Jonson, Horace and the Classical Tradition
Jonson, Horace and the Classical Tradition
The influence of the Roman poet Horace on Ben Jonson has often been acknowledged, but never fully explored. Discussing Jonson's Horatianism in detail, this study also places Jonson's densely intertextual relationship with Horace's Latin text within the broader context of his complex negotiations with a range of other 'rivals' to the Horatian model including Pindar, Seneca, Juvenal and Martial. The new reading of Jonson's classicism that emerges is one founded not upon static imitation, but rather a lively dialogue between competing models - an allusive mode that extends into the seventeenth-century reception of Jonson himself as a latter-day 'Horace'. In the course of this analysis, the book provides fresh readings of many of Jonson's best-known poems - including 'Inviting a Friend to Dinner' and 'To Penshurst' - as well as a new perspective on many lesser-known pieces, and a range of unpublished manuscript material.
- Fills a major gap in Jonson scholarship by providing the first complete account of Ben Jonson's relationship with Horace
- Applies intertextual readings, developed from recent Latin scholarship, to early modern literature and its interaction with the classics
- Contextualises Jonson's relationship with Horace in terms of the wider cultural context of early modern England, including book production, manuscript circulation and translation
Reviews & endorsements
"Almost every page of this book evinces an author whose knowledge of Horace, and of the other authors dealt with, especially Pindar, Martial, and Juvenal, will be the envy of almost anyone who works on the early modern period. Moul is highly sensitive to every echo of Horace in Jonson’s work, and the allusions she identifies rarely seem tenuous. Equally clear is the extent of her familiarity with Jonson himself, particularly his poems. Her expertise in these two areas makes this book the definitive literary-critical study of the Horatianism of Jonson’s poetry."
-Nick Hardy, University of Oxford, Bryn Mawr Classical Review
Product details
April 2016Paperback
9781316501641
260 pages
230 × 155 × 15 mm
0.39kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Introduction: imitation, allusion, translation: reading Jonson's Horace
- 1. Jonson's Odes: Horatian lyric presence and the dialogue with Pindar
- 2. Horatian libertas in Jonson's epigrams and epistles
- 3. Competing voices in Jonson's verse satires: Horace and Juvenal
- 4. Poetaster: classical translation and cultural authority
- 5. Translating Horace, translating Jonson
- Conclusion: More Remov'd Mysteries: Jonson's textual 'occasions'
- Appendix: Manuscript transcriptions.
