Trollers and Dreamers: Defining the Citizen-Subject in Sixteenth-Century Cheap Print

Abstract

This chapter examines two contentions conducted through broadsides and short pamphlets: the first, between Thomas Smyth, William Gray, and others in 1540 reacts to the fall of Cromwell and debates the religious identity of a loyal subject; the second, dating from around 1551, between Thomas Churchyard, Thomas Camell, and others, argues about who can critique authority. These controversies reveal how Tudor authors utilized cheap print to engage with contemporary politics; in doing so, these writers not only comment on matters of state, they also define their role, as citizens and subjects, within the polity whose affairs they feel able and compelled to discuss.