Jonson, Horace and the Classical Tradition

by Victoria Moul

Overview

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a Friend to Dinner' and 'To Penshurst' - as well as a new perspective on many lesser-known pieces, and a range of unpublished manuscript material.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521117425
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/01/2010
Pages:	258
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Victoria Moul is a lecturer in Latin language and literature at King's College London. She works on various aspects of the interpretation of classical poetry in both ancient and more modern literature.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ix

List of abbreviations x

Introduction: imitation, allusion, translation: reading Jonson's Horace 1

1 Jonson's Odes: Horatian lyric presence and the dialogue with Pindar 13

2 Horatian libertas in Jonson's epigrams and epistles 54

3 Competing voices in Jonson's verse satire: Horace and Juvenal 94

4 Poetaster: classical translation and cultural authority 135

5 Translating Horace, translating Jonson 173

Conclusion More remov'd mysteries: Jonson's textual 'occasions' 211

Appendix: manuscript transcriptions 217

Bibliography 226

Index of passages discussed 241

General index 245

Editorial Reviews

"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

From the Publisher