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3 - Texts in conflict

the press and the Civil War

from Part 1 - Contexts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2006

N. H. Keeble
Affiliation:
University of Stirling
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Summary

In 1640, the bookseller George Thomason purchased 22 printed titles; in 1642, he purchased well over 2,000. To him, something new and extraordinary was happening in the press no less than in politics or on the battlefield. With a passion that was historical and not strictly bibliographical, Thomason collected as many specimens as was possible of each publication emerging in the volatile Civil War period. Thomason, a Presbyterian and friend of the poet and polemicist John Milton, was a leading stationer who sympathized with Parliament during the Civil War. Though Thomason was rewarded by Parliament for his importation of foreign books, he became increasingly royalist from 1647 onwards, as did many Presbyterians in the wake of the King's surrender. Arrested in 1651, he was imprisoned for seven weeks in connection with a Presbyterian plot to bring in Charles II; after 1651 he played no role in politics. With the coming of the Restoration, Thomason pledged his oath of allegiance to the monarchy. Thomason ended his collection of pamphlets soon after the coronation of Charles II, 23 April 1661, with a few pamphlets dribbling in until the last in December of that year, as if Thomason was recognizing, or hoping, that an era had come to an end.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2001

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  • Texts in conflict
  • Edited by N. H. Keeble, University of Stirling
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Writing of the English Revolution
  • Online publication: 28 May 2006
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521642523.004
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  • Texts in conflict
  • Edited by N. H. Keeble, University of Stirling
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Writing of the English Revolution
  • Online publication: 28 May 2006
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521642523.004
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Texts in conflict
  • Edited by N. H. Keeble, University of Stirling
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Writing of the English Revolution
  • Online publication: 28 May 2006
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521642523.004
Available formats
×