Literate and political early modern England was a socially diverse nation to which London's theaters contributed politically inflected art and entertainment; torture, murder, and infidelity were graphically depicted on the stage. This study of violation explores the connections between these theatrical representations and the use of violation imagery in a range of public and private discourses, from Protestant polemic, parliamentary legislation, and political pamphlets, to aristocratic letters, royalist fiction, and "regicidal" histories.