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 1
... labor . I contend that these inquiries made some of Milton's most compelling and creative thought possible , even as they engendered specters that would haunt the imagination of his late verse . In an effort to assess Milton's ...
... labor . I contend that these inquiries made some of Milton's most compelling and creative thought possible , even as they engendered specters that would haunt the imagination of his late verse . In an effort to assess Milton's ...
Page 2
... labor on the land . Households con- sumed much of what they produced ; they often worked the land on terms that were determined by " custom , " a continually renewed code of practice that was the result of long - term negotiations ...
... labor on the land . Households con- sumed much of what they produced ; they often worked the land on terms that were determined by " custom , " a continually renewed code of practice that was the result of long - term negotiations ...
Page 6
... labor be- cause their very pliancy made them more rhetorically charged and intel- lectually suggestive than some other topics that also attracted considerable attention , such as banking . That made them interesting to authors whose ...
... labor be- cause their very pliancy made them more rhetorically charged and intel- lectually suggestive than some other topics that also attracted considerable attention , such as banking . That made them interesting to authors whose ...
Page 8
... labor ) , I confine myself to literary texts in which authors quite directly address economic issues or avail themselves of eco- nomic reasoning . I thus refuse myself the license of Marc Shell's claim that because " all literary works ...
... labor ) , I confine myself to literary texts in which authors quite directly address economic issues or avail themselves of eco- nomic reasoning . I thus refuse myself the license of Marc Shell's claim that because " all literary works ...
Page 12
... labor cannot be extracted from its social context . In Part Four , " The Meaning of Work , ” I read Milton's tragedy as a meditation on the consolations and temptations of labor after the Restoration , when some dissenters perceived the ...
... labor cannot be extracted from its social context . In Part Four , " The Meaning of Work , ” I read Milton's tragedy as a meditation on the consolations and temptations of labor after the Restoration , when some dissenters perceived the ...
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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Common terms and phrases
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