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Speake That I May See Thee Academiejaar 2007-2008 SPEAKE THAT I MAY SEE THEE STYLISTIC CLUES FOR THE INTERPRETATION OF OVID IN BEN JONSON'S POETASTER Promotor: Prof. Dr. Stef Slembrouck Co-promotor: Prof. Dr. Wim Verbaal Verhandeling voorgelegd aan de Faculteit Letteren en Wijsbegeerte voor het verkrijgen van de graad van Master in de Taal- en Letterkunde, door Jolien De Vriendt Preface In autumn 2006, I took Prof. Tom Cain's course \Shakespeare and Jonson: comedies" at the Newcastle University. In an introduction to Ben Jonson, professor Cain mentioned his play Poetaster, a satiric comedy set in Augustan Rome. From further reading I learned that the play addresses highly interesting issues as the role of poetry within a community and the representation of classical figures and the ideologies associated with them. My personal interest in such matters induced me to write a bachelor paper with Poetaster as its subject, concluding my bachelor program in Latin and English language and literature. The paper consisted of a status quaestionis on the role of Ovid Junior in the play since much debate had been ongoing about this. From the reading I did on the subject, I learned that rarely critics had, in a structural way, used linguistic evidence to support their statements. This constitutes the purpose of the present work, focusing on the role of Ovid Junior. I would wish to thank the promotor and co-promotor of this thesis, Prof. Dr. Stefaan Slembrouck and Prof. Dr. Wilhelmus Verbaal, for their scholarly support and advice. I also wish to thank my family and friends for unremitting support. i Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 Jonson and Language 4 3 Ovid's Influence in Renaissance England 9 4 The Ovid of Poetaster 15 4.1 Ovid's role . 15 4.2 Literature review on the meaning and function of Ovid's character . 17 4.2.1 The Stage Quarrel: envy and detraction . 17 4.2.2 Licence, sensuality and blasphemy . 22 4.2.3 Ovid versus the other poets . 34 5 The Language of Ovid in Poetaster 39 5.1 Scene I.i-ii: Two Odes . 39 5.2 Scene I.iii: Ovid, the Poet . 52 5.3 Scenes II.ii and IV.v: Ovid, the courtier poet . 56 5.4 Scenes IV.ix-x: Ovid, the Lover . 60 6 Conclusion and Further Perspectives 64 Bibliography: Primary Sources 69 Bibliography: Secondary Sources 70 Appendices 73 A Ovid, Amores I.xv . 74 B Marlowe, Ovid's Elegies I.xv . 76 C Jonson, Poetaster I.i.43-84 . 78 ii Contents iii D Jonson, Poetaster I.ii.232-257 . 80 E Jonson, Poetaster IV.ix.1-30 . 81 F Ovid versus the other courtier poets: a fragment from Horace's role . 82 Chapter 1 Introduction The body of research on Ben Jonson is almost as big as that on Shakespeare, but the linguistic research covers a fairly small number of titles. This is quite surprising for an author who, for instance, deliberately removed the `h' from his name whereas Shakespeare's name has been found in at least five different spellings. Jonson was indeed highly conscious of the impact of any aspect of language on social life. Not only did he have clear views on language in general, he also designed a coherent linguistic program that he applied in his literary works. Bearing all this in mind, it is not at all a far-fetched supposition that Jonson paid particular attention to language use when designing the characters of his plays. Moreover, his notorious classicism induces one to think that this is specifically the case for his Roman characters and even more so for the Roman artist characters, i. c. poets. My interest in studies on the verge of the Latin and English disciplines and the linguistic and literary fields, brought about that I decided to make this the subject of my master thesis. I would investigate the language use of one Roman poet character in Jonson's comical satire Poetaster, namely the character of Ovid Junior. This primarily in order to contribute to the debate that has evolved around the interpretation of Poetaster, specifically of the character of Ovid and, consequentially, in order to find answers to questions like these: of what nature was Jonson's regard of the historical Ovid, in how far did Jonson link up linguistic, artistic and social accomplishments and what can we learn from Poetaster concerning Jonson's artistic ideology and practice? At first, it was my objective to compare Jonson's handling of his character of Ovid with the facts about the Latin poet Ovid1, both on the historical and on the artistic level. 1Throughout this work, I will apply the name `Ovid' for both the dramatic character and the historical Latin poet. However, if ambiguity arises, I will use `Ovidius' to indicate the Roman poet. 1 Chapter 1. Introduction 2 Jonson's character does indeed adopt many aspects of the historical Ovid on both levels, such as the fact of his banishment by Augustus and the recitation of some poetic works. I even planned, as a student of Latin, to take the historical Ovid and his literary works as a starting point for my discussion. However, it soon became clear that it was not Jonson's aim to set down a historical document, nor to offer, in a literary form, his opinions on the Latin poet. Jonson was too selfishly concerned with his own artistic program and with the age he lives in, for which evidence is vast, also in his other works. Therefore, I decided to focus on Jonson's construction of Ovid within his play. From the reading of secondary literature on Jonson, one learns that two principles pervade Jonson's career, namely his theoretical way of thinking, that is, his interest in literary and linguistic theory, and his commitment to the social and literary world around him. Consequently, I will investigate for both principles how they apply to the present subject. In the second chapter of this work Jonson's ideas about language will be sketched out. This chapter ultimately focuses on what is relevant for a linguistic approach to the character of Ovid in Poetaster. Since Jonson's linguistic commitment is significant as a condition for this research, this chapter can be considered an elaborated motivation for this thesis. It will show that stylistic research on a dramatic character, in Jonson's case more than in the case of the average dramatist, may help to provide additional material for the interpretation of that character. A third chapter will be devoted to the literary landscape of the decades surrounding the edition of Poetaster, as far as the reception of the Roman Ovid as an artist is concerned. Again, this information will prove vital for the results of this work. Chapter four, at last, will focus on the character of Ovid. It contains of a discussion of the actual role of Ovid in the play and a literature review on the interpretation of this character. All references to Jonson's text of will be to Tom Cain's edition of Poetaster (1995).2 Chapter five will be the central one, namely the actual study of the language style that Jonson used for his dramatic construction of Ovid. As an objective theory for the description of language styles, I will apply the aesthetic categories as defined in `Latijnse taalkunde: bijzondere vraagstukken', taught by professor W. Verbaal in the first semester of 2007-2008. This will only be done in an implicit way, since a complete account of the theory and a translation of its jargon into English would lead me too far from the present purpose. Arthur King's work `The Language of Satirized Characters in Po¨etaster' (1941), which especially gives an overview of various contemporary registers, will also serve as a reference work. The last chapter of this dissertation will sum up conclusions on different 2There is also an e-book of the play available on the Internet, provided by Project Gutenberg, see bibliography for details. Chapter 1. Introduction 3 levels. Firstly, the most direct findings of the study will be presented, namely the answer to the question how Ovid is stylistically represented. Secondly, these results will be put against the background of the debate on the aims and construction of Poetaster. Chapter 2 Jonson and Language Jonson's age, on the verge of the transition from Renaissance to neoclassicism, was a cru- cial period for the English language. It was the time in which classical sources were (in many cases for the first time) investigated for linguistic characteristics. Modern languages were compared and enriched with them. Especially in the case of English, this was a time of profligate borrowing from Latin. Moreover, this period is characterized by a conscious movement toward standardization and modernity, toward uniformity in grammar, pronun- ciation and spelling. Jonson was highly concerned with his language and so regarded by his contemporaries. Dryden and Pope both mention him as one of the \perfecters" of the language and in 1638 Henry King, in To the Memory of My Friend, Ben Jonson says: Among those soaring wits that did dilate Our English, and advance it to the rate And Value it now holds, thyself was one Help'd it lift it up to such proportion, That thus refin’d and rob'd, it shall not spare With the full Greek or Latin to compare.1 Jonson was an autodidact student of linguistics and understood the mechanisms of lan- guage, for instance, that language was in constant change. He tried to explain evolutions in the language especially through tracing them back to earlier forms.
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