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
Results 1-5 of 55
Page 1
... thought possible , even as they engendered specters that would haunt the imagination of his late verse . In an effort to assess Milton's achievement with a measure of historical precision , I read his writings against texts written by ...
... thought possible , even as they engendered specters that would haunt the imagination of his late verse . In an effort to assess Milton's achievement with a measure of historical precision , I read his writings against texts written by ...
Page 5
... thought and established genres precisely because it was associated with a power- ful new way of seeing and describing the world , one whose ramifications stretched far beyond narrow questions of commerce . Yet it is just as im- portant ...
... thought and established genres precisely because it was associated with a power- ful new way of seeing and describing the world , one whose ramifications stretched far beyond narrow questions of commerce . Yet it is just as im- portant ...
Page 6
... thought , were neither in conflict with nor irrelevant to their tracts on trade . In- deed , their faith may actually have helped them to conceive of trade's ab- stract operations . It is not a very long step from continuing revelation ...
... thought , were neither in conflict with nor irrelevant to their tracts on trade . In- deed , their faith may actually have helped them to conceive of trade's ab- stract operations . It is not a very long step from continuing revelation ...
Page 10
... thought was itself the product of crisis and conflict within English society , and they recognized that few economic ideas were innocent of political or religious implications . By remaining alert to the circumstances in which authors ...
... thought was itself the product of crisis and conflict within English society , and they recognized that few economic ideas were innocent of political or religious implications . By remaining alert to the circumstances in which authors ...
Page 13
... thought arise from two intellectual traditions . The first is an ancient ideal of free- dom that informs both the virtù of Renaissance Italy's civic humanists and the Christian liberty of Northern Europe's Protestant humanists . The sec ...
... thought arise from two intellectual traditions . The first is an ancient ideal of free- dom that informs both the virtù of Renaissance Italy's civic humanists and the Christian liberty of Northern Europe's Protestant humanists . The sec ...
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