The Devil in Disguise illuminates the impact of the two British
revolutions of the seventeenth century and the shifts in religious,
political, scientific, literary, economic, social, and moral culture
that they brought about. It does so through the fascinating story of
one family and their locality: the Cowpers of Hertford. Their dramatic
history contains a murder mystery, bigamy, a scandal novel, and a
tyrannized wife, all set against a backdrop of violently competing
local factions, rampant religious prejudice, and the last conviction
of a witch in England. Spencer Cowper was accused of murdering a
Quaker, and his brother William had two illegitimate children by his
second 'wife'. Their scandalous lives became the source of public
gossip, much to the horror of their mother, Sarah, who poured out her
heart in a diary that also chronicles her feeling of being enslaved to
her husband. Her two sons remained in the limelight. Both were
instrumental in the prosecution of Henry Sacheverell, a firebrand
cleric who preached a sermon about the illegitimacy of resistance and
religious toleration. His parliamentary trial in 1710 provoked serious
riots in London. William Cowper also intervened in 1712 to secure the
life of Jane Wenham, whose trial provoked a wide-ranging debate about
witchcraft beliefs. The Cowpers and their town are a microcosm of a
changing world. Their story suggests that an early 'Enlightenment',
far from being simply a movement of ideas sparked by 'great thinkers',
was shaped and advanced by local and personal struggles.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780191624971
Publisert
2020
Utgiver
Vendor
OUP Oxford
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter