13 - Jonson's criticism

Summary

Browsing among the shelves of Jonsoniana leaves no doubt that Jonson is known primarily as a playwright. It would not be surprising if, of the thousands who remember Volpone or The Alchemist with amusement, most have never heard of “Penshurst,” and as many may have forgotten or never learned that the lyrics they sang in childhood (”Drink to me, only, with thine eyes, / And I will pledge with mine”) are Jonson's. Even so, literary tradition has been more generous to Jonson the poet than to Jonson the critic; he is firmly established as the premier courtly poet of Jacobean and Caroline England, and, as such, progenitor of selfproclaimed “Sons of Ben,” who sought, even during the Civil War and Interregnum, when courtly values were not in vogue, to emulate Jonson's poetic style. While loyal to the principles of his poetic practice, the Cavaliers were not so enamored of Jonson's interest in literary theory and philosophy. Critical theory was not for fearless prisoners and exiles like Lovelace and Suckling. And yet Jonson looked to his Roman predecessors for more than models of poetic and dramatic forms.