tiffany rings medieval

tiffany rings medieval
See, for example, Bartholomezv Fair, II.i.5, V.vi.10607. Again like his creator, Overdo fancies himself a moral reformer, and perhaps in Jonson's portrayal of the Justice getting carried away with his quest to spy out enormities in the world, he was trying to teach himself a lesson. Like Overdo, Jonson seems to be learning in the course of Bartholomew Fair that he should go easier on humanity.Ibid., V.vi.10607. Above all, Jonson seems to abandon his longstanding quarrel with the commercial theater and seeks to make his peace with his audience. In a stroke of genius, Jonson chose to image his reconciliation with the commercial theater in the form of a legal contract.In the induction to Bartholomew Fair, the audience learns that the play will not begin until they agree to "certain articles drawn out in haste between our author and you."Ibid., Ind., II. 3435. A scrivener comes out on stage to tiffany pendants read the contract to the audience, a document loaded with as much legalese as Jonson could muster:Articles of Agreement indented between the spectators or hearers at the Hope on the Bankside in the county of Surrey on the one party; and the tiffany cuff link author of Bartholomew Fair in the said place and county on the other party; the one and thirtieth day of October 1614, and in the twelfth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord, James, by the grace of God tiffany necklaces King of England, France, and tiffany bracelets Ireland, Defender of the Faith. And of Scotland the seven and fortieth.16Here Jonson hits upon a form of law that can work in favor of the marketplace in general and the theater in particular. In the statutes of the criminal law, the state stands above its tiffany outlet citizens and tells them what they can and cannot do. By contrast, contracts are a matter of civil law and are drawn up between consenting parties, who agree to matters of mutual benefit. In many respects, the contract is the very heart and soul of the marketplace: two parties agreeing to an exchange of goods or services of their own free will and without any government compulsion except perhaps to enforce the contract.Living in a commercial society today, we are so used to the power of contracts that it is hard for us to realize that there ever was a time when they represented a new and mysterious force in the world. But in fact, as Sir Henry Sumner Maine argued, the movement from feudalism to capitalism, from the tiffany rings medieval to the modern world, was largely a matter of moving from status to contract, from people having their relations define