  The image of the puritan as a dour and repressive character has been central to ways of reading sixteenth- and seventeenth-century history and literature. Kristen Poole's original study challenges this perception arguing that radical reformers were most often portrayed in literature of the period as deviant, licentious and transgressive. Through extensive analysis of early modern pamphlets, sermons, poetry and plays, the fictional puritan emerges as a grotesque and carnivalesque figure. By recovering this lost satirical image, Poole sheds new light on the social role played by anti-puritan rhetoric.
Study of religious non-conformity in late sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England.|
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viii | |
| Acknowledgements |
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x | |
| Note on the text |
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xiii | |
| Introduction: deforming Reformation |
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1 | (15) |
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The puritan in the alehouse: Falstaff and the drama of Martin Marprelate |
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16 | (29) |
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Eating disorder: feasting, fasting, and the puritan bellygod at Bartholomew Fair |
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45 | (29) |
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Lewd conversations: the perversions of the Family of Love |
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74 | (30) |
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Dissecting sectarianism: swarms, forms, and Thomas Edwards's Gangrana |
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104 | (20) |
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The descent of dissent: monstrous genealogies and Milton's antiprelatical tracts |
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124 | (23) |
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Not so much as fig leaves: Adamites, naked Quakers, linguistic perfection and Paradise Lost |
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147 | (35) |
| Epilogue: the fortunes of Hudibras |
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182 | (5) |
| Notes |
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187 | (54) |
| Selected bibliography of pamphlets and sermons |
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241 | (17) |
| Index |
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258 | |
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