"Still paying, still to owe"

credit, community, and small data in Shakespeare and Milton

Peter C. Herman

pp. 153-177

in: David Currell, Islam Issa (eds), Digital Milton, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

Using network analysis, this chapter complicates our understanding of moneylending through an examination of John Milton, Sr.'s (the poet's father) litigation. The records show that small-scale lending created a small community. After visualizing and analyzing Milton's loans, Herman applies this data backwards for a reading of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice and forwards for a reading of Milton's Paradise Lost. Rather than planning from the start to destroy Antonio, Shylock invents a bargain that subordinates economics to social utility. By losing money (potentially), he might gain a friend, and a network. Milton, on the other hand, depicts God as the kind of cruel lender we see in the anti-usury tracts, thereby providing more justification for Satan's rebellion.

Cited authors

Shakespeare William

Milton John