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 19
... live like Natures bastards , not her sons , Who would be quite surcharg'd with her own weight , And strangl❜d with her wast fertilitie . ( lines 709-28 ) Comus develops this vision of a superabundant Nature with imaginative rapture ...
... live like Natures bastards , not her sons , Who would be quite surcharg'd with her own weight , And strangl❜d with her wast fertilitie . ( lines 709-28 ) Comus develops this vision of a superabundant Nature with imaginative rapture ...
Page 22
... live according to her sober laws , And holy dictate of spare Temperance : If every just man that now pines with want Had but a moderate , and beseeming share Of that which lewdly - pamper'd Luxurie Now heaps upon some few with vast ...
... live according to her sober laws , And holy dictate of spare Temperance : If every just man that now pines with want Had but a moderate , and beseeming share Of that which lewdly - pamper'd Luxurie Now heaps upon some few with vast ...
Page 27
... live by labour , and that he that will not labour , let him not eat " ( 2 Thess . 3 ) . When the queen granted exclusive manufacturing privileges to just one subject , she prevented others from working in their calling . A “ grant ...
... live by labour , and that he that will not labour , let him not eat " ( 2 Thess . 3 ) . When the queen granted exclusive manufacturing privileges to just one subject , she prevented others from working in their calling . A “ grant ...
Page 30
... live . Merchandize being the chief and richest of all other , and of greater Extent and Importance than all the rest , it is against the natural Right and Liberty of the Subjects of England to restrain it into the Hands of some few.23 ...
... live . Merchandize being the chief and richest of all other , and of greater Extent and Importance than all the rest , it is against the natural Right and Liberty of the Subjects of England to restrain it into the Hands of some few.23 ...
Page 45
... lives as if they were “ dividual moveable [ s ] ” when they are not ( CPW 2 : 544 ) . When ministers commit the same fault in reverse by shunning economic toil , they too draw Milton's fire . Milton is not ashamed to defend mechanic ...
... lives as if they were “ dividual moveable [ s ] ” when they are not ( CPW 2 : 544 ) . When ministers commit the same fault in reverse by shunning economic toil , they too draw Milton's fire . Milton is not ashamed to defend mechanic ...
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