Publisher's Synopsis
Although primarily a dramatist and man of letters, Ben Jonson wrote a substantial body of literary criticism, much of it in the form of epistles, prologues and choruses attached to his other writing. The revisionist historicisms that have invigorated the study of Renaissance literature in recent years now enable us to see that these works were imaginative and challenging responses to developments in early modern culture of which Jonson's own innovations were symptomatic.;This book examines Jonson's criticism in the context of his career, exploring how his determination to assert the "authority" of his own writing led to direct confrontation with the political authorities of his day as well as to arguments with writers who did not share his view of the profession. These included Spenser, Donne and, most notoriously, Shakespeare. By concentrating on the arguments themselves, Dutton shows how they formed an urgent contribution to the shaping of the literary culture we have known for the last 400 years.
