Swearing is an everyday part of the language of most speakers of modern English. This corpus-informed account describes swearing and its social function, with a particular focus on the relationship between swearing and abuse.

The Jacobean Spenserian poets, William Browne, George Wither, and Christopher Brooke represented themselves as a distinctive oppositional community in the years 1612 to 1625. The author examines the group's response to contemporary political events.

This 2001 book examines the ways in which books were produced, read and received during the reign of King James I. It challenges prevailing attitudes that press censorship in Jacobean England differed little from either the 'whole machinery of control' enacted by the Court of Star Chamber under Elizabeth or the draconian campaign implemented by Archbishop Laud, during the reign of Charles I. Cyndia Clegg, building on her earlier study Press Censorship in Elizabethan England, contends that although the principal mechanisms for controlling the press altered little between 1558 and 1603, the actual practice of censorship under King James I varied significantly from Elizabethan practice. The book combines historical analysis of documents with literary reading of censored texts and exposes the kinds of tensions that really mattered in Jacobean culture. It will be an invaluable resource for literary scholars and historians alike.

A History of Seventeenth-Century Literature outlines significant developments in the English literary tradition between the years 1603 and 1690. An energetic and provocative history of English literature from 1603-1690. Part of the major Blackwell History of English Literature series. Locates seventeenth-century English literature in its social and cultural contexts. Considers the physical conditions of literary production and consumption. Looks at the complex political, religious, cultural and social pressures on seventeenth-century writers. Features close critical engagement with major authors and texts Thomas Corns is a major international authority on Milton, the Caroline Court, and the political literature of the English Civil War and the Interregnum.

Starting in 1189 with Sir Robert Wyther of Pendleton Hall in Lancashire, the book traces, down through the ages the history and spread of the Wither family throughout England and around the world. It includes extracts from Ancient Documents, Historical Manuscripts, Domestic State Papers, Parish Registers and Wills. Because of the countless number of descendants, it is by no means a comprehensive history of the Wither family. It is however a valuable resource to family historians.