Anna Barbauld, Civic Sermons to the People

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Anna Barbauld’s

Civic Sermons to the People

(Number I), written in the summer of 1792, responds directly to the

Royal Proclamation Against Seditious Writings and Publications

, which was issued by England’s King George III on 21 May 1792. As with her other notable political pamphlets, namely

Sins of Government, Sins of the Nation

(1793) and

An Address to the Opposers of the Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts

(1790), Barbauld entered the sphere of public discourse to register her discontent with the political climate, especially as manifested in royal decrees. Anna Barbauld, née Aikin (1743-1825), gained initial literary acclaim in 1773 for her first commercial publication,

Poems

. By eighteenth-century standards, the collection was a runaway hit, going through four editions in the…

4525 words

Citation: Krawczyk, Scott. "Civic Sermons to the People". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 November 2015 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5957, accessed 19 March 2024.]

5957 Civic Sermons to the People 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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