Download Dr. Norman Prinsky Engl. 3002/6315: Renaissance to Restoration

Dr. Norman Prinsky
Engl. 3002/6315: Renaissance to Restoration - Augusta State University
Notes and Questions on Ben Jonson's Poetry Included in NAEL
The following entries should be read in HTL or PDLT, relating to the genres of poetry to be found among Jonson's
substantial poetic oeuvre or corpus (as represented in NAEL): (a) elegy; coronach, dirge, elegiac, monody, pastoral elegy,
requiem, threnody; (b) encomium, eulogy, panegyric; (c) epigram, satire; (d) lyric, art lyric, song; (e) ode; strophe,
antistrophe, epode, horatian ode, irregular ode, pindaric ode.
Several different paperback editions of Jonson's collected poems (ranging from 410 to 634 pages) have appeared from the
1960's until now. In chronological order, they are (a) Poems of Ben Jonson [The Muses Library], ed. George Johnston
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1954; rpt. 1962 and following); (b) The Complete Poetry of Ben Jonson [Anchor Seventeenth
Century Series], ed. William Hunter (Garden City, NY: Doubleday - Anchor, 1963; also rpt. New York: W.W. Norton, 1968,
in the Norton Library Seventeenth-Century Series); (c) Ben Jonson: Poems, ed. Ian Donaldson (London: Oxford UP, 1975);
(d) Ben Jonson: The Complete Poems, ed. George Parfitt (Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin Books, 1975); (e) Ben Jonson
[Oxford Authors Series], ed. Ian Donaldson (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1985). Within Jonson's and later editors' titles for the
collections within the overall corpus, Epigrams contains 133 poems, The Forest contains 15 poems, Underwoods contains
100 poems, and the miscellaneous or uncollected poems number 126, in all totaling 374 poems. (G1.) Of these, about two
dozen are anthologized in NAEL6, NAEL7, or NAEL8. According to the introduction to Jonson's poetry in NAEL6, into
what five categories may Jonson's diverse poems be divided; according to the paragraphs dealing with the poetry in the
introduction to Jonson in NAEL7 or NAEL8, into what nine categories may Jonson's diverse poems be divided?
Jonson shows an obvious preference for the rhymed couplet, influencing the "Sons of Ben" or Cavalier poets (see entries
on these in HTL or PDLT) and pointing the way, neoclassically, to the Neoclassicism of Restoration and eighteenth-century
English poetry. (G2.) How many of the two dozen or so poems in NAEL6, or NAEL7 use rhymed couplets? Jonson also uses
the balanced antithetical line, often in the concluding position in the poem, as well as the rhetorical figure epanorthosis,
which balances and discriminates synonyms. These rhetorical figures may be found in "To William Camden," "On My First
Son," "On Don Surly," "To Penshurst," and "In the Person of Womankind." (G3.) How do these rhetorical figures just cited
suggest Jonson's temperamental and poetic inclination toward rationality, moral and ethical judgment, and satire?
To make more sense of the diverse collection represented in NAEL, following are various generic groupings or clusterings
of the poems, which should be read together. Jonson himself (and Herrick following him) purposely mixed them up for the
sake of variety and thematic juxtaposition in the collections he published during his lifetime.
encomium, panegyric ["compliment, tribute"]: "To William Camden," "To John Donne," "On Lucy, Countess of Bedford,"
"To Lucy, Countess of Bedford, with Mr. Donne's Satires," "A Sonnet, to the Noble Lady, the Lady Mary Wroth," "To the
Memory of . . . William Shakespeare"
epigram, satire (social, moral, and ethical criticism): "On Something That Walks Somewhere," "On Don Surly," "On Giles
and Joan," "In the Person of Womankind"
elegy, epitaph, eulogy: "On My First Daughter," "On My First Son," "Epitaph on Salomon Pavy," "Epitaph on Elizabeth
L.H." "[Ode] To the Immortal Memory and Friendship . . . of Lucius Cary and H. Morrison"
philosophical and topographical poems: "Inviting a Friend to Supper," "To Penshurst"
romantic love poems, sex, erotica: "Song: To Celia" (in the full collected poems there are two poems titled this; note the first
line of the NAEL poem), "My Picture Left in Scotland"; "A Celebration of Charis in Ten Lyric Pieces," "In the Person of
Womankind," "Still to Be Neat," "Though I Am Young"
religious poems: "To Heaven," "On My First Daughter," "On My First Son"
autobiography: "Ode to Himself"; "My Picture Left in Scotland"
metapoetic; on literature: "To My Book," "On My First Son," "To John Donne," "On Don Surly," "To Lucy, Countess of
Bedford, with Mr. Donne's Satires," "A Sonnet, to the Noble Lady, the Lady Mary Wroth," "To the Memory of . . . William
Notes and Questions on Ben Jonson's Poetry Included in NAEL
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Shakespeare," "Ode to Himself," "Still to Be Neat"
G4. Recalling Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey's elegy on Sir Thomas Wyatt, the elegies of Ben Jonson again suggest that this
genre shows the various strategies for dealing with death and grief. How, in the elegies, does Jonson or the speaker come to
terms, in more than one sense, with death and grief?
Notes and Questions on Ben Jonson's Poetry Included in NAEL
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Jonson’s Poetry in NAEL6
Jonson’s Poetry in NAEL7
Jonson’s Poetry in NAEL8
1. To My Book
1. To My Book
1. To My Book
2. On Something, That Walks
Somewhere
2. On Something, That Walks
Somewhere
2. On Something, That Walks
Somewhere
3. To William Camden
3. To William Camden
3. To William Camden
4. On My First Daughter
4. On My First Daughter
4. On My First Daughter
5. To John Donne
5. To John Donne
5. To John Donne
6. On Don Surly
6. On Don Surly
7. On Giles and Joan
7. On Giles and Joan
6. On Giles and Joan
8. On My First Son
8. On My First Son
7. On My First Son
9. On Lucy , Countess of Bedford
8. On Lucy , Countess of Bedford
10. To Lucy, Countess of Bedford with
Mr. Donne’s Satires
9. To Lucy, Countess of Bedford with
Mr. Donne’s Satires
9. To Lucy, Countess of Bedford with
Mr. Donne’s Satires
10. To Sir Thomas Roe
10. Inviting a Friend to Supper
11. Inviting a Friend to Supper
11. Inviting a Friend to Supper
12. On Gut
11. Epitaph on S.P. a Child of
Queen Elizabeth’s Chapel
12. Epitaph on S.P. a Child of
Queen Elizabeth’s Chapel
13. Epitaph on S.P. a Child of
Queen Elizabeth’s Chapel
13. To Penshurst
13. To Penshurst
14. To Penshurst
14. Song: To Celia (“Drink to Me”)
14. Song: To Celia (“Drink to Me”)
15. Song: To Celia (“Drink to Me”)
15. To Heaven
15. To Heaven
16. To Heaven
16. A Celebration of Charis in Ten
Lyric Pieces (nos. 1-10)
16. A Celebration of Charis in Ten
Pieces (nos. 1-4, 7-10)
17. A Celebration of Charis in Ten
Pieces (just no. 4)
17. A Sonnet to the Noble Lady, the
Lady Mary Wroth
17. A Sonnet to the Noble Lady, the
Lady Mary Wroth
18. My Picture Left in Scotland
18. My Picture Left in Scotland
18. My Picture Left in Scotland
19. To the Immortal Memory and
Friendship of That Noble Pair, Sir
Lucius Cary and Sir H. Morison
19. To the Immortal Memory and
Friendship of That Noble Pair, Sir
Lucius Cary and Sir H. Morison
19. To the Immortal Memory and
Friendship of That Noble Pair, Sir
Lucius Cary and Sir H. Morison
20. Slow, Slow, Fresh Fount
20. Slow, Slow, Fresh Fount
20. Slow, Slow, Fresh Fount
21. Queen and Huntress
21. Queen and Huntress
21. Queen and Huntress
22. Still to Be Neat
22. Still to Be Neat
22. Still to Be Neat
12. Epitaph on Elizabeth, L.H.
17. In the Person of Womankind (In
Defense of their Inconstancy)
Notes and Questions on Ben Jonson's Poetry Included in NAEL
Jonson’s Poetry in NAEL6
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Jonson’s Poetry in NAEL7
Jonson’s Poetry in NAEL8
24. To the Memory of My Beloved, the
Author, Mr. William Shakespeare
23. To the Memory of My Beloved, the
Author, Mr. William Shakespeare
23. To the Memory of My Beloved, the
Author, Mr. William Shakespeare
25. Ode to Himself
24. Ode to Himself
24. Ode to Himself
23. Though I Am Young