City Talk: Women and Commodification in Jonson's Epicoene

Abstract

In the liveliest London streets, the shops press one against the other, shops which flaunt behind their hollow eyes of glass all the riches of the world, Indian cashmeres, American revolvers, Chinese porcelains, French corsets, Russian furs and tropical spices; but all these things promising the pleasures of the world bear those deadly white labels on their fronts on which are engraved arabic numerals with laconic characters-?, s, d (pound sterling, shilling, pence). This is the image of commodities as they appear in circulation.