Description
Book SynopsisSick Economies: Drama, Mercantilism, and Disease in Shakespeare's England teases out the double helix of the pathological and the economic in two seemingly disparate spheres of early modern textual production: drama and mercantilist writing.
Trade Review"In this important book Harris explores the early modern discourse of mercantilism, tracing its merger with the discourse of bodily illness." *
Choice *
"Harris has successfully argued a decidedly unique angle of interpretation. What may have initially struck the reader as an impossibly broad scope of inquiry is revealed, through rigorous textual analysis, as an intriguing interdisciplinary perspective that will certainly impact subsequent scholarship." *
Comitatus *
"This book offers great insight into the Renaissance discourses of the body, the emergence of mercantile theory, and early modern drama." *
Seventeenth-Century News *
Table of Contents1. The Asian Flu; Or, The Pathological Drama of National Economy
2. Syphilis and Trade: Thomas Starkey, Thomas Smith, The Comedy of Errors
3. Taint and Usury: Gerard Malynes, The Dutch Church Libel, The Merchant of Venice
4. Canker/Serpego and Value: Gerard Malynes, Troilus and Cressida
5. Plague and Transmigration: Timothy Bright, Thomas Milles, Volpone
6. Hepatitis/Castration and Treasure: Edward Misselden, Gerard Malynes, The Fair Maid of the West, The Renegado
7. Consumption and Consumption: Thomas Mun, The Roaring Girl
8. Afterword: Anthrax, Cyberworms, and the New Ethereal Economy
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
