A "Disposition to Laziness": Visions of Cockaigne in the English Atlantic World

abstract: Originating in medieval Europe, the mythical land of Cockaigne frequently appeared in English literary texts between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. Particularly prominent in works on the Americas, images of the medieval folk utopia served a variety of ideological purposes, from lamenting the innate laziness of the masses and encouraging emigration to ridiculing the colonial project as a ruse to fool the credulous. Analysis of these disparate images provides an informative and unique lens through which to explore changing attitudes about human nature and the meaning of work in early modern England and America. abstract: Originating in medieval Europe, the mythical land of Cockaigne frequently appeared in English literary texts between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. Particularly prominent in works on the Americas, images of the medieval folk utopia served a variety of ideological purposes, from lamenting the innate laziness of the masses and encouraging emigration to ridiculing the colonial project as a ruse to fool the credulous. Analysis of these disparate images provides an informative and unique lens through which to explore changing attitudes about human nature and the meaning of work in early modern England and America.