Wednesday, February 25, 2009

February 25: Punished for Too Sharp a Wit (Vol. 27, pp. 133-147)

On this day in 1703, an essay by Daniel Dafoe, "The Shortest-Way with Dissenters," was censored by the royal authorities. Three centuries later, a modern reader would wonder what the fuss is about. Dafoe's contemporaries were not as sanguine, as he was fined, imprisoned and pilloried for writing this essay.

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