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
... were examples of arbitrary government . They not only cut at the power of Parliament and the liberties of the subject , they threatened the prosperity of the na- tion . For foreigners could not be expected to leave INTRODUCTION 3.
... were examples of arbitrary government . They not only cut at the power of Parliament and the liberties of the subject , they threatened the prosperity of the na- tion . For foreigners could not be expected to leave INTRODUCTION 3.
Page 4
... subjects , and his subjects were not likely to accrue property through hard work if they feared that it would be taxed away without their consent : they would grow dispirited . When the Long Parliament sat in 1640 , it consequently ...
... subjects , and his subjects were not likely to accrue property through hard work if they feared that it would be taxed away without their consent : they would grow dispirited . When the Long Parliament sat in 1640 , it consequently ...
Page 8
... subjects and forms of analysis , I aim to honor literature's mimetic and per- suasive ambitions . The dissatisfaction of New Historicists with interpre- tive models that would make of literature either a simple reflection of its culture ...
... subjects and forms of analysis , I aim to honor literature's mimetic and per- suasive ambitions . The dissatisfaction of New Historicists with interpre- tive models that would make of literature either a simple reflection of its culture ...
Page 10
... subject relate to one another in human history and society , then I have privileged the subject's ambivalent experience of his or her relationship with social structures — perceived as multiple , even contradictory in their imperatives ...
... subject relate to one another in human history and society , then I have privileged the subject's ambivalent experience of his or her relationship with social structures — perceived as multiple , even contradictory in their imperatives ...
Page 11
... subject of Part One , " Virtue , Commerce , Truth . " I argue that Areopagitica ( 1644 ) , like other pleadings for freedom of speech and liberty of conscience in the 1640s , is indebted to earlier defenses of free trade , which ...
... subject of Part One , " Virtue , Commerce , Truth . " I argue that Areopagitica ( 1644 ) , like other pleadings for freedom of speech and liberty of conscience in the 1640s , is indebted to earlier defenses of free trade , which ...
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