Usury and Ethical Anxiety in Timon of Athens

This article reads Timon's tragedy against the socio-historical background of early modern England. While examining the links of Timon's generosity together with the subsequent downfall to the cultural forms that constituted patronage and usury in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, the article suggests that in Timon of Athens Shakespeare explores the conflicts between feudal ethics and the ethics of contract in the transition from feudal economy to modern capitalism. Shakespeare's un-classical treatment of Timon's catastrophe addresses the ethical anxiety of early modern England, where the forces of commercialism disrupt the ethics of the feudal order.