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
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Page 3
... claim that the king could determine and enforce the value of his own coins and that merchants who sent coin abroad in order to profit from exchange were pursuing their own gain at the ex- pense of the commonwealth , Misselden argued ...
... claim that the king could determine and enforce the value of his own coins and that merchants who sent coin abroad in order to profit from exchange were pursuing their own gain at the ex- pense of the commonwealth , Misselden argued ...
Page 6
... claiming to reduce all to number , weight , and measure , he asked readers to remember that God had “ ordered all things in measure and number and weight " ( Wisd . of Sol . 11:20 ) .2 If economic discourse derived some of its cultural ...
... claiming to reduce all to number , weight , and measure , he asked readers to remember that God had “ ordered all things in measure and number and weight " ( Wisd . of Sol . 11:20 ) .2 If economic discourse derived some of its cultural ...
Page 7
... and money is as old as Zeno , as Marc Shell has observed , and it remained . current in seventeenth - century England.28 That is why Michel Drayton claimed in a poem that the Goldsmiths presented to James INTRODUCTION 7.
... and money is as old as Zeno , as Marc Shell has observed , and it remained . current in seventeenth - century England.28 That is why Michel Drayton claimed in a poem that the Goldsmiths presented to James INTRODUCTION 7.
Page 8
Literature and Economics in the Age of Milton Blair Hoxby. claimed in a poem that the Goldsmiths presented to James I ... claim that because " all literary works are composed of tropic exchanges , ” they can all , regardless of content ...
Literature and Economics in the Age of Milton Blair Hoxby. claimed in a poem that the Goldsmiths presented to James I ... claim that because " all literary works are composed of tropic exchanges , ” they can all , regardless of content ...
Page 10
... claims for the explanatory power of isolated inci- dents.34 Instead , I focus on literary or topical allusions and on the more general engagement of literary works with particular strains of discourse that I define through their ...
... claims for the explanatory power of isolated inci- dents.34 Instead , I focus on literary or topical allusions and on the more general engagement of literary works with particular strains of discourse that I define through their ...
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