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 11
... reformers like those in the Hartlib circle , the contiguity between information and commodities suggested projects that endeavored to increase economic enfranchisement by disseminating information . Just as proponents of free speech ...
... reformers like those in the Hartlib circle , the contiguity between information and commodities suggested projects that endeavored to increase economic enfranchisement by disseminating information . Just as proponents of free speech ...
Page 26
... reformers did not consider the economic analogies in their tracts and sermons mere flowers of rhetoric but vehicles for thinking systematically about the conditions of intellectual exchange that were likeliest to generate truth without ...
... reformers did not consider the economic analogies in their tracts and sermons mere flowers of rhetoric but vehicles for thinking systematically about the conditions of intellectual exchange that were likeliest to generate truth without ...
Page 31
... Reformers of the 1640s were not the first to make the imaginative leap from trucking and trading in goods to exchanging ideas , for the con- tiguity between various kinds of commerce - economic , cultural , and spiritual — had long been ...
... Reformers of the 1640s were not the first to make the imaginative leap from trucking and trading in goods to exchanging ideas , for the con- tiguity between various kinds of commerce - economic , cultural , and spiritual — had long been ...
Page 33
... reformers in whom we are interested : Proverbs 23:23 and Matthew 13 : 45-46.32 " Buy the Truth , and sell it not , " he enjoined , quot- ing Proverbs ( p . 305 ) . “ Christians , ” said Dyke , “ should be like Merchants " in “ Marts and ...
... reformers in whom we are interested : Proverbs 23:23 and Matthew 13 : 45-46.32 " Buy the Truth , and sell it not , " he enjoined , quot- ing Proverbs ( p . 305 ) . “ Christians , ” said Dyke , “ should be like Merchants " in “ Marts and ...
Page 41
... reformers routinely denounced as mo- nopolists . Richard Overton complained in this spirit that " the inhanc- ing and ingrossing all Interpretations , Preachings , and Discipline " in the hands of the clergy was " a meere Monopole of ...
... reformers routinely denounced as mo- nopolists . Richard Overton complained in this spirit that " the inhanc- ing and ingrossing all Interpretations , Preachings , and Discipline " in the hands of the clergy was " a meere Monopole 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