Petals of praise

When Daniel Defoe was pilloried for sarcasm

On this day in 1703, Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe, was put in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel. That’s an engraving above of Defoe in the pillory.

The year before, William III had died—the same William after whom Williamsburg, Virginia is named—and Queen Anne took over, immediately targeting Protestants who did not conform to the Church of England. They were known as Nonconformists.

Defoe had written a pamphlet in 1702 titled, The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters; Or, Proposals for the Establishment of the Church, in which he satirized the conformists by calling for the extermination of all Nonconformists.

His opponents didn’t get the joke. He was arrested, charged with seditious libel and pilloried. But the public wasn’t about to hate on Defoe for the crime of sarcasm.

According to legend, when they put Defoe in the pillory and the audience gathered round, instead of throwing rotten fruit and trash as folks would often do, they threw flowers and drank to his health.

The moral of the story? As I wrote yesterday about Popovic and irreverent protest, fascists have no sense of humor. More generally, never be surprised when people in power freak out over nothing but never lose faith that most folks are decent and fair.

So here’s to Defoe who opened his mouth and was thrown to the wolves but when the wolves circled round, he was pelted with flowers of praise.