Comedy and Crisis

Comedy and Crisis contains the first ever scholarly English translation of Pieter Langendijk’s Quincampoix, or the Wind Traders [ Quincampoix of de Windhandelaars ], and Harlequin Stock-Jobber [ Arlequin Actionist ]. The first play is a full-length satirical comedy, and the second is a short, comic harlequinade; both were written in Dutch in response to the speculative financial crisis or bubble of 1720 and were performed in Amsterdam in the fall of 1720, as the bubble in the Netherlands was bur