ABSTRACT This article discusses Anglo-Dutch recusant polemicist and publisher Richard Verstegan’s concern with the misuse of language and its impact on society, reflected in his religious–polemical publications. An analysis of pamphlets ascribed to Verstegan reveals that he acknowledged the existence of a close link between the misuse of power in Elizabethan England and the misuse of language. The former impacted linguistic communication through the foisting on English society of propaganda based on deliberate disinformation, and through the limiting of free speech. In his pamphlets, Verstegan used elements of mystification characteristic of the convention of ‘epistolary fiction’. In the final part of this article, therefore, an answer is provided to the question whether such a literary strategy may be classified as a form of misuse of language.

中文翻译：

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从宣传到拒绝言论自由：英荷政治家理查德·韦斯特甘（Richard Verstegan）的著作中的政治和伊丽莎白时代的英格兰语言滥用（c。1550–1640）

摘要本文讨论了盎格鲁荷兰人的消极辩论家和出版商理查德·韦斯特甘（Richard Verstegan）对语言滥用及其对社会的影响的关注，这在他的宗教辩论出版物中得到了反映。对Verstegan的小册子进行的分析表明，他承认英格兰伊丽莎白时代的权力滥用和语言滥用之间存在着密切的联系。前者通过基于故意虚假信息的宣传社会的拥护以及对言论自由的限制，影响了语言交流。Verstegan在其小册子中使用了“书信小说”惯例的神秘化元素。因此，在本文的最后一部分中，对以下问题提供了答案：是否可以将这种文学策略归类为滥用语言的形式。