Chapter 2 Ballads, Libels and Popular Ridicule in Jacobean England
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Abstract
This analysis recovers the derogatory poems and ballads concocted by people in their local communities for the purposes of mocking and humiliating their neighbours. The essay draws on the legal records of the period, particularly those from the court of Star Chamber, 1603–25, in which the victims of such derogation sued their assailants for libel. These judicial proceedings enable the recovery of the offending texts, given in evidence, and shed valuable light on the circumstances of their composition and dissemination. Such crude rhymes and songs were usually scrawled on pieces of paper, posted in public, and distributed in places of common resort, illustrating the efficacy of manuscript circulation at this time. They were sometimes set to popular tunes and amplified by musical accompaniment. On occasion they can be shown to draw on the figures and features of broadside ballads, and demonstrate the reciprocal infusion of oral, scribal and print culture.