"This volume considers three powerful ideological forces in early modern England: money, magic and the theatre. With the authorization of usury, financial value was developing into an independent, effective power. The mysterious, invisible nature of money's power struck many contemporaries as magical and contributed to the hysteria behind the great witch-hunts. At the same time, the public theatre emerged as a popular medium well-suited to representing the powers of magic. All the essays in this book examine the convergence of these three forces in a wide range of early modern drama. Part One considers the works of a broad array of figures ranging from Plautus through John Lyly to Christopher Marlowe - discussing plays such as Midas, The Alchemist and The Jew of Malta - while remaining tightly focussed on the nexus of money and magic. While Part Two concentrates on Shakespeare, whose diagnosis of the relations between finance, witchcraft and the stage is particularly acute in plays such as Timon of Athens, The Tempest and A Winter's Tale. The volume is especially timely in the current era of financial deregulation and derivatives, which often seem just as mysterious and occult in their operations as did the burgeoning financial system of 16th-century London"--
Money, magic and the theatre were powerful forces in early modern England. Money was acquiring an independent, efficacious agency, as the growth of usury allowed financial signs to reproduce without human intervention. Magic was coming to seem Satanic, as the manipulation of magical signs to performative purposes was criminalized in the great 'witch craze.' And the commercial, public theatre was emerging to great controversy as the perfect medium to display, analyse and evaluate the newly autonomous power of representation in its financial, magical and aesthetic forms.
Money and Magic in Early Modern Drama is especially timely in the current era of financial deregulation and derivatives, which are just as mysterious and occult in their operations as the germinal finance of 16th-century London. Chapters examine the convergence of money and magic in a wide range of early modern drama, from the anonymous Mankind through Christopher Marlowe to Ben Jonson, concentrating on such plays as The Alchemist, The New Inn and The Staple of News. Several focus on Shakespeare, whose analysis of the relations between finance, witchcraft and theatricality is particularly acute in Timon of Athens, The Comedy of Errors, Antony and Cleopatra and The Winter's Tale.
