Press Censorship in Jacobean England

by Cyndia Susan Clegg

"Press Censorship in Jacobean England examines the ways in which books were produced, read, and received during the reign of King James I. The book challenges prevailing attitudes that press censorship in Jacobean England differed little from either the "whole machinery of control" enacted by the Court of Star Chamber under Elizabeth or the draconian campaign implemented by Archbishop Laud during the reign of Charles I. Cyndia Clegg, building on her earlier study Press Censorship in Elizabethan England, contends that although the principal mechanisms for controlling the press altered little between 1558 and 1603, the actual practice of censorship under King James I varied significantly from Elizabethan practice. This was both because the monarch took greater interest in the press and because the law courts, the people, and parliament expressed in print different views on the day's political and religious issues." "The book combines historical analysis of documents with literary reading