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 3
... relations with tenants were increasingly governed by the laws of property and contract rather than “ custom , ” were permitted to undertake even sus- pect “ improvements ” like the enclosure of commons . Farmers were given a freer hand ...
... relations with tenants were increasingly governed by the laws of property and contract rather than “ custom , ” were permitted to undertake even sus- pect “ improvements ” like the enclosure of commons . Farmers were given a freer hand ...
Page 8
... relations hitherto governed by other principles , I have not refrained from reading texts like Areopagitica or The Readie and Easie Way , which reg- ister that change by applying economic reasoning to related problems in the public ...
... relations hitherto governed by other principles , I have not refrained from reading texts like Areopagitica or The Readie and Easie Way , which reg- ister that change by applying economic reasoning to related problems in the public ...
Page 9
... relations expanded . These theoretical demurrals have practical consequences for the pages that follow . I do not juxtapose literary texts with events or artifacts that bear no demonstrable relation to them except synchronicity and a ...
... relations expanded . These theoretical demurrals have practical consequences for the pages that follow . I do not juxtapose literary texts with events or artifacts that bear no demonstrable relation to them except synchronicity and a ...
Page 10
Literature and Economics in the Age of Milton Blair Hoxby. bear no demonstrable relation to them except synchronicity and a per- ceived homology . Nor do I rely on exemplary anecdotes , for as soon as we dispense with the assumption that ...
Literature and Economics in the Age of Milton Blair Hoxby. bear no demonstrable relation to them except synchronicity and a per- ceived homology . Nor do I rely on exemplary anecdotes , for as soon as we dispense with the assumption that ...
Page 13
... relations that would be safe from such dangers and of the social and personal losses that would inevitably result from forgoing all commerce among men . I would argue , however , that if Milton's late exploration of economic problems ...
... relations that would be safe from such dangers and of the social and personal losses that would inevitably result from forgoing all commerce among men . I would argue , however , that if Milton's late exploration of economic problems ...
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