Explain with referncce to the context come on sir. now you are set foot on the shore. in novo orbe here the rich pern. and there withi sir, are the golde mines great solomon ophir
Answers
These lines are taken from Ben Jonson's play 'The Alchemist' Act 2, Scene 2. The reader is introduced to Sir Epicure Mammon in this scene. These lines are spoken by Mammon who desperately wants to enjoy a life of wealth.
The term 'novo orbe' refers to a work by Peter Martyr which tells about the discovery of the Pacific Ocean by Balboa and the expeditions of Pedrarias. The Italian chronicler, Martyr was commissioned by the government to describe what was going on in the New World.
Some of the reasons why Jonson refers to this work in Mammon's speech are:
i. Mammon is looking for a new world. This is similar to Martyr's work.
ii. Mammon is greedy. He is willing to experiment with alchemedic practices just like the voyages to the new world were experimental in nature.
iii. Martyr's work represents the duality of the supremacy of new science over Aristotelianism. Similarly duality is expressed in Jonson's work in terms of old versus the new, for instance, the people who were formerly poor and had become newly rich.