Sixteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

To Keith Thomas, human civilization was synonymous with the conquest of nature (25). Thomas’s statement is true since the construction of the cities and towns in human civilizations mostly suggests economic growth and the decrease of nature’s territory. Although the culmination of the cultural significance of pastoral poems is seen in England’s “Helicon,” an anthology compiled by John Flasket, yet seventeenth-century England witnessed urbanization which eventually resulted in the draining of the fens, materialization of gardens, and the change of landscapes. These early modern experiences of urbanization connote an epoch of merchandization and privatization of the land and the modification of class and identity among the common people. Seventeen-century dramas represent a serious concern about the change of the landscape and subsequent concern of ethics. Quite a few of them provide not merely social criticism on the rapid changes of the community, but also identity formation that involves urbanization and the monetary and bodily desire. This paper is a study on the change of landscapes as represented in three early modern plays. The first part of the discussion refers to the concern with land as related to the peasants in the pastoral and landscape writing before the Renaissance period while the second and the third parts cover the discussion on two plays, “Sparagus Garden and the Covent Garden Weeded,” by Richard Brome and “A New Way to Pay Old Debts” by Philip Massinger.