"This book discusses a central chapter in the history of free speech in the western world. The nature and limits of freedom of speech prompted sophisticated debate in a wide range of areas in the early seventeenth century; it was one of the 'liberties of the subject' fought for by individuals and groups across the political landscape. Discussions of free speech raised serious questions about what it meant to live in a free state, and how far England was from being such a state. Examining a wide range of sources, from rhetorical handbooks to Parliamentary speeches and manuscript miscellanies, David Colclough demonstrates how freedom of speech was conceived positively in the period c. 1603-28, rather than being defined in opposition to acts of censorship.

Attending to the importance of context and decorum, this major contribution to Ideas in Context recovers a tradition of free speech that has been obscured in studies of the evolution of universal rights."--BOOK JACKET.