Decades Of Seventeenth Century Research Articles

Opodatkowanie tytoniu w dawnej Polsce

An article is devoted to an issue of taxation on tobacco and its derivate products in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. After the first importation of tobacco to Poland, its consumption was spreading fast. At the beginning, a snuff was the most common form of a tobacco usage, in eighteen century smoking pipes became more popular. It have to be stressed that tobacco and its derivate products, were considered as medicines, which could prevent and cure every disease. In 1643 the import duty on tobacco was imposed for the first time in Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the Crown of Poland the tobacco monopoly was established in 1659, but import duty was imposed only one time – in 1677. In the last decade of seventeenth century, the tobacco monopoly in the Commonwealth practically expired. It was renewed after 1764, during the reign of the king Stanislaw August Poniatowski. The tobacco monopoly was established again, and run by the private company, called The Snuff Campaign. In the last decade of eighteenth century, this task was took over by the public company – The Snuff Manipulation. Generally speaking, during the whole analysed period of time, incomes from taxation of tobacco and its derivate products (especially the snuff) were relatively small.

El pensamiento político de la Contrarreforma y la razón de estado

This article reconstructs the history of political thought from the sixteenth to the first decades of seventeenth century: a period of strong conflicts between the religious sphere and the political changes of the states in their trajectory towards absolutism. The analysis of the polemic against Machiavelli, Bodin and the politiques shows how it was questioned at the conceptual and practical levels the autonomy of politics from religious morality and the tendency of the states to evade ecclesiastical control respectively. The schools of thought discussed here –from anti-Machiavellism to the encomiastic literature of the existent governments, from Tacitism to the reason State, to the critical writings of the society, mainly utopia- outline on the one hand, the effort to preserve an image of politics as just government, with a virtuous prince, but on the other, the inevitable commitment to the praxis of political realism, well represented by the developments of the concept of reason of State in Botero and other writers from the seventeenth century. It was only with the arrival of Modern natural law which brought to the fore the questions of the origin and purpose of civil society, that political thought partly detached from the eternal conflict between morals and political praxis opening the era of rational and scientific research and individual rights.

Onitsura's Makoto and the Daoist Concept of the Natural

in haikai 9M history, Uejima Onitsura ?411 (1661-1738) is famous for following statement concerning nature of comic linked verse: Without makoto 'dr , there would be no haikai.' The two Japanese terms used in this statement, haikai and makoto, present an obvious semantic conflict. Makoto in Japanese basically means truth, faithfulness, and genuineness.2 Haikai, on other hand, literally means facetiousness or humor. The term is used to refer to facetious poems in Japan since first imperial poetic anthology, Kokin wakasho W,-RiFnk (905). When haikai no renga %IJi# (comic linked verse) became a popular genre during later medieval and early Edo periods, it was conceived basically as a playful and facetious poem. By saying that without makoto there would be no haikai, Onitsura declared a revolutionary change in nature of comic linked verse, a reform carried out by joint effort of a number of haikai poets during last two decades of seventeenth century. Before this change took place, haikai had been characterized as a poem of free exaggerations and the most deluding falsehoods.3 The shift of critical emphasis from falsehood to truthfulness transformed genre from an entertaining pastime to a serious literary form. An important notion in haikai poetics, Onitsura's makoto has garnered wide scholarly attention. But, because of lack of a clear definition by author himself, over years scholars have been debating precise meaning of Onitsura's makoto and trying to discover its derivation through various sources. The filiation of makoto has been traced to Zen Buddhist doctrine,4 traditional waka poetics,5 and Confucian teaching.6 The assumption that Onitsura's makoto originates in Zen doc-

Stage Darkness in the Early Plays of Lope de Vega

This study examines the plays of the Cuarta parte de las comedias de Lope de Vega (1614) for evidence of the techniques used in staging night scenes in the public theaters during the 1590s and first decade of seventeenth century. With a preponderance of balcony scenes, these plays reveal a combination of staging strategies in which verbal cues and visual effects unite to convey the ilusion of darkness on the open-air platform stage. Explicit stage directions supply facts concerning costumes and props such as candles and torches, but the dialogue proves a richer source of information about staging. Descriptive passages provide imaginary scenery that would have aided in transforming the bare, sunlit platform—at least in the minds of the spectators—into a darkened room or a street at midnight. Reports and comments made by the characters themselves are often the only references to actions and gestures, such as stumbling, walking stealthily or even lying down as if asleep, that were obviously meant to be represented onstage. Supplying multiple cues for the invocation of conventional darkness, these texts disclose the process by which visual effects and stage business were used to underscore and enhance the spoken word in performances in a corral de comedias .

Microbes and Muskets: Smallpox and the Participation of the Amerindian Allies of New France in the Seven Years' War

The Amerindian allies of New France accepted annual French invitations to take part in Seven Years' War but decided themselves how many warriors would actually appear in field. These decisions were made in response to two smallpox epidemics that broke out during war. The numbers of Amerindian warriors fighting alongside French declined precipitously after outbreaks of smallpox but rose again when they had passed. The arrival of Europeans created a new worldl for native peoples of North America. Postcontact Amerindians had no choice but to confront challenge of life in a once-familiar habitat that was now infested with new groups of humans and flora, fauna, and microbes that accompanied them. Two manifestations of radically changed geopolitical and biological environments created by newcomers to North America were epidemic disease and intra-European warfare.2 In mid-eighteenth century, Amerindians of Great Lakes (among others) faced both when a series of epidemics broke out during Seven Years' War. Their response, at once pragmatic and informed, reveals something of Amerindian adjustment to realities of life in postcontact North America, a process that remains in progress as twentieth century draws to a close. Following establishment of European settlements in North America, Amerindians were frequently drawn into warfare between rival colonies. The issues at stake might or might not directly affect their concerns, but belligerent Europeans invariably attempted to involve their Amerindian allies in these conflicts. Amerindian participation in warfare demanded decisions by groups and individuals regarding whether or not to go to war and number of Ethnohistory 39:I (Winter I992). Copyright ? by American Society for Ethnohistory. ccc OOI4-i8o/ 9z/$i.50. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.145 on Sat, 02 Jul 2016 04:29:33 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Smallpox and Amerindians in Seven Years' War warriors that would actually fight. These decisions could be based upon factors ranging from cold calculations of geopolitical advantage to desire for recreation and individual prestige.3 Throughout Seven Years' War, Amerindian allies of New France had to decide how to respond to annual invitations to go to war in central theater on behalf of French.4 The details of their deliberations are unrecorded, but results were manifested in a series of dramatic fluctuations in numbers of Amerindians serving alongside French in this theater, as individuals and groups elected to proffer or withhold their services. These variations correspond to smallpox epidemics. Sharp declines in size of Amerindian contingent in central theater occurred immediately after outbreaks of disease; when epidemics had passed, their numbers in field increased once more. Whatever positive factors impelled Amerindians to go to war in I750s, numbers of warriors who actually took part in campaigns in central theater between 1755 and 1759 were determined by reactions of allies to flourishing and fading of smallpox virus.5 The first official French contacts with inhabitants of New World in I53os were characterized by treachery and violence on part of French adventurers, who quickly alienated Amerindians. Nevertheless, in first decades of seventeenth century, a second wave of French expeditions established amicable and mutually profitable relations with native people and began to form concomitant military alliances that would endure until British conquest. The Seven Years' War was last, supreme test of effectiveness of Franco-Amerindian alliance system. With New France fighting for its very survival and heavily outnumbered in field, both by Anglo-American colonials and by British regulars, French relied to a considerable extent upon manpower provided by their Amerindian allies to offset imbalance. Without them, conceded one French staff officer who had no particular love for Amerindians, the odds would be too unequal for us.6 In event, alliance system rose to challenge and proved capable of delivering a substantial force of Amerindian warriors to fight alongside French regulars and Canadian militiamen.7 While war in North America raged from Louisbourg in Acadia to Fort Duquesne on Ohio, most important region for defense of New France was central theater, which comprised seigneurial tract of Canada, together with its approaches, and extended from eastern Lake Ontario to Quebec.8 Rather than form raiding parties, like their counterparts in Acadia and Ohio country, bulk of Amerindians serving in this sector were employed as auxiliaries to French field army, 43 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.145 on Sat, 02 Jul 2016 04:29:33 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

The Kurbskii Controversy

Professor Keenan s eagerly awaited book is a bold and erudite discussion of celebrated and oft-cited Correspondence between Prince A. M. Kurbskii and Tsar Ivan IV. It is a bombshell, perhaps most devastatingly explosive of a whole series of rockets launched at traditional historiography of reign of Ivan IV. In recent past, S. B. Veselovskii's posthumous essays have severely shaken view that oprichnina was a consistent and rational experiment in social engineering; Bjarne N0rretranders has demonstrated that writings attributed to Prince Kurbskii are remarkably devoid of political ideas of any kind; and Anthony Grobovsky has argued conclusively, I believe that much-publicized Select Council of Ivan IV was a figment of S. M. Solov'ev's imagination. Keenan's contribution is to suggest that Correspondence, hitherto accepted as genuine by even most thorough-going revisionists, is a work of seventeenth century. In his view Kurbskii's first letter, textological lynch-pin of work, originated as a letter of Prince Semen Shakhovskoi to Tsar Michael Romanov. When Shakhovskoi's personal fortunes subsequently changed, he added to text last sections attributing work to Kurbskii and then composed two versions of Tsar's famous first letter. According to Keenan, remaining letters that make up Correspondence were work of representatives of the upper bureaucratic elite in last decades of seventeenth century. Keenan describes his monograph as a preliminary report. He has concentrated on two areas extant manuscripts of letters and textological origins of Kurbskii's first epistle to Ivan. In my own view, Keenan and his collaborator, Daniel Waugh, have made their greatest contributions in first of these two areas. Waugh has pro-

Population and Social Patterns in Barbados in the Early Eighteenth Century

F FROM beginning of settlement in February i627, Barbados was a commercial venture, and colonists who initially migrated there were looking for a cash crop that would be marketable in Europe.' Despite its size, a mere io6,ooo acres, Barbados had such fertile soil and so favorable a climate that it became for a time during last decades of seventeenth century most financially successful of English colonies.2 The colonists first tried tobacco. But it was of inferior quality, and when its price fell on world market during i630s, they turned to cotton and ultimately to sugar in their search for a staple crop. Initially introduced around i640, sugar came to dominate economy during i65os, as colonists invested heavily in it to exclusion of tobacco, cotton, indigo, and ginger.3 Thus began the rule of crop.4 At first production of sugar was enormously profitable because sugar was a scarce commodity commanding high prices in European

The Aesthetic Criticism of Hamlet from 1692 to 1699

HE aesthetic criticism of Hamlet began in last decade of seventeenth century. Before this time, only one short statement by Dryden is worthy name of criticism. Dryden objected to some of language in . . out, thou strumpet, Fortune and in the mobled queen. This is a ca>Kj o small observation, but it is apparently first instance of aesthetic criticism applied to Hamlet. In last decade of century two events happened which produced a change in Hamlet discussion and made a beginning in field of aesthetic criticism. One of these events grew out of other. They set a pattern that continued down to Coleridge. The first of these was publication of critical studies by Thomas Rymer and Jeremy Collier. The second event was publication of a number of replies to these works. This was pattern: presentation of a critical opinion, which in turn was answered by one or more critics. Thomas Rymer's Short View of Tragedy appeared in i692. From this time until I765 question of unities was a problem in Shakespearian criticism. Rymer inspired attacks on this and on other topics as well. Two years after appearance of Short View, Charles Gildon made a reply in his Some Reflections on Mr. Rymer's Short View of Tragedy. He calls attention to morals of Shakespeare's plays (Hamlet is one he mentions), and says that they are mightier than any in Sophocles except Electra.' Gildon takes proEnglish view which had been gaining ground since appearance of Dryden, and rates Shakespeare above Greek and Latin poets. He absolves him from Aristotelian rules. He is much impressed with Shakespeare's power over words and his ability to create images. This is not, however, in strictest sense, a criticism of Hamlet, because Gildon is dealing chiefly with Shakespeare in general, and uses Hamlet as an instance of whatever point he is making. This does, however, introduce some problems which are soon to follow in discussions of Hamlet. The moral question is up for consideration from this time until only one year before Coleridge began his first lectures. Gildon noticed lack of bombast in Shakespeare. Dryden a quarter of a century before this had noticed presence of it. Shakespeare's use of language is a common topic for argument throughout period. The opinions of Gildon are not mere observations. They help to begin old style of general criticism which reached its height in Johnson. He makes a statement and then offers, if not proof, at least an attempt at explanation.