Ben Jonson's Horatian theory and Plautine practice

Date

1997-08

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Publisher

Texas Tech University

Abstract

We are uniquely situated to construct a reading of Jonson's intertextual relationship to Horace and Plautus due to the increased interest in and improved approaches to these two classical authors over the last 25 years. While Horace has enjoyed a prominent position throughout various periods, views of his poetry have graduated from relatively simplistic reductions of his work to a monolithic set of rules to a more sophisticated approach which acknowledges the dialectical potential of his poetry. For instance, in her essay in Horace Made New (1993), Joanna Martindale argues convincingly that the persona constructed by Horace in Ars Poetica is locked in a dialectical struggle between the necessity of his common sense rules for poetry and the reality that his rules mean little and have little use for the vast majority of people. On the one hand, he puts forth his famous assertion that poetry ought to teach and delight, but, on the other, he despairs that his effort means nothing. The complexity of his poetic expression is better appreciated today than it has been before, when critics tended to gloss over problematic and multivalent passages in order to subordinate them to the unified theory of poetry they preferred to see in Horace's poems.

Likewise, critics are in a position now to see and appreciate facets of Plautus's plays that have escaped notice. Beginning with Erich Segal's groundbreaking book Roman Laughter (1968), critical interest in Plautus's comedy has increased. Where earlier critics found only trivial humor and rollicking good fun, critics today discover plays full of social awareness and commentary, as well as an astute and talented writer whose ability to construct good drama outweighs the technical flaws that so frequently dominated the attention of earlier critics. David Konstan's Roman Comedy (1983), a study of Plautus' comedy within the social and historical context, and Wolfgang Riehle's Shakespeare, Plautus, and the Humanist Tradition (1990), a careful study of Plautus' extensive influence on Shakespeare, indicate a promising future for Plautine scholarship. In addition to an improved critical approach to Plautus in particular, the reevaluation of comedy as a significant literary form contributes to our heightened awareness of Plautus's abilities. As the estimation of farce as "low" comedy is revised, comedy gains status as a legitimate and worthwhile topic of study. With this status comes our ability to discern significance in the plays that have been frequently dismissed as merely amusing distractions.

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