Jenner, Mark and Liapi, Lena (2022) Cheap print, crime and information in early modern London: The Life and Death of Griffin Flood. The Seventeenth Century. ISSN 0268-117X
Abstract
This article centres on the pamphlet The Life and Death of Griffin Flood informer (1623), which tells the career and execution through pressing of an informer and murderer working in early modern London. It outlines what archival research reveals about this figure, and thereby re-examines how far crime pamphlets were rooted in social actuality. Secondly, it shows that The Life and Death does not follow what historians have identified as the conventions of rogue literature and murder pamphlets, and that scholars’ treatment of cheap print has often overlooked its generic instability and inconsistency of tone. Finally, it highlights how the representation of Flood’s career as an informer casts new light on attitudes towards non-citizens within early modern London. The article concludes by arguing that The Life and Death (and many similar pamphlets) invoked communitarian understandings of justice, and emphasized neighbourliness, social peace, and charity, rather than the themes of redemption and divine retribution.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 The Author(s) |
Keywords: | Crime; early modern London; informers; pamphlets; print culture; neighbourliness |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Arts and Humanities (York) > History (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 12 Dec 2022 11:40 |
Last Modified: | 03 Jan 2025 00:17 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1080/0268117X.2022.2144939 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/0268117X.2022.2144939 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:194312 |
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Filename: Cheap_print_crime_and_information_in_early_modern_London_The_Life_and_Death_of_Griffin_Flood.pdf
Description: Cheap print crime and information in early modern London The Life and Death of Griffin Flood
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