Abstract
AbstractShackerley Marmion's comedy The Antiquary (written 1635–36, printed 1641) presents two characters who waste time by measuring it. Veterano, the titular antiquary, spends his days idolizing his collection of ersatz artifacts; the fop Petrutio prizes his pocket watch because it allows him to ‘consume [his] hours’. Other early modern English authors criticized the vogue for pocket watches and the growing popularity of antiquarian study, but Marmion's originality lies in the connection he draws between the two trends: both Veterano and Petrutio value the material trappings of time over the actions that unfold within it. Through Petrutio, Marmion questions the role of technology in preventing idleness; through Veterano, he challenges the assumption that antiquarian study can produce smooth continuities between a troubled present and a nobler past. Though modern scholarship has neglected Marmion's small body of work, The Antiquary deserves further study as a portrait of the temporal concerns of Caroline England: youth and age; antiquity and horology; and the uses and abuses of time.
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