The Shortest Way with the Dissenters

Defoe was prompted to write the pamphlet by the increased hostility towards Dissenters in the wake of the accession of Queen Anne to the throne.

The pamphlet raised embarrassing questions about the handling of the issue by the Tory ministry, and led to Defoe's arrest for seditious libel.

[2] Figures such as Henry Sacheverell, a high church clergyman, warned against Dissenters assuming positions of political power.

The Cock, lacking any perch in the stable, is forced to rest on the ground and in fear of the Horses moving around and stepping on him, advises: "Pray, Gentlefolks!

The next section accuses the Dissenters of involvement with various notorious and hideous events of the past century, including the English Civil War and Monmouth's Rebellion.

Paul Alkon describes the critical tradition surrounding the work as "asking mainly whether it is inadequate irony, deficient satire, or misused impersonation.

"[7] The difficulty for Defoe's contemporaries in assessing whether the work was ironic was the proximity of the speaker's voice to that of the High Anglicans whose views are being ridiculed.

This resulted in the issuing of a warrant by the High Tory Secretary of State for the Southern Department, the Earl of Nottingham, for the arrest of Defoe on the charge of seditious libel, the order being given to "… make Strict and diligent Search for Daniel Fooe and him having found you are to apprehend and seize together with his Papers for high Crime and misdemeanours and to bring him before me …"[12] Defoe was finally imprisoned on 21 May 1703, after avoiding his summons and evading capture.

He was fined, made to stand in the pillory on three occasions and remained in prison until November; in the meantime, his business affairs sank into ruin.

[14] The Shortest Way is frequently contrasted with another work of irony in the eighteenth century, which is considered to have succeeded in its use of the device, Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal (1729).