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Exceedingly rare newsbook from the English Civil War...
Exceedingly rare newsbook from the English Civil War...
Item # 692556
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November 22, 1648
MERCURIUS ELENCTICUS Communicating the Unparallell'd Proceedings at Westminster, the Head-quarter, and other Places, discovering their Designes, reproving their Crimes, and advising the Kingdome, London, November 22, 1648. An exceedingly rare newsbook (predecessor of today's newspapers) from during the English Civil War.
Information as provided on online notes this title was published by Sir George Wharton, who took the pen name George Naworth. As a royalist pamphleteer and newsbook editor, he wrote Mercurius Elencticus. Mocking Parliament, it carried biographical material on its leaders. When Wharton was imprisoned, it continued with help from Samuel Sheppard. Joseph Frank in his 'The Beginnings of the English Newspaper 1620-1660 notes in part: "...Mercurius Elenticus...Authored by one of the more experience Royalists...it also achieved a high pitch of denunciatory vehemence, even if its voice was more monotonous than that of its fellows..."
Among the war-related reports is a note on the back page: "Sunday (being the Birth-day of our Soveraigne Lord King Charles) was celebrated in London with abundance of joy, by ringing the bells and making of bonfires, to the great comfort of all Loyall Subjects and to the hearty grief of the Rebellious Tribe who are never more perplexed and skittish than when they year of any thing done or said in honour of His Majesty..." with more.
The photos show the full text of this issue.
Complete in 8 pages, 6 by 7 1/2 inches with wide, untrimmed margins, nice condition.
Category: The 1600's and 1700's
No Longer Available
