Scandal! An 18th century drama of micro-blogging and super injunctions

Is there nothing that can stop the spread of scandal in the digital age? Whether false or true, gossip has always been a fact of human social life in all its destructive and revelatory forms. The supposed hey-dey of Habermas’ public sphere was in the coffee shops of Georgian London. But if we believe the great dramatist of that age, they were talking about sex more than politics, trade and culture.