a window into the intertwined workings of racial, class, and gender hierarchies.Less
This chapter examines European American's ideas about race in North Carolina's expanding of the slave society. The damaging rumors of illicit sex that European settlers circulated about each other reflected and reinforced the racial ideology by which they identified themselves as “white” and as distinct from African Americans. Slanderers who used allegations of interracial sex to malign their wealthier neighbors or to denigrate white women as “whores,” melded together notions of race, class, and gender, implicating each concept in the construction of the others. This chapter discusses in particular how demonstrations of insulting allegations of illicit sex through slander suits aided the construction of racialist thought among European Americans. In the context of North Carolina's growing slave economy, sexual slurs bolstered the racism that accompanied the entrenchment of slavery and this provides a window into the intertwined workings of racial, class, and gender hierarchies.
David Cressy
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199564804
- eISBN:
- 9780191701917
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199564804.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Cultural History
This chapter shows the difficulty of policing popular sentiments from the reign of James II to the time of Queen Anne. The thirty years from the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion in 1685 to the Jacobite ...
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This chapter shows the difficulty of policing popular sentiments from the reign of James II to the time of Queen Anne. The thirty years from the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion in 1685 to the Jacobite uprising of 1715 gave English men and women no shortage of topics to talk about. An energetic press gave further stimulus to the national conversation, in an age of growing prosperity. Even if convicted of political crimes of the tongue, English men and women were unlikely to suffer gravely. The ancient punishments had fallen into disuse. In most instances a token punishment was enough. The state no longer felt imperiled by dangerous words, so long as those words were not distributed through writing. By the early years of the 18th century the English had freedom to speak as they pleased, provided they steered clear of blasphemy and slander.Less
This chapter shows the difficulty of policing popular sentiments from the reign of James II to the time of Queen Anne. The thirty years from the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion in 1685 to the Jacobite uprising of 1715 gave English men and women no shortage of topics to talk about. An energetic press gave further stimulus to the national conversation, in an age of growing prosperity. Even if convicted of political crimes of the tongue, English men and women were unlikely to suffer gravely. The ancient punishments had fallen into disuse. In most instances a token punishment was enough. The state no longer felt imperiled by dangerous words, so long as those words were not distributed through writing. By the early years of the 18th century the English had freedom to speak as they pleased, provided they steered clear of blasphemy and slander.
Laura Gowing
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207634
- eISBN:
- 9780191677755
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207634.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Social History
The church courts held in St Paul's Cathedral and known across England as ‘the bawdy courts’ administered spiritual justice covering issues ranging from church attendance and Sabbath-keeping to the ...
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The church courts held in St Paul's Cathedral and known across England as ‘the bawdy courts’ administered spiritual justice covering issues ranging from church attendance and Sabbath-keeping to the regulation of sex and marriage. By the early seventeenth century, the deposition books are very largely given over to the meticulous recording of disputes about sexual insult fought largely between and about women. In late sixteenth-century England, slander litigation was increasing in both ecclesiastical and secular courts. In London, defamation rose to high levels in the early sixteenth century. At the same time, another dynamic was shaping the nature of court business: the growth of women litigants. When reconciliation was impossible, the court made its decisions based on depositions about sex and honour, slander and reputation, or marriage and its collapse. At the church courts, the depositions and defences that made up the legal narratives also had a rather different function to that of the examinations of witnesses at the quarter sessions or the assizes. Both litigants and witnesses represented a select sample of the community.Less
The church courts held in St Paul's Cathedral and known across England as ‘the bawdy courts’ administered spiritual justice covering issues ranging from church attendance and Sabbath-keeping to the regulation of sex and marriage. By the early seventeenth century, the deposition books are very largely given over to the meticulous recording of disputes about sexual insult fought largely between and about women. In late sixteenth-century England, slander litigation was increasing in both ecclesiastical and secular courts. In London, defamation rose to high levels in the early sixteenth century. At the same time, another dynamic was shaping the nature of court business: the growth of women litigants. When reconciliation was impossible, the court made its decisions based on depositions about sex and honour, slander and reputation, or marriage and its collapse. At the church courts, the depositions and defences that made up the legal narratives also had a rather different function to that of the examinations of witnesses at the quarter sessions or the assizes. Both litigants and witnesses represented a select sample of the community.
Laura Gowing
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207634
- eISBN:
- 9780191677755
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207634.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Social History
In seventeenth-century London, the church courts were filled by women and men complaining of sexual insult. Brief insults and longer stories about illicit sex were the basis for long and fairly ...
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In seventeenth-century London, the church courts were filled by women and men complaining of sexual insult. Brief insults and longer stories about illicit sex were the basis for long and fairly expensive cases based on the principle that slander damaged a person's reputation. What was so damaging about sexual insult? Why did so many women and men turn to the courts? And how was the gendered morality so integral to insult followed up in the concepts of name, fame, and credit that litigants invoked at court? The meaning of slander — on the streets and in the courts — depended on an intersection of words, law, morals, and honour. The precise connections between insults and dishonour, between slander and morals, and between litigation and reputation, were complicated and variable; and they were shaped at every level by gender.Less
In seventeenth-century London, the church courts were filled by women and men complaining of sexual insult. Brief insults and longer stories about illicit sex were the basis for long and fairly expensive cases based on the principle that slander damaged a person's reputation. What was so damaging about sexual insult? Why did so many women and men turn to the courts? And how was the gendered morality so integral to insult followed up in the concepts of name, fame, and credit that litigants invoked at court? The meaning of slander — on the streets and in the courts — depended on an intersection of words, law, morals, and honour. The precise connections between insults and dishonour, between slander and morals, and between litigation and reputation, were complicated and variable; and they were shaped at every level by gender.
Laura Gowing
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207634
- eISBN:
- 9780191677755
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207634.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Social History
In the legal battles over slander, conjugal commitment, and marital breakdown, complaints and conflicts were articulated through the stories told in court. In and outside the court, these stories ...
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In the legal battles over slander, conjugal commitment, and marital breakdown, complaints and conflicts were articulated through the stories told in court. In and outside the court, these stories reflected the conflicts and adjustments of gender relations in the social and domestic sphere. Legal narratives were told to a judicial audience listening for plausibility: the conventions and formulas they used were ones that made sense in canon law. The whole contest of meanings that characterized litigation at the church courts was one liable to be inflected by gender. In marital disputes, witnesses had to ally themselves either with a man's story or a woman's; and very often, both sides were telling an archetypal version, a man's tale of the betrayals of adultery or a woman's tale of the drama of violence. In court, the stereotypes of men and women that populated familiar stories clashed; at one level, narratives of litigation reveal the mechanics of conflict between gender stereotypes and gendered stories.Less
In the legal battles over slander, conjugal commitment, and marital breakdown, complaints and conflicts were articulated through the stories told in court. In and outside the court, these stories reflected the conflicts and adjustments of gender relations in the social and domestic sphere. Legal narratives were told to a judicial audience listening for plausibility: the conventions and formulas they used were ones that made sense in canon law. The whole contest of meanings that characterized litigation at the church courts was one liable to be inflected by gender. In marital disputes, witnesses had to ally themselves either with a man's story or a woman's; and very often, both sides were telling an archetypal version, a man's tale of the betrayals of adultery or a woman's tale of the drama of violence. In court, the stereotypes of men and women that populated familiar stories clashed; at one level, narratives of litigation reveal the mechanics of conflict between gender stereotypes and gendered stories.
MARION TURNER
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199207893
- eISBN:
- 9780191709142
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199207893.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This book is about discourse and the textual environment of London in the 1380s and 1390s: it is about the language of betrayal, surveillance, slander, treason, rebellion, flawed idealism, and ...
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This book is about discourse and the textual environment of London in the 1380s and 1390s: it is about the language of betrayal, surveillance, slander, treason, rebellion, flawed idealism, and corrupted compaignyes. Texts produced in and around late 14th-century London are everywhere informed by discourses of conflict and social antagonism. The book is interested in the ways that discourses function in different kinds of texts produced at the same time and in exploring how various texts engage with concepts of social fragmentation and breakdown. Geoffrey Chaucer's writings are a lynchpin of this book not because of their canonical status but because these texts are especially concerned with conflict and are unusually open about the impossibility of social amelioration. Thus, while examining discursive representations of social conflict in texts of the late 14th century, this book shows that pessimism about social possibility is everywhere apparent in Chaucer's texts: his writings are dependent on a heart of darkness at their very core.Less
This book is about discourse and the textual environment of London in the 1380s and 1390s: it is about the language of betrayal, surveillance, slander, treason, rebellion, flawed idealism, and corrupted compaignyes. Texts produced in and around late 14th-century London are everywhere informed by discourses of conflict and social antagonism. The book is interested in the ways that discourses function in different kinds of texts produced at the same time and in exploring how various texts engage with concepts of social fragmentation and breakdown. Geoffrey Chaucer's writings are a lynchpin of this book not because of their canonical status but because these texts are especially concerned with conflict and are unusually open about the impossibility of social amelioration. Thus, while examining discursive representations of social conflict in texts of the late 14th century, this book shows that pessimism about social possibility is everywhere apparent in Chaucer's texts: his writings are dependent on a heart of darkness at their very core.
MARION TURNER
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199207893
- eISBN:
- 9780191709142
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199207893.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
London texts of the 1380s betray an insistent anxiety about the power and effects of linguistic conflict. Statutes, proclamations, petitions, and poetry dwell on slander, careless talk, spying ...
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London texts of the 1380s betray an insistent anxiety about the power and effects of linguistic conflict. Statutes, proclamations, petitions, and poetry dwell on slander, careless talk, spying eavesdroppers, and verbal sparring. This chapter examines the Mercers' Petition, Geoffrey Chaucer's poem House of Fame, and some proclamations made in 1380s London. It focuses on the idea of surveillance and on attempts to control what can be said, and discusses the way that violence was played out through language in the 1380s. The chapter also considers the extent to which discourse can rebel against political control. The Mercers' Petition and the House of Fame are both concerned with social antagonism and problems: surveillance, tyranny, the need for private space, and conflict between different points of view are key issues in both texts. However, Chaucer's poem is more open than a document like the petition could be about revealing both the inevitability of tyrannical rulers, and the perennial nature of social conflict, subversive behaviour, and antagonistic voices.Less
London texts of the 1380s betray an insistent anxiety about the power and effects of linguistic conflict. Statutes, proclamations, petitions, and poetry dwell on slander, careless talk, spying eavesdroppers, and verbal sparring. This chapter examines the Mercers' Petition, Geoffrey Chaucer's poem House of Fame, and some proclamations made in 1380s London. It focuses on the idea of surveillance and on attempts to control what can be said, and discusses the way that violence was played out through language in the 1380s. The chapter also considers the extent to which discourse can rebel against political control. The Mercers' Petition and the House of Fame are both concerned with social antagonism and problems: surveillance, tyranny, the need for private space, and conflict between different points of view are key issues in both texts. However, Chaucer's poem is more open than a document like the petition could be about revealing both the inevitability of tyrannical rulers, and the perennial nature of social conflict, subversive behaviour, and antagonistic voices.
Anne Pippin Burnett
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199277940
- eISBN:
- 9780191707841
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199277940.003.0011
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Pindar's ode, Nemean 8, was performed to honour an adolescent boy who had chosen his father's event, the double-stade race, and duplicated his father's mainland victory. The song identifies Aigina, ...
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Pindar's ode, Nemean 8, was performed to honour an adolescent boy who had chosen his father's event, the double-stade race, and duplicated his father's mainland victory. The song identifies Aigina, not with a despised Ajax, but with an admired Aiakos sought out by all as a panhellenic leader. It calls itself a gift brought to this legendary hero-founder in behalf of the island-city that he loves, a city that enjoys a permanence of god-given bliss. These are the announced conditions in which the present performers greet a youth who is entering his first season of love, and its initial tone of rich promise stands in stark contradiction to all readings and chronologies based upon a mistreated Aigina-Ajax and a dishonourable Athens-Odysseus. Here, Pindar gives a moment of poetic life to a jealous slander that killed, then asks, in a responding passage, for the power to distribute praise and blame correctly, thus offering celestial life to splendid actions.Less
Pindar's ode, Nemean 8, was performed to honour an adolescent boy who had chosen his father's event, the double-stade race, and duplicated his father's mainland victory. The song identifies Aigina, not with a despised Ajax, but with an admired Aiakos sought out by all as a panhellenic leader. It calls itself a gift brought to this legendary hero-founder in behalf of the island-city that he loves, a city that enjoys a permanence of god-given bliss. These are the announced conditions in which the present performers greet a youth who is entering his first season of love, and its initial tone of rich promise stands in stark contradiction to all readings and chronologies based upon a mistreated Aigina-Ajax and a dishonourable Athens-Odysseus. Here, Pindar gives a moment of poetic life to a jealous slander that killed, then asks, in a responding passage, for the power to distribute praise and blame correctly, thus offering celestial life to splendid actions.
LAWRENCE ROSEN
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198298854
- eISBN:
- 9780191707452
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198298854.003.0011
- Subject:
- Law, Comparative Law
Western ideas of privacy are less applicable to the Muslim world than are ideas of when something is public. This chapter shows that actions that impact webs of relationship are public and hence ...
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Western ideas of privacy are less applicable to the Muslim world than are ideas of when something is public. This chapter shows that actions that impact webs of relationship are public and hence garner attention, whereas those acts that do not affect relationships are regarded as being of no concern to others. This affects what is seen as slander.Less
Western ideas of privacy are less applicable to the Muslim world than are ideas of when something is public. This chapter shows that actions that impact webs of relationship are public and hence garner attention, whereas those acts that do not affect relationships are regarded as being of no concern to others. This affects what is seen as slander.
