Poetics of the Pillory

On the lapse of the Licensing Act in 1695, Thomas Macaulay wrote in his History of England, ''English literature was emancipated, and emancipated for ever, from the control of the government''. It''s certainly true that the system of prior restraint enshrined in this Restoration measure was now at an end, at least for print. Yet the same cannot be said of government control, which came to operate ...