Mark Rose

Copyright, authors and censorship

The period from 1695 to 1830, from the lapse of the Licensing Act to the eve of the Reform Bill, thus saw major transformations in the legal culture within which the book trade operated. When the guild system was supplanted by the Statute of Anne, however, the great booksellers managed to maintain control of their valuable old copyrights for the better part of a century until in 1774 the House of Lords declared copyright to be limited in term. Instead of basing the term of copyright protection solely on publication, the Act related it to the authors life by providing protection for twenty-eight years or the life of the author, whichever was longer. This marked a major conceptual evolution in copyright. The lapse of the Licensing Act ended pre-publication censorship and radically changed the power of the state to regulate the press, but it did not totally end regulation.

Othello's Occupation: Shakespeare and the Romance of Chivalry

0 now, for ever Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content! Farewell the plumed troops, and the big wars That makes ambition virtue! 0, farewell! Farewell the neighng steed and the shrill trump, The spirit-stirring drum, th’ ear-piercing fife, The royal banner, and all quality, Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war! And 0 you mortal engines, whose rude throats Th’ immortal Jove’s dread clamors counterfeit, Farewell! Othello’s occupation’s gone.’

Hamlet and the Shape of Revenge

IKE iiiost tragcdics, l>crliips Iikc cvcry tragcdy. Hmrr/ct is a play about tlic h i t s iiiiposccl t i p i tlic iiiortal will, a play ahout tlic L various rcstrictioiis that flcsli is licir to. I’olonius spcaks to Ophclia ofttic “tctlicr” with which I Iaiitlct walks aiitl tlic iiiirgc is a uscful onc to kccy in i i h d for it siiggcsts both that tlic priiicc docs liavc a dcgrcc of frectloin a i d that ultiiiiatcly lic is bouiid. Lqcrtcs cautions Opliclia in a similar inaniicr aiid dcvclops iiiorc cxplicitly tlic litnits 011 I-Iamlet’s frccdoni. Tlie princc’s “will is not his own,” Laertcs says,