Abstract

Ivan Cañadas: The Power of Money: From Horace to Jonson and Quevedo.  Medieval and Early Modern English Studies Volume 24 No. 1 (2016) 37-51

This paper examines the Classical motif of the power of money as found in Horace’s satire of materialism (Sat. I.1, II.3, Ep. I.2, I.6) and the use of this motif in the satires of Ben Jonson (Volp. I.1, The Forest: 'Robert Wroth', 'Countess of Rutland', Misc. 'The Power of Gold') and some Spanish poets of the same period: Rioja (“To Wealth”), Fernández de Andrada (“Moral Epistle to Fabio”) and, especially, the satirist Francisco de Quevedo (Son, Let. Sat., vi,vii,viii,xviii, and “Poderoso caballero es don Dinero”). These poets wrote from similar positions in the conservative opposition to the loosening of the traditional social hierarchy—something that is borne out by an examination of their use of the Classical motif of the power of money. Their work exhibits a dual concern to satirise both specific transgressions of the traditional social order and the cultural changes—i.e.: the rise of a materialist ethos—associated with such transgression.