The Bull and the Moon: Broadside Ballads and the Public Sphere at the Time of the Northern Rising (1569-70).

This article discusses a series of broadside ballads which report and interpret news arriving in London during the Northern Rising and its aftershocks (1569–70). The ballads share a distinctive motif (heraldic allegory) which allows the evolution of their representational tactics to be traced with some accuracy. Close parallels to the language and chronology of the ballads can also be found in publications linked directly to the Privy Council and in the State Papers—in royal proclamations and a letter to the Queen from Leicester. The evidence adduced is used to provide further detail for our evolving understanding of how a prototype of the public sphere developed in post-Reformation England, and how literary techniques for attracting readers and for apostrophizing the popular voice were used by authors sympathetic to Privy Council directives. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]