ABSTRACT
In this chapter I wish to examine the signicance of textual structure in the narration of contemporaneity in seventeenth-century English news. Focusing on printed periodical news between 1620 and 1660 I shall analyze salient textual features in English corantos of the 1620s and 1630s and newsbooks of the English Civil War and Interregnum. My analysis will concentrate on news reports revolving around a monothematic story and amounting to at least 100 words. By “monothematic” I mean news stories which despite having one or more sub-themes nevertheless revolve around one central topic.
