“[A]s the Lord had decreed”: The Metamorphosis of Richard Whittington

Abstract

In the hands of Thomas Deloney and Thomas Dekker, the legend of Simon Eyre emphasized his disregard for common concerns about both the place of aliens in London’s economy and the respect freemen were expected to have for the office of alderman. He put this disregard in the service of his desire for wealth and the elevated social status that would derive from it. Ultimately, Deloney and Dekker each affirmed the compatibility of Eyre’s personal ambition with the metropolitan moral economy by emphasizing his engagement in philanthropic acts that buttressed the established customs and structures of authority in the City and the nation. When they viewed Eyre’s career as a whole, early modern Londoners may well have considered it a powerful example of how in the marketplace the ends could justify the means.