'Ye Toried round the nation': an analysis of markers of interactive-involved discourse in 17th century political broadside ballads

In this paper I shall investigate markers of interactive-involved discourse in Royalist broadside ballads and highlight their strategic function as builders and bearers of ideological consensus within a heterogeneous cross-section of English society. I shall also consider the direct reporting of other characters' speech, showing how the authorial authenticity of their idiom reinforced the validity of the author's political claim. The analysis reveals that some of the propaganda principles of modern journalism were already at work in the ideologically-oriented discourse of 17th century cheap-print.