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. |
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Page 9
... lines , vulnerable to two political revolutions , and in- creasingly permeable to foreign cultures as its trade and colonial relations expanded . These theoretical demurrals have practical consequences for the pages that follow . I do ...
... lines , vulnerable to two political revolutions , and in- creasingly permeable to foreign cultures as its trade and colonial relations expanded . These theoretical demurrals have practical consequences for the pages that follow . I do ...
Page 18
... ( lines 736-54 ) . Comus begins his seduction - by - economic - analogy by upbraiding the Lady for inverting the " cov'nants " of Nature's trust . Nature lent the Lady her “ daintie limms ” for “ gentle usage , and soft delicacie . ” By ...
... ( lines 736-54 ) . Comus begins his seduction - by - economic - analogy by upbraiding the Lady for inverting the " cov'nants " of Nature's trust . Nature lent the Lady her “ daintie limms ” for “ gentle usage , and soft delicacie . ” By ...
Page 19
... ( lines 709-28 ) Comus develops this vision of a superabundant Nature with imaginative rapture before drawing the lesson , Beauty is natures coine , must not be hoorded , But must be currant , and the good therof Consists in mutuall and ...
... ( lines 709-28 ) Comus develops this vision of a superabundant Nature with imaginative rapture before drawing the lesson , Beauty is natures coine , must not be hoorded , But must be currant , and the good therof Consists in mutuall and ...
Page 20
... ( lines 757-58 ) . Comus's “ rules , " at once natural and economic , are deterministic rather than normative , with an explanatory force more akin to that of science than that of ethics . 22 With Comus's warning against serving God as a ...
... ( lines 757-58 ) . Comus's “ rules , " at once natural and economic , are deterministic rather than normative , with an explanatory force more akin to that of science than that of ethics . 22 With Comus's warning against serving God as a ...
Page 21
... ( line 689 ) . The same parable motivates Comus's audacious allusion to Ovid's ac- count of man's descent from a ... ( line 696 ) through his " base forgerie " ( line 697 ) , an epithet that suggests counterfeiting and its accomplice ...
... ( line 689 ) . The same parable motivates Comus's audacious allusion to Ovid's ac- count of man's descent from a ... ( line 696 ) through his " base forgerie " ( line 697 ) , an epithet that suggests counterfeiting and its accomplice ...
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