Mammon's Music: Literature and Economics in the Age of MiltonYale University Press, 2008 M10 1 - 336 pages The commercial revolution of the seventeenth century deeply changed English culture. In this ambitious book, Blair Hoxby explores what that economic transformation meant to the century’s greatest poet, John Milton, and to the broader literary tradition in which he worked. Hoxby places Milton’s work—as well as the writings of contemporary reformers like the Levellers, poets like John Dryden, and political economists like Sir William Petty—within the framework of England’s economic history between 1601 and 1724. Literary history swerved in this period, Hoxby demonstrates, as a burgeoning economic discourse pressed authors to reimagine ideas about self, community, and empire. Hoxby shows that, contrary to commonly held views, Milton was a sophisticated economic thinker. Close readings of Milton’s prose and verse reveal the importance of economic ideas in a wide range of his most famous writings, from Areopagitica to Samson Agonistes to Paradise Lost. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 30
Page 5
... authority in part because it hailed from a discipline in the making . It would not be until the beginning of the eighteenth century that John Cary could de- clare complacently , “ Trade has its principles as other sciences have , ” but ...
... authority in part because it hailed from a discipline in the making . It would not be until the beginning of the eighteenth century that John Cary could de- clare complacently , “ Trade has its principles as other sciences have , ” but ...
Page 6
... authority of the Bible in their tracts , even if they preferred to appeal to the precedent set by biblical figures like King Solomon when advocating policies . A Puritan like Worsley , who served as Secretary to the Commonwealth's ...
... authority of the Bible in their tracts , even if they preferred to appeal to the precedent set by biblical figures like King Solomon when advocating policies . A Puritan like Worsley , who served as Secretary to the Commonwealth's ...
Page 12
... authority responsible for Samson's “ rouzing motions . ” What is at stake is nothing less than the formative influence of economic principles and economic forces on the public sphere - an influence that Milton now conceives in very ...
... authority responsible for Samson's “ rouzing motions . ” What is at stake is nothing less than the formative influence of economic principles and economic forces on the public sphere - an influence that Milton now conceives in very ...
Page 20
... authority for Comus's speech is the par- able of the talents ( Matt . 25 : 14–30 ) , in which a master praises those ser- vants who “ traded ” with the talents he gave them and casts into outer darkness the unprofitable servant who hid ...
... authority for Comus's speech is the par- able of the talents ( Matt . 25 : 14–30 ) , in which a master praises those ser- vants who “ traded ” with the talents he gave them and casts into outer darkness the unprofitable servant who hid ...
Page 26
... authority in August 1644 , when they pursued him for the unlicensed publication of his divorce tracts.2 In Are- opagitica , Milton responded not just with a vindication of liberty in the face of oppression but with a model of ...
... authority in August 1644 , when they pursued him for the unlicensed publication of his divorce tracts.2 In Are- opagitica , Milton responded not just with a vindication of liberty in the face of oppression but with a model of ...
Contents
1 | |
15 | |
57 | |
Part Three Force Commerce and Empire | 125 |
Part Four The Meaning of Work | 201 |
Conclusion | 233 |
Abbreviations | 253 |
Notes | 255 |
Index | 311 |
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Amboyna Amsterdam Annus Mirabilis arch Areopagitica argued arguments Benjamin Worsley Book Cambridge University Press century chap chapter Charles Davenant Charles II Charles II's City claim commercial common Commonwealth Comus Comus's contemporary Court Crown Davenant Davenant's discourse Dryden Dutch early Stuarts East India Company economic empire England English Englishmen entrepôt epic force and commerce free trade George Wither Gerbier ideal Indies industry interest James John king labor liberty lines London Lord Masque merchants Milton monarchy monopolists monopoly nation natural naval nomic Oxford pamphlet panegyrics Paradise Lost Parliament Philistines poem poem's poets policies political Princeton Puritan Readie and Easie reformers religious republicans Restoration Revolution royal entry Royalist Rump Rump's Samson Agonistes Satan Second Anglo-Dutch Second Anglo-Dutch War ships Sir William slavery slaves subjects suggest texts thir Third Anglo-Dutch War Thomas tion Towerson tracts tradition truth United Provinces verse vision vols Waller wealth