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Reading Jonson Historically
CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by The University of Sydney: Sydney eScholarship Journals online SYDNEY STUDIES Invading Interpreters and Politic Picklocks: Reading Jonson Historically IAN DONAIDSON A central problem in the methodology ofboth the new and 'old' historicism turns on the nature ofthe link that is assumed to exist between historical description and literary interpretation. The monolithic accounts ofElizabethan systems ofbelief assembled by so-called old historicists such as E.M.W. Tillyard (it is common these days to complain) seem often quite at variance with the diverse and at times rebellious energies ofthe literary texts which they are apparently devised to illuminate. Even inthe work of a more sophisticated old historicist such as L.C. Knights the supposedly related activities ofhistorical and literary investigation seem often to tug in contrary directions. The divergence is apparent, for example, in the very structure of Knights's influential study of Drama and Society in the Age of Jonson, the first half of which offers a stolid, Tawney-derived historical account ofeconomic conditions inEngland during the late Elizabethan, early Jacobean period (entitled 'The Background'), while the second half ('The Dramatists') advances livelier readings ofthe work ofindividual authors. The connections here between foreground and 'background', text and context, 'drama' and 'society', literature and history are quite loosely articulated and theoretically undeveloped.l A similar disjunction is often evident in the work of a new historicist such as Stephen Greenblatt, as he turns from a closely-worked meditation upon a particular and highly intriguing historical incident - often quirky in nature, but assumed also to be in some way exemplary - to ponder the particularities of a literary text. -
Ben Jonson and the Mirror: Folly Knows No Gender
Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Dissertations Graduate College 6-2001 Ben Jonson and The Mirror: Folly Knows No Gender Sherry Broadwell Niewoonder Western Michigan University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations Part of the Classical Literature and Philology Commons, English Language and Literature Commons, and the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons Recommended Citation Niewoonder, Sherry Broadwell, "Ben Jonson and The Mirror: Folly Knows No Gender" (2001). Dissertations. 1382. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations/1382 This Dissertation-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BEN JONSON AND THE MIRROR: FOLLY KNOWS NO GENDER by Sherry Broadwell Niewoonder A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan June 2001 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. BEN JONSON AND THE M IR R O R : FO LLY KNOWS NO GENDER Sherry Broadwell Niewoonder, Ph.D. Western Michigan University, 2001 Ben Jonson, Renaissance poet and playwright, has been the subject of renewed evaluation in recent scholarship, particularly new historicism and cultural materialism. The consensus among some current scholars is that Jonson overtly practices and advocates misogyny in his dramas. Such theorists suggest that Jonson both embodies and promulgates the anti woman rhetoric of his time, basing their position on contemporary cultural material, religious tracts, and the writings of King James I. -
Shakespeare, Jonson, and the Invention of the Author
11 Donaldson 1573 11/10/07 15:05 Page 319 SHAKESPEARE LECTURE Shakespeare, Jonson, and the Invention of the Author IAN DONALDSON Fellow of the Academy THE LIVES AND CAREERS OF SHAKESPEARE and Ben Jonson, the two supreme writers of early modern England, were intricately and curiously interwoven. Eight years Shakespeare’s junior, Jonson emerged in the late 1590s as a writer of remarkable gifts, and Shakespeare’s greatest theatri- cal rival since the death of Christopher Marlowe. Shakespeare played a leading role in the comedy that first brought Jonson to public promi- nence, Every Man In His Humour, having earlier decisively intervened— so his eighteenth-century editor, Nicholas Rowe, relates—to ensure that the play was performed by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, who had ini- tially rejected the manuscript.1 Shakespeare’s name appears alongside that of Richard Burbage in the list of ‘principal tragedians’ from the same company who performed in Jonson’s Sejanus in 1603, and it has been con- jectured that he and Jonson may even have written this play together.2 During the years of their maturity, the two men continued to observe Read at the Academy 25 April 2006. 1 The Works of Mr William Shakespeare, ed. Nicholas Rowe, 6 vols. (London, printed for Jacob Tonson, 1709), I, pp. xii–xiii. On the reliability of Rowe’s testimony, see Samuel Schoenbaum, Shakespeare’s Lives (Oxford, 1970), pp. 19–35. 2 The list is appended to the folio text of the play, published in 1616. For the suggestion that Shakespeare worked with Jonson on the composition of Sejanus, see Anne Barton, Ben Jonson: Dramatist (Cambridge, 1984), pp. -
Ben Jonson's Use of English Folk Ritual in the Court Masques
The Woman's College of The University of North Carolina LIBRARY COLLEGE COLLECTION Gift of Virginia Acheson Tucker BEN JONSON'S USE OP ENGLISH POLK RITUAL IN THE COURT MASQUES by Virginia Acheson Tucker A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Cat Greensboro May, 1964 Approved lC\J'^?n^iA^v>A 4c c APPROVAL SHEET This thesis has been approved by the following committee of the Faculty of the Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina. Thesis Director ^ry Oral Examination 44* Aah Committee Members Z^ryx^s- &&Z&1 ■ ( AtjyAs-^-L<D^_ -&* 270341 JJ rt/u, rfc*? Date of Examination li TUCKER, VIRGINIA ACHE30N. Ben Jonson's Use of English Polk Ritual in the Court Masques. (1964) Directed by Dr. Joseph A. Bryant, Jr.. pp. 51 A chronological study of the court masques of Ben Jonson reveals that he began composing masques using the purely classical elements which were the accepted devices of the day but that about 1610 he began to import elements which appear to have their basis in English folk ritual such as the mummers' play, the sword dance, and the plough play. Further study suggests that by 1616 Jonson had realized the full possibilities of the use of native ludl and from that time on used English elements with increasing confidence, producing a well-integrated series of masques in which classical and native motifs are happily blended. -
The Absence of America on the Early Modern Stage by Gavin R. Hollis A
The Absence of America on the Early Modern Stage by Gavin R. Hollis A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (English Language and Literature) in The University of Michigan 2008 Doctoral Committee: Professor Valerie J. Traub, Chair Professor Michael C. Schoenfeldt Associate Professor Susan M. Juster Associate Professor Susan Scott Parrish © Gavin Hollis 2008 To my parents ii Acknowledgements In an episode of The Simpsons, Marge urges Bart not to make fun of graduate students because “they’ve just made a terrible life choice.” This may be true, but one of the many advantages of this “life choice” is that I have met, been inspired by, and become firm friends with an array of people on both sides of the pond. The first debt I owe is to my advisors at the University of Michigan, who have seen this project through its many stages of confusion and incoherence. Mike Schoenfeldt, Scotti Parrish, and Sue Juster have been supportive, critical, rigorous, inventive, and excellent company. My biggest debt of gratitude is owed however to Valerie Traub, the chair of my dissertation committee, whose influence on this project and has been, and I hope will continue to be, immense. I’m also indebted to faculty at Trinity Hall, Cambridge and at The Shakespeare Institute who have shaped me as a scholar before I made it these shores. I am especially grateful to Peter Holland, who, it is no exaggeration to say, taught me how to read Shakespeare. Thank you also to John Jowett, Drew Milne, and John Lennard. -
So We Are Talking Roughly About Twenty‐Five Years of Theatre. Roughly, Because the Tendencies That Characteriz
So we are talking roughly about twenty‐five years of theatre. Roughly, because the tendencies that characterize Jacobean theatre started before James I came to the throne (1603, died 1625) around the year 1599 – the year when the Lord Chamberlain’s Men relocated their theatre from Shoreditch to Southwark (on the southern bank of the Thames) and called it “The Globe”, the year when the private theatre of Paul’s boys was reopened, and a little later the Lord Chamberlain’s Men got hold of the Blackfriars theatre. These developments brought about an unprecedented avalanche of play‐writing and dramaturgical innovation that made the Jacobean period one of the most dynamic and spectacular periods in theatre history as we know it. The period also established a new generation of playwrights: the most prominent of whom are Ben Jonson, John Marston, George Chapman, Thomas Middleton, John Webster, Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher – who worked alongside, competed with, collaborated and learned from William Shakespeare – the major figure that continued to sway the English stage from the Elizabethan well into the Jacobean period. 1 Of course, at the beginning of the period the most successful playwright in London was Shakespeare. So far, his fame rested mainly on the series of history plays: the two tetralogies (Henry VI, Parts I‐III and Richard III; and Richard II, Henry IV, Parts I‐II and Henry V) and King John; and his witty romantic comedies that Queen Elizabeth reportedly liked so much: e.g. Love’s Labour’s Lost, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It. -
The Politics of the Stuart Court Masque This Book Takes a New Look at the Courtly Masque in Early Seventeenth-Century England
The Politics of the Stuart Court Masque This book takes a new look at the courtly masque in early seventeenth-century England. For a generation, the masque has been a favourite topic of New Historicism, because it has been seen as part of the process by which artistic works interact with politics, both shaping and reflecting the political life of a nation. These exciting new essays move importantly beyond a monolithic view of culture and power in the production of masques, to one in which rival factions at the courts of James I and of Charles I represent their clash of viewpoints through dancing and spectacle. All aspects of the masque are considered, from written text and political context to music, stage picture and dance. The essays, written by distinguished scholars from around the world, present an interdisciplinary approach, with experts on dance, music, visual spectacle and politics all addressing the masque from the point of view of their speciality. David Bevington is the Phyllis Fay Horton Professor in the Human- ities in the Departments of English and of Comparative Literature at the University of Chicago. His books include From ‘Mankind’ to Marlowe: Growth of Structure in the Popular Drama of Tudor England (), Tudor Drama and Politics () and Action is Eloquence: Shake- speare’s Language of Gesture (). He is editor of both The Bantam Shakespeare () and The Complete Works of Shakespeare (, updated ). Peter Holbrook is a Lecturer in the Department of English, at the University of Queensland, Australia, and is the author of Literature and Degree in Renaissance England: Nashe, Bourgeois Tragedy, Shakespeare (). -
The Project Gutenberg Ebook of the Poetaster, by Ben Jonson #8 in Our Series by Ben Jonson
The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Poetaster, by Ben Jonson #8 in our series by Ben Jonson Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the header without written permission. Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. **Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** **eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** *****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** Title: The Poetaster Or, His Arraignment Author: Ben Jonson Release Date: February, 2004 [EBook #5166] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on May 27, 2002] Edition: 10 Language: English Character set encoding: ASCII *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POETASTER *** This Project Gutenberg Etext Prepared Down Under In Australia by: Amy E Zelmer <[email protected]> Sue Asscher <[email protected]> With assistance from their Californian co-conspirator Robert Prince <[email protected]> THE POETASTER OR, HIS ARRAIGNMENT INTRODUCTION THE greatest of English dramatists except Shakespeare, the first literary dictator and poet-laureate, a writer of verse, prose, satire, and criticism who most potently of all the men of his time affected the subsequent course of English letters: such was Ben Jonson, and as such his strong personality assumes an interest to us almost unparalleled, at least in his age. -
From Foreign Enemy to Great Unifying Leader: Performances of King James VI and I Between 1599 and 1624 in the Works of Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare
From Foreign Enemy to Great Unifying Leader: Performances of King James VI and I between 1599 and 1624 in the Works of Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare. Joshua Caldicott ‘[Players] are the abstract and brief chronicles of the time: after your death you were better have a bad epitaph than their ill report while you live’1 –Hamlet The period around the succession of King James VI and I of Scotland and England was a time of great tension, following the death of Queen Elizabeth I whose successor was in question throughout her forty five year reign. During this period, the works of Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare were incredibly successful, and both playwrights were fortunate to have an insight into the relationship between the monarch and his subjects performing both on the public stage and in the privacy of court. Though James, in contrast to his son Charles, is often remembered for not performing in court masques, he still appears (directly or indirectly) on the stages of the time: in Histories such as Henry V, in Tragedies such as Robert II and Macbeth, in Comedies such as Eastward Ho, and even in his Court Masques. Considering the plays as ‘chronicles of the time’, it is possible to map through his appearances in the works of Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare, how the perception of King James VI and I changes over time within England as he takes to the throne. Before James took the throne in 1603, there was great tension in England surrounding Elizabeth’s successor, and subsequently, some people may have already started to look North towards James, thus giving the opportunity for the playhouses to produce works like Jonson’s Robert II, that try to understand James’ position as royalty. -
'Ben Jonson and Masquing Culture at the Jacobean Court'
1 Dr Peter Sillitoe, ShaLT Collection Enhancement Report No. 4 for the V&A, Theatre and Performance Department (January 2012) ‘Ben Jonson and Masquing Culture at the Jacobean Court’ Although terms such as ‘Renaissance drama’ and ‘early modern theatre’ rightly evoke a sense of ‘public’ theatre (whether outdoors or indoors) it is important to remember that theatre in the period meant far more than the drama of Shakespeare or Middleton as seen at the Globe or the Blackfriars. Indeed, one of the most important forms of theatre was the display and performative nature of court ritual and ceremony. ‘Court entertainments’, then, might include civic entries of the monarch into a city such as London. Similarly, ‘progresses’ (as the court travelled the country and was entertained at aristocratic houses) form another type of elite performance in the Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline periods. However, once James I came to the throne in 1603, after the death of Elizabeth I, it is generally accepted that the early modern English court became more centralised, focussing attention and time more exclusively at Whitehall Palace. This theory is to some extent consolidated by the startling growth in popularity of the court masque in the Jacobean period (the reign of James I, 1603-1625). To summarise, the court masque was a type of performance and was influenced by court theatre on the continent, particularly Italy and Spain. The masque consisted of a series of dances, spectacles, and lavish scenery, costume and display. Although it should not be seen in any way as a kind of precursor to opera, the use of music and dance does allow a comparison at least. -
Closure and the Antimasque of the Tempest Geraldo U. De Sousa*
Fall 1987 41 Closure and the Antimasque of The Tempest Geraldo U. de Sousa* Howard Felperin writes that a Shakespeare play invites two con tradictory responses: on the one hand, it "demands a conservative or archeological response in so far as it carries within itself an archaic or received sign-system"; on the other, "it insists on its own differ ence from that older sign-system, its departure from prior art in the direction of present life" (Shakespearean Representation 8). He adds that "literature seems to carry its own history encoded or inscribed within it" (27).1 The Tempest has remained one of the most closed plays in the entire canon; it seems the very emblem of closure. Yet many think that it contains Shakespeare's veiled farewell to the the ater or that it reflects topical concerns of court aesthetics and the royal family of James I.2 I would like to examine the question of boundary and closure in The Tempest, especially in relation to the wedding masque in Act IV, scene i. Although self-contained and in dependent, the masque seems incomplete, not only because Prospero breaks it off but also because it raises questions about a possible antimasque embedded in it. My main contention here is that the boundaries of the masque collapse to reveal an antimasque-like real ity.3 From this examination, one can perhaps make generalizations about the play's generic encoding and embedded literary history. One can hardly disagree with Geoffrey Bullough's statement that "although the Masque of Ceres and Juno affects the plot little, it fits admirably into the ethical pattern of the play" (237). -
The Project Gutenberg Ebook of Sejanus: His Fall, by Ben Jonson #9 in Our Series by Ben Jonson
The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sejanus: His Fall, by Ben Jonson #9 in our series by Ben Jonson Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the header without written permission. Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. **Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** **eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** *****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** Title: Sejanus: His Fall Author: Ben Jonson Release Date: March, 2004 [EBook #5232] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on June 10, 2002] Edition: 10 Language: English Character set encoding: ASCII *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEJANUS: HIS FALL *** This Project Gutenberg Etext Prepared Down Under In Australia by: Amy E Zelmer <[email protected]> Sue Asscher <[email protected]> With assistance from their Californian co-conspirator Robert Prince <[email protected]> Sejanus: His Fall by Ben Jonson Transcriber's note: This play is based on events that happend a millenia and a half before Jonson wrote it.