På tvende beene? Eksperiment og virkelighed - Holberg

Bjørn Andersen På tvende beene?
11 - Exkurs: Disraeli
Benjamin Disraeli
[1766-1848]
It is curious to contrast this fact with another better known,
under the reign of William III.; then the press had obtained its
perfect freedom, and even the shadow of the sovereign could
not pass between an author and his work. When the Danish
ambassador complained to the king of the freedom which Lord
Molesworth had exercised on his master’s government, in his
Account of Denmark; and hinted that, if a Dane had done the
same with the King of England, he would, on complaint, have
taken the author’s head off: “That I cannot do,” replied the
sovereign of a free people; “but, if you please, I will tell him
what you say, and he shall put it into the next edition of his
book.” What an immense interval between the feelings of
Elizabeth and William, with hardly a century betwixt them!
'Disraeli' ifølge:
http://www.spamula.net/col/archives/2005/09/licensers_of_the_press.html
Chr. H. Brasch har på det bestemteste afvist anekdoten i: Om
Robert Molesworth's Skrift "An Accound of Denmark as it was
in the year 1692", København 1879, s. 57 ff. Efter Brasch's
opfattelse bærer anekdoten tydelige mærker af at være det
rene opspind - dels fordi den danske konge, i dette tilfælde
Christian 5', ikke uden videre kunne lade nogen henrette, dels
fordi beretningen ikke stemmer overens med hvad