SALON

Wednesday, May 22, 2002 7:00 PM UTC

Literary Daybook, May 22

Real and imaginary events of interest to readers.

By

Topics: Books, Richard Blumenthal,

Today in fiction

On May 22, Rathbone makes his debut as a stage hypnotist.
— “Sugar + Rum” (1988)
by Barry Unsworth

From “The Book of Fictional Days”
Know when something that did not really happen
occurred? Send it to fictiondays@yahoo.com.

- – - – - – - – - – -

Today in Literary History
On this day in 1703, Daniel Defoe was arrested for writing his satirical pamphlet “The Shortest Way With Dissenters.” Defoe was neither Church of England nor Catholic, but a Protestant “Nonconformist” or “Dissenter.” “The Shortest Way With Dissenters” was supposed to be funny, a satire of the overzealous Anglican Tories currently in power. They had recently passed the Occasional Conformity Bill requiring everyone in political office or on the public payroll to practice Anglican worship. Defoe’s anonymously written pamphlet suggested that enforcing the bill was a needless waste of time; wouldn’t the shortest way with Dissenters be to execute them, and be done with it?

“‘Tis vain to trifle in this matter! The light, foolish handling of them by mulcts, fines, etc., ’tis their glory and advantage! If the gallows instead of the Counter, and the galleys instead of the fine were the reward of going to [their places of worship], there would not be so many sufferers! The spirit of martyrdom is over!”

Defoe soon found out that he had broken the cardinal rule for satire: He hadn’t gone far enough. Many radical Anglicans, assuming that one of them had written the pamphlet, thought it a pretty good argument, and spoke out in favor of execution. Many Dissenters already holding political office were so alarmed, and so eager to hold on to their power as well as their heads, that they readily conformed to the bill, going very publicly to Anglican Chapel in the morning, and then very privately to Dissenter worship in the afternoon — a practice that Defoe called “playing Bo-Peep with God Almighty.”

When everyone realized they had been duped, and by Defoe, he was thrown into Newgate for “seditious libel” and eventually sentenced to three days in the pillory. As a hostile crowd had savagely stoned another pamphleteer a few weeks earlier, this was no bargain. Out of defiance or strategy, Defoe hurriedly composed “Hymn To The Pillory,” a vicious satire of those who had sent him there. It was smuggled out of Newgate and printed in time to be hawked to the crowd during his three-day ordeal. The London mob so enjoyed the poem, and so admired the man who had dared to cheek the high and mighty, that they drank Defoe’s health, and decked his pillory with flowers.

– Steve King

To find out more about “Today in Literary History,” e-mail Steve King.

More the Salon Books Editors.

More .

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • A missing poster hangs on a tree outside the Cleveland home of Amanda Berry Wednesday. Berry and two other women, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus, made a daring escape this week after being held captive for more than a decade.
    Credit: AP/Tony Dejak

  • Elvis Rafael Rodriguez and Emir Yasser Yeje offer their best impression of  Eric B. & Rakim. On Thursday, New York prosecutors identified the pair as members of an international gang that robbed $45 million in a matter of hours by hacking into a database of prepaid debit cards and draining ATM machines around the world.
    Credit: AP

  • New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie walks to a podium during the groundbreaking ceremony for the Technology Enhanced Accelerated Learning Center at Essex County Newark Tech in Newark, N.J., Tuesday. Christie made less flattering headlines this week after undergoing a secret stomach surgery to curb his weight.
    Credit: AP/Julio Cortez

  • Workers stand outside the Tung Hai Sweater Ltd. factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday after a fire broke out in its 11-story building. Eight people were killed in the blaze.
    Credit: AP/Ismail Ferdous

  • Workers rescue a woman trapped for 17 days in the rubble of a garment factory building in Saver, Bangladesh, Friday. The building's collapse was the worst industrial disaster in the country's history, killing more than 1,000 people.
    Credit: AP

  • Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford gives his victory speech Tuesday in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., after winning back his old congressional seat in the state's first district.
    Credit: AP/Rainier Ehrhardt

  • Jodi Arias reacts in Maricopa Country Superior Court Wednesday after being found guilty of first-degree murder in the gruesome killing of her one-time boyfriend, Travis Alexander. Arias has subsequently said she wants the death penalty, claiming she'd "prefer to die sooner than later."
    Credit: AP/The Arizona Republic/Rob Schumacher

  • Ariel Castro stands for his mug shot Thursday at the Cuyahoga County Corrections Center, where he is being held on $8 million bail. The former bus driver is accused of imprisoning three young women and beating them repeatedly over a period of 10 years.
    Credit: AP/Cuyahoga County

  • Charles Ramsey addresses the media Monday after helping rescue three women held captive in Cleveland for more than a decade. Ramsey's hero portraiture has been complicated by revelations of his own domestic violence record.
    Credit: AP/The Plain Dealer/Scott Shaw

  • Michael B. Donley, Secretary of the Air Force, testifies during a Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday. The military branch was rocked this week after its chief sexual assault prevention officer was charged with sexual battery.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations