Money and the Age of Shakespeare: Essays in New Economic Criticism (Early Modern Cultural Studies 1500–1700)

In this collection literary scholars, theorists and historians deploy new economic techniques to illuminate English Renaissance literature in fresh ways. Contributors variously explore poetry's precarious perch between gift and commodity; the longing for family in The Comedy of Errors as symbolically expressing the alienating pressures of mercantilism; Measure for Measure 's representation of singlewomen and the feminization of poverty; the collision between two views of money in a possible collaboration between Shakespeare and Middleton; the cultural spread of an accounting mentality and quantitative thinking; and money as it crosses the frontier between price and pricelessness, and from early bodily-injury insurance schemes to The Merchant of Venice . Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Introduction....Pages 1-18 Monetary Compensation for Injuries to the Body, A.D. 602–1697....Pages 19-37 Commerce, Community, and Nostalgia in The Comedy of Errors ....Pages 39-51 Scene Stealers: Autolycus, The Winter’s Tale and Economic Criticism....Pages 53-65 On a Certain Tendency in Economic Criticism of Shakespeare....Pages 67-77 Exchange Value and Empiricism in the Poetry of George Herbert....Pages 79-95 Work and the Gift: Notes Toward an Investigation....Pages 97-112 Material Dispossessions and Counterfeit Investments: The Economies of Twelfth Night ....Pages 113-127 Gift Exchange and Social Hierarchy in Thomas Deloney’s Jack of Newbury ....Pages 129-141 Taking Excess, Exceeding Account: Aristotle Meets The Merchant of Venice ....Pages 143-158 The Lead Casket: Capital, Mercantilism, and The Merchant of Venice....Pages 159-176 The Fiend Gives Friendly Counsel: Launcelot Gobbo and Polyglot Economics in The Merchant of Venice ....Pages 177-187 Freeing Daughters on Open Markets: The Incest Clause in The Merchant of Venice....Pages 189-200 Usury and Counterfeiting in Wilson’s The Three Ladies of London and The Three Lords and Three Ladies of London, and in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure ....Pages 201-217 Middleton and Debt in Timon of Athens ....Pages 219-235 Singlewomen and the Properties of Poverty in Measure for Measure ....Pages 237-250 Fetish and Poem: Ben Jonson’s Dilemma....Pages 251-264 Back Matter....Pages 265-281 "Literary scholars, theorists, and historians deploy New Economic techniques to illuminate English Renaissance literature in fresh ways. Contributors variously explore poetry's precarious perch between gift and commodity; the longing for family in The Comedy of Errorsas symbolically expressing the alienating pressures of mercantilism; Measure for Measure'srepresentation of singlewomen and the feminization of poverty; the collision between two views of money in a possible collaboration between Shakespeare and Middleton; the cultural spread of an accounting mentality and quantitative thinking; and money as it crosses the frontier between price and pricelessness, from early bodily-injury insurance schemes to The Merchant of Venice."--Pub. desc Annotation Literary scholars, theorists, and historians deploy New Economic techniques to illuminate English Renaissance literature in fresh ways. Contributors variously explore poetry's precarious perch between gift and commodity; the longing for family inThe Comedy of Errors as symbolically expressing the alienating pressures of mercantilism;Measure for Measure's representation of singlewomen and the feminization of poverty; the collision between two views of money in a possible collaboration between Shakespeare and Middleton; the cultural spread of an accounting mentality and quantitative thinking; and money as it crosses the frontier between price and pricelessness, from early bodily-injury insurance schemes toThe Merchant of Venice This essay is about the "limb" in the familiar phrase "life and limb," and about the early modern history of what it's worth. Edited By Linda Woodbridge. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.