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 5
... things to say about two concepts that lay at the heart of the period's religious , political , and scientific debates : agency and organization.16 Eco- nomic discourse could place pressure on traditional categories of thought and ...
... things to say about two concepts that lay at the heart of the period's religious , political , and scientific debates : agency and organization.16 Eco- nomic discourse could place pressure on traditional categories of thought and ...
Page 6
... things in measure and number and weight " ( Wisd . of Sol . 11:20 ) .2 If economic discourse derived some of its cultural authority from trade's status as an emerging discipline , it acquired its urgency by dint of its very permeability ...
... things in measure and number and weight " ( Wisd . of Sol . 11:20 ) .2 If economic discourse derived some of its cultural authority from trade's status as an emerging discipline , it acquired its urgency by dint of its very permeability ...
Page 22
... things . 13 12 But the Lady does not stand solely on the virtue of temperance . It is as if she answers with the Poverty of Thomas Carew's Coelum Britanni- cum ( 1634 ) , “ For mark how few they are that share the world " ( line 603 ) ...
... things . 13 12 But the Lady does not stand solely on the virtue of temperance . It is as if she answers with the Poverty of Thomas Carew's Coelum Britanni- cum ( 1634 ) , “ For mark how few they are that share the world " ( line 603 ) ...
Page 24
... ( 1644 ) , the Lady's insistence that “ none / But such as are good men can give good things " would no longer seem so absolute ( lines 701–2 ) . CHAPTER ONE The Trade of Truth Advanced && I t 24 VIRTUE , COMMERCE , TRUTH.
... ( 1644 ) , the Lady's insistence that “ none / But such as are good men can give good things " would no longer seem so absolute ( lines 701–2 ) . CHAPTER ONE The Trade of Truth Advanced && I t 24 VIRTUE , COMMERCE , TRUTH.
Page 27
... things restrained in Statute Law or otherwise ; and secondly , by her Prerogative she may restrain things which be at liberty . " Yet even the queen's prerogative had a theoretical , if ill - defined , limit . " As I think it is no ...
... things restrained in Statute Law or otherwise ; and secondly , by her Prerogative she may restrain things which be at liberty . " Yet even the queen's prerogative had a theoretical , if ill - defined , limit . " As I think it is no ...
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