Jonson and the Contexts of His Time"Ben Jonson was one of the most important writers of the English Renaissance, and this study both reflects and contributes to the growing focus on the concrete details of his art and career. By examining specific works, particular historical circumstances, and complex relations with various individuals, author Robert C. Evans tries to locate Jonson's writings in the contexts that helped shape their artistry." "This book presumes that the more one knows about Jonson's various contexts, the more richly one can appreciate the complicated significance of the texts he produced. In fact, a major purpose of the book is the presentation of new archival data. The individual chapters all assume that Jonson could not ignore his relations with other people and the effects that those relations might have had on his life and writings." "The first chapter raises explicitly many of the questions involved in the historical study of literature, contributing to recent dialogue about the meaning and value of the so-called New Historicism. This chapter also offers one of the few sustained examinations of one of Jonson's most typical and significant poems, the epistle to Edward Sackville." "Chapter 2 suggests why Jonson's relations with rivals and patrons were particularly significant. It discusses one of his most important rivalries - the "poetomachia" - and its significance for the early years of his life as a writer. The chapter then jumps to the end of Jonson's career and emphasizes works he addressed to the Earl of Newcastle, one of his most important later patrons. This initial emphasis on patronage and rivalry recurs in one way or another in all the subsequent chapters, which follow a roughly chronological scheme." "Chapter 3 looks at the earliest and perhaps still the best of Jonson's great plays, Volpone, and explores new evidence suggesting that Jonson may have used this comedy to mock a powerful and wellknown contemporary. Chapter 4 explores The Devil is an Ass (1616) and attempts to suggest the very complicated political and social circumstances in which it was enmeshed. Chapter 5 tries to show how the important masque entitled Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue offered a detailed response to another aristocratic entertainment written a few months earlier, and chapter 6 surveys the poet's apparently contentious relations with the highly talented Thomas Campion." "Chapters 7 and 8 focus on the closing years of Jonson's career. They explore his little-known friendship with Joseph Webbe, an important language theorist whose ideas were quite controversial at the time, and examine Jonson's relations with significant Caroline patrons in an attempt to show the complicated ways in which the patronage "system" - so often discussed in the abstract could operate in actuality. A brief afterword summarizes some of the general critical assumptions on which all the preceding chapters are based."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
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Page 129
... phrasing can be found in Campion's songs . The last line of the eighth song , for instance ( which Spink believes was the last song of the masque proper ) , has a chorus of gypsies announcing that " Our nightly sports and prophesies wee ...
... phrasing can be found in Campion's songs . The last line of the eighth song , for instance ( which Spink believes was the last song of the masque proper ) , has a chorus of gypsies announcing that " Our nightly sports and prophesies wee ...
Page 166
... phrasing elsewhere . Weston is the port — the haven , the source of security and stability in a time of storms — to an England increasingly rocked by political , religious , and eco- nomic strife.23 Of course , to Weston's enemies this ...
... phrasing elsewhere . Weston is the port — the haven , the source of security and stability in a time of storms — to an England increasingly rocked by political , religious , and eco- nomic strife.23 Of course , to Weston's enemies this ...
Page 167
... phrasing insinuates the poet's role in " shew [ ing ] " the true natures of those he attacks . The poem's very existence exempts him from the charges of envy and ethical blindness he hurls at others . Jonson's penultimate injunction ...
... phrasing insinuates the poet's role in " shew [ ing ] " the true natures of those he attacks . The poem's very existence exempts him from the charges of envy and ethical blindness he hurls at others . Jonson's penultimate injunction ...
Contents
Early and Late | 22 |
Jonsons Volpone? 45 4 2065 | 45 |
Political Contexts of The Devil is an | 62 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
allude allusion attacks audience Ben Jonson Brougham Castle Caelestine Cambridge Campion Carr Cavendish claims Cockayne Cockayne project Coke contemporary contexts court courtiers CSPV 22 Cupid's Banishment Dekker Devil Digby Digby's Earl earlier edition Either-side emphasize English epigram epistle epithalamion evidence fact Fitz-dottrell Friis hath haue historicism Horace Ignoramus important Inigo Jones instance interest Jacobean James James's John John Chamberlain John Donne Jonson's masque Jonson's play Jonson's poem kind King King's later literary London Lord Lovers Made Men manuscript micropolitical mock notes patrons Pembroke perhaps personal satire phrasing play's Pleasure Reconciled poem's poet poet's poetry praise Queen reason recent reference relations Renaissance rivals Ruggle's Sackville Samuel Hartlib satire Satiromastix sense simply social son's speech suggests Sutton Terrill Thomas Thomas Dekker Thomas Sutton tion University Press Venetia verses Volpone vols Webbe Webbe's Weston White White's masque words writing