4 - Ben Jonson and learning

Summary

With the exception of John Milton, there is no English poet more learned than Ben Jonson, and none who makes learning such an integral part of his literary work. Jonson thought of poetry and drama as scholarly as well as imaginative enterprises, a conviction attested by his remark in the dedication to the Earl of Pembroke that the Epigrams were “the ripest of my studies.” The humanist educational and compositional ideal of imitation of the classics is exemplified by no one more thoroughly and successfully than by Jonson. He not only exhibits a remarkable familiarity with a wide range of Greek and Roman literature; he also converts ancient models into the very substance of his texts in a way that results in independent, coherent works of his own without erasing the visible features of the sources. Yet Jonson is not merely a literary antiquarian - the Renaissance counterpart to a modern writer who produces scrupulously accurate historical novels. Throughout his career and across the broad spectrum of genres that he attempted, Jonson manifests an extraordinary responsiveness to the political, social, and artistic issues of his age.