Hundreds of libellous poems about murder, corruption and thunderous farting in Parliament have been brought into the open for the first time in 400 years by an academic at Exeter University, writes Anna Fazackerley.
Despite tough censorship laws, there was an underground outpouring of scurrilous political poetry and songs in the early Stuart period leading up to the English Civil War in 1640 - writing that could have landed its anonymous authors in prison or worse.
Andrew McRae, professor of Renaissance studies at Exeter, and Alastair Bellamy of Rutgers University in New Jersey, have trawled private archives to place 350 of these libellous verses on the web.
Professor McRae said: "To libel a figure of state was a criminal offence so it wasn't just a risk of being sued. The court of the star chamber could impose severe penalties including corporal punishment, fines and imprisonment."
His collection taps into a secret poetry movement, in which libellous material was passed from person to person and read in private.
"Many of the poems are personalised attacks, which are seditious or sexual in nature, but others are quite thoughtful in promoting ideas of reform and republicanism," he explained.
One of the most popular underground poems of the period was The Censure of the Parliament Fart . This comic satire was inspired by Henry Ludlow's famous breaking of wind in the Houses of Parliament in 1607, which threw a serious debate on the naturalisation of the Scots into turmoil.
In 1612 the death of Robert Cecil, Treasurer to King James, produced a flood of libellous epitaphs. Writers focused on his bodily decay and stench, supposedly caused by a fatal dose of syphilis.
But the authors of these poems will remain a mystery. Professor McRae said:
"There clearly were significant writers involved in the writing of libels but they kept their heads down. Almost all the poems are anonymous."
It is extremely rare for such a large collection of previously unpublished work to be made freely available on the web and it is hoped that the database will become an important tool for academics. The project was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
The database can be accessed at: http:///purl.oclc.org/emls/texts/libels/