Imagining the king's death
Subtitle: figurative treason, fantasies of regicide, 1793-1796
By: John Barrell.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2000
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 737
Subjects: George III, King of Great Britain, 1738-1820 -- Assassination attempts; George III, King of Great Britain, 1738-1820 -- In literature; English literature -- 18th century -- History and criticism; Politics and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century; Trials (Treason) -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century; Regicides -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century; Treason -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century; Kings and rulers in literature; Regicides in literature; Treason in literature; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1789-1820
Description: "It is high treason in British law to 'imagine' the king's death. But after the execution of Louis XVI in 1793, everyone in Britain must have found themselves imagining that the same fate might befall George III. How easy was it to distinguish between fantasizing about the death of George and 'imagining' it, in the legal sense of 'intending' or 'designing'? John Barrell examines this question in the context of the political trials of the mid-1790s and the controversies they generated. He shows how the law of treason was adapted in the years following Louis's death to punish what was acknowledged to be a 'modern' form of treason unheard of when the law had been framed. The result, he argues, was the invention of a new, an imaginary, a 'figurative' treason, by which the question of who was imagining the king's death, the supposed traitors or those who charged them with treason, became inescapable."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [661]-716) and index.