Description
Book SynopsisComedy and Crisis contains the first ever scholarly English translation of Pieter Langendijk’s Quincampoix, or the Wind Traders [Quincampoix of de Windhandelaars], and Harlequin Stock-Jobber [Arlequin Actionist]. The first play is a full-length satirical comedy, and the second is a short, comic harlequinade; both were written in Dutch in response to the speculative financial crisis or bubble of 1720 and were performed in Amsterdam in the fall of 1720, as the bubble in the Netherlands was bursting. Comedy and Crisis also contains our translation of the extensive apparatus prepared by C.H.P. Meijer (Introduction and notes) for his 1892 edition of these plays. The current editors have updated the footnotes and added six new critical essays by contemporary literary and historical scholars that contextualize the two plays historically and culturally. The book includes an extensive bibliography and index. The materials assembled in Comedy and Crisis are a rich resource for cultural, historical, and literary students of the history of finance and of eighteenth-century studies.
Trade Review'In providing us with Lengendijk’s plays in English translation and with scholarly commentary, Goggin and De Bruyn have made a contribution to Mennonite studies as well as to the wider scholarly world.'Keith L. Sprunger,
The Mennonite Quarterly Review 'Comedy and Crisis, with illustrations that are illuminating here and there, provides a multifaceted overview and insight into the (inter)national context in which within which we must place and understand Langendijk's texts.’
Anna de Haas,
The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History Translated from Dutch,
‘Comedy and Crisis, met hier en daar verhelderende illustraties, een veelzijdig overzicht van en inzicht in de (inter)nationale context waarbinnen we de teksten van Langendijk moeten plaatsen en begrijpen.’
'The wealth of knowledge that these essays bring together around the two pieces is impressive. They show that research at the intersection of cultural and literary history on the one hand and economic history on the other has been very productive in recent years... Hopefully, with this publication, international interest will reach a new peak.'
Kornee van der Haven,
Low Countries Historical Review Translated from Dutch,
'De rijkdom aan kennis die deze essays rond de twee stukken samenbrengen is indrukwekkend. Ze laten zien dat het onderzoek op het snijvlak van cultuur- en literatuurgeschiedenis enerzijds en economische geschiedenis anderzijds de afgelopen jaren heel productief is geweest... Hopelijk zal die internationale interesse met deze publicatie een nieuw hoogtepunt beleven.'
