(October 20, 2023, hlas)
This FIGURE that thou here seest put,
It was for gentle Shakespeare cut,
*Wherein the graver had a strife
With Nature*, to out-do the life:
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Strife with Nature - Writing Against Nature, Running away from Nature
Nature/Minerva
Horace - Ars Poetica
You, [I am persuaded,] will neither say nor do any thing *in opposition to Minerva*: such is your judgment, such your disposition. But if ever you shall write any thing, let it be submitted to the ears of Metius [Tarpa], who is a judge, and your father’s, and mine; and let it be suppressed till the ninth year, your papers being laid up within your own custody. You will have it in your power to blot out what you have not made public: a word once sent abroad can never return.
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Disproportionate and incoherent Droeshout Figure characterizes Shakespeare’s style
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Horace, Art of Poetry
Believe, ye Pisos, the book will be perfectly like such a picture, the ideas of which, like a sick man’s dreams, are all vain and fictitious: ***so that neither HEAD nor FOOT can correspond to ANY ONE FORM.*** “
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Colin Burrow
Imitating Authors
...The phrase ‘in the expression of their minds’ might also appear to press imitatio towards an expressive style aesthetic - though,here, as in the passage from Erasmus’s Ciceronianus which argued that ‘if you want to express [exprimere] the whole Cicero you cannot express yourself, it is likely that the literal sense of ‘making an external impression from the mould or form that is one’s mind’ is what makes it appear that Jonson has travelled so far in that direction. And he moves in that direction because he is nudged by Quintilian to do so. So the passage which Jonson is adapting or remembering here states ‘ and so without being conscious of doing so they will express the form of that speech which they had received deeply into their mind.’ (...) Quintilian’s use of the word *forma* in conjunction with ‘exprimerent’ carries across to Jonson’s vocabulary of ‘expression’: imitation is a matter of registering and then expressing a ‘form’ that is impressed upon your mind. But the elasticity of Quintilian’s language here also allows that the metaphor of imitation as the ‘expression’ of a pre-existing ‘mould’ or type might be extended. Texts could be regarded as replicable structures or general outlines (‘forms’) rather than just seals or types which are then stamped out in identical copies. That is borne out by Quintilian’s insistence in the same passage that imitators grasp not just the ‘forma’ of a speech, but also its ‘compositio’ and its ‘figurae’, its structure and both its rhetorical figures and the character of its style. (p. 243)
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The Grotesque: A study in Meanings
Frances Barasch
Chimeras
‘Chimera’ or ‘monster against nature’ was a preferred meaning of ‘grotesque’ during the first half of the seventeenth century. Ben Jonson, Sir William D’Avenant, Roger Boyle, Lord Orrery, and Sir Thomas Browne used ‘grotesque’ for specific hybrid figures, which usually were minor details in the larger grotesque designs of Italian origin. The chimera was only a synecdoche of the entire corpus of art treasures found in the Roman grottoes, but it became an important meaning in the word ‘grotesque’.
In Ben Jonson’s Discoveries, we learn that the work ‘Chimaera’s was being replaced by ‘Grottesque’, among the vulgar at any rate. He interrupts his retelling De Progressu Picturae to notice Vitruvius’ attitude toward Augustan painters and to comment on the contemporary use of ‘Grottesque’:
“See where he [Vitruvius, VII] complaines of their painting Chimaera’s by the vulgar unaptly called Grottesque; Saying, that men who were borne truly to study, and emulate nature, did nothing but make monsters against nature; which Horace [Ars Poetica, l.1-10] so laught at.
Jonson takes the opportunity of the moment to indicate his own preference over ‘Grottesque’ for the term ‘Chimaera’s’ or the phrase “monsters against nature” and to support Vitruvius by invoking Horace’s authoritative ridicule of the famous mermaid, which we have already noticed in connection with Montaigne and Vauquelin.
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Invita Minerva
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In the verse prologue to _Every Man in his Humour_ Jonson characterizes Shakespeare's plays as 'Monsters'
SCENE,---LONDON
PROLOGUE.
Though need make many poets, and some such
As art and nature have not better'd much;
Yet ours for want hath not so loved the stage,
As he dare serve the *ill customs of the AGE*,
Or purchase your delight at such a rate,
As, for it, he himself must justly hate:
To make a child now swaddled, to proceed
Man, and then shoot up, in one beard and weed,
Past threescore years; or, with three rusty swords,
And help of some few foot and half-foot words,
Fight over York and Lancaster's king jars,
And in the tyring-house bring wounds to scars.
He rather prays you will be pleas'd to see
One such to-day, as other plays should be;
Where neither chorus wafts you o'er the seas,
Nor creaking throne comes down the boys to please;
Nor nimble squib is seen to make afeard
The gentlewomen; nor roll'd bullet heard
To say, it thunders; nor tempestuous drum
Rumbles, to tell you when the storm doth come;
But deeds, and language, such as men do use,
And persons, such as comedy would choose,
When she would shew an image of the times,
And sport with human follies, not with crimes.
Except we make them such, by loving still
Our popular errors, when we know they're ill.
I mean such errors as you'll all confess,
By laughing at them, they deserve no less:
Which when you heartily do, there's hope left then,
*You, that have so grac'd MONSTERS, may like men*.
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Bartholomew Fair: Jonson
T H E
I N D u C T I O N
O N T H E
S T A G E.
...It is further covenanted, concluded and agreed, That
how great soever the expectation be, no Person here is
to expect more than he knows, or better Ware than a
Fair will afford: neither to look back to the Sword and
Buckler-age of Smithfield, but content himself with the
present. Instead of a little Davy, to take Toll o' the
Bawds, the Author doth promise a strutting Horse-courser,
with a leer-Drunkard, two or three to attend him, in as
good Equipage as you would wish. And then for Kind-
heart, the Tooth-drawer, a fine Oily Pig-woman with her
Tapster, to bid you welcome, and a Consort of Roarers
for Musick. A wise Justice of Peace meditant, instead
of a Jugler, with an Ape. A civil Cutpurse searchant. A
sweet Singer of new Ballads allurant: and as fresh an
Hypocrite, as ever was broach'd, rampant. If there be ne-
ver a Servant-monster i' the Fair, who can help it, he
says, nor a Nest of Antiques? He is loth to MAKE NA-
TURE AFRAID in his Plays, like those that beget Tales, Tem-
pests, and such like Drolleries, to mix his Head with other
Mens Heels; let the concupiscence of Jigs and Dances,
reign as strong as it will amongst you: yet if the Pup-
pets will please any body, they shall be entreated to
come in.
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Jonson
Timber/Discoveries
(In the difference of wits, note 10)
Not. 10.--It cannot but come to pass that these men who commonly
seek to do more than enough may sometimes happen on something that
is good and great; but very seldom: and when it comes it doth not
recompense the rest of their ill. For their jests, and their
sentences (which they only and ambitiously seek for) stick out, and
are more eminent, because all is sordid and vile about them; as
lights are more discerned in a thick darkness than a faint shadow.
Now, because they speak all they can (however unfitly), they are
thought to have the greater copy; where the learned use ever
election and a mean, they look back to what they intended at first,
and make all an even and proportioned body
The true artificer will
not run away from NATURE as he were AFRAID of her, or depart from
life and the likeness of truth, but speak to the capacity of his
hearers. And though his language differ from the vulgar somewhat,
it shall not fly from all humanity, with the Tamerlanes and Tamer-
chains of the late age, which had nothing in them but the scenical strutting and furious vociferation to warrant them to the ignorant
gapers. He knows it is his only art so to carry it, as none but
artificers perceive it. In the meantime, perhaps, he is called
barren, dull, lean, a poor writer, or by what contumelious word can
come in their cheeks, by these men who, without labour, judgment,
knowledge, or almost sense, are received or preferred before him.
He gratulates them and their fortune. Another age, or juster men,
will acknowledge the virtues of his studies, his wisdom in dividing,
his subtlety in arguing, with what strength he doth inspire his
readers, with what sweetness he strokes them; in inveighing, what
sharpness; in jest, what urbanity he uses; how he doth reign in
men's affections; how invade and break in upon them, and makes their
minds like the thing he writes. Then in his elocution to behold
what word is proper, which hath ornaments, which height, what is
beautifully translated, where figures are fit, which gentle, which
strong, to show the composition manly; and how he hath avoided
faint, obscure, obscene, sordid, humble, improper, or effeminate
phrase; which is not only praised of the most, but commended (which
is worse), especially for that it is naught.
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Cynthia’s Revels - Jonson
TO THE
SPECIAL FOUNTAIN of MANNERS,
The Court.
THou art a Bountiful and Brave Spring, and waterest all the Noble Plants of this Island. In thee the whole Kingdom dresseth it self, and is ambitious to use thee as her Glass. Beware then thou render Mens Figures truly, and teach them no less to hate their Deformities, than to love their Forms: For, to Grace, there should come Reverence; and no Man can call that Lovely, which is not also Venerable. It is not Powd'ring, Perfuming, and every day smelling of the Taylor, that converteth to a Beautiful Object: but a Mind shining through any Sute, which needs no False Light, either of Riches or Honours, to help it. Such shalt thou find some here, even in the Reign of C Y N T H I A, (a C R I T E S and an A R E T E.) Now, under thy P H œ B U S, it will be thy Province to make more: Except thou desirest to have thy Source mix with the Spring of Self-love, and so wilt draw upon thee as welcom a Discovery of thy Days, as was then made of her Nights.
Thy Servant, but not Slave,
BEN. JOHNSON.
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P R O L O G U E - Cynthia’s Revels
IF gracious silence, sweet attention,
Quick sight, and quicker apprehension,
(The lights of Judgments throne) shine any where;
Our doubtful Author hopes this is their Sphere.
And therefore opens he himself to those;
To other weaker Beams his labours close:
As loth to prostitute their Virgin strain,
To ev'ry vulgar and adult'rate Brain,
In this alone, his Muse her sweetness hath,
She shuns the print of any beaten Path;
And proves new ways to come to learned Ears:
Pied ignorance she neither loves nor, fears.
Nor hunts she after popular Applause,
Or fomy praise, that drops from common Jaws:
The Garland that she wears, their bands must twine,
Who can both censure, understand, define
What merit is: Then cast those piercing Rays,
Round as a Crown, instead of honour'd Bays,
About his Poesie; which (he knows) affords
Words, above action: matter, above words.
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To the Memory of My Beloved the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare
BY BEN JONSON
To draw no envy, Shakespeare, on thy name,
Am I thus ample to thy book and fame;
While I confess thy writings to be such
As neither man nor muse can praise too much;
'Tis true, and all men's suffrage. But these ways
Were not the paths I meant unto thy praise;
For seeliest ignorance on these may light,
Which, when it sounds at best, but echoes right;
Or blind affection, which doth ne'er advance
The truth, but gropes, and urgeth all by chance;
Or crafty malice might pretend this praise,
And think to ruin, where it seem'd to raise.
These are, as some infamous bawd or whore
Should praise a matron; what could hurt her more?
But thou art proof against them, and indeed,
Above th' ill fortune of them, or the need.
I therefore will begin. Soul of the age!
The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage!
*My* Shakespeare, rise!
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Jonson has assimilated Shakespeare’s style and has produced ‘his’ Shakespeare. Milton used the same learned feint.
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Cynthia’s Revels, Jonson
Mercury
(snip)
'Tis Asotus, the Heir of Philargyrus;
but first I'll give ye the others Character, which may
make his the clearer. He that is with him is Amorphus
a Traveller, one so made out of the mixture and shreds
of forms, that himself is truly deform'd. He walks
most commonly with a Clove or Pick-tooth in his
Mouth, he is the very mint of Complement, all his Be-
haviours are printed, his Face is another Volume of
Essayes; and his Beard an Aristrachus. He speaks all
Cream skim'd, and more affected than a dozen of wait-
ing Women. He is his own Promoter in every place.
The Wife of the Ordinary gives him his Diet to main-
tain her Table in discourse, which (indeed) is a meer
Tyranny over the other Guests, for he will usurp all
the talk: Ten Constables are not so tedious. He is no
great shifter, once a year his Apparel is ready to revolt.
He doth use much to arbitrate Quarrels, and fights him-
self, exceeding well (out at a Window.) He will lye
cheaper than any Begger, and lowder than most Clocks;
for which he is right properly accommodated to the
Whetstone his Page. The other Gallant is his Zani, and
doth most of these Tricks after him; sweats to imitate
him in every thing (to a Hair) except a Beard, which is
not yet extant. He doth learn to make strange Sauces,
to eat Anchovies, Maccaroni, Bovoli, Fagioli, and Ca-
viare, because he loves 'em; speaks as he speaks, looks,
walks, goes so in Cloaths and Fashion: is in all as if he
were moulded of him. Marry (before they met) he
had other very pretty sufficiencies, which yet he re-
tains some light impression of; as frequenting a dan-
cing School, and grievously torturing strangers with In-
quisition after his grace in his Galliard. He buys a
asecond 'a' an error fresh acquaintance at any rate. His Eyes and his
Raiment confer much together as he goes in the Street.
He treads nicely like the Fellow that walks upon Ropes;
especially the first Sunday of his Silk-stockings; and
when he is most neat and new, you shall strip him
with Commendations.
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Horace, Art of Poetry
Believe, ye Pisos, the book will be perfectly like such a picture, the ideas of which, like a sick man’s dreams, are all vain and fictitious: ***so that neither HEAD nor FOOT can correspond to ANY ONE FORM.*** “
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Gabriel Harvey:
But seeing I must needs bewray my store, and set open my shop-windows, now I pray thee and conjure thee, by all thy amorous Regards, and Exorcisms of Love, call a Parliament of thy Sensible & Intelligible powers together, & tell me, in Tom Troth’s earnest [1], what Il secondo & famoso Poeta [2] [the second and famous poet], Messer Immerito [3], saith to this bold Satirical Libel, lately devised at the instance of a certain worshipful Hertfordshire gentleman [4] of mine old acquaintance: in Gratiam quorundam Illustrium Anglofrancitalorum, hic & ubique apud nos volitantium. Agedum vero, nosti homines, tanquam tuam ipsius cutem [5] [dedicated to some famous Anglo-franco-italians who skulks amongst our midst. Well, you know the people as well as your own skin].
Speculum Tuscanismi
Since Galateo came in [6], and Tuscanism gan usurp,
Vanity above all: Villainy next her [7], Stateliness Empress.
No man, but Minion, Stout, Lout, Plain, swain, quoth a Lording:
No words but valorous, no works but womanish only [8].
For life Magnificoe’s [9], not a beck but glorious in show,
In deed most frivolous, not a look but Tuscanish always.
His cringing side neck, Eyes glancing, Fisnamy [physiognomy] smirking,
With forefinger kiss, and brave embrace to the footward [10].
Largebelled Cod-pieced Doublet, uncod-pieced half hose,
Straight to the dock, like a shirt, and close to the breech, like a diveling.
A little Apish Hat, couched fast to the pate, like an Oyster,
French Camarick Ruffs, deep with a witness [knowledge] starched to the purpose.
Every one A per se A, his terms, and braveries in Print [11],
Delicate in speech, quaint in array: conceited in all points:
In Courtly guiles [deceits], a passing singular odd man,
For Gallants a brave Mirror, a Primrose of Honour,
A Diamond for nonce, a fellow peerless in England.
Not the like Discourser for Tongue, and head to be found out:
Not the like resolute Man, for great and serious affairs,
Not the like Lynx to spy out secrets, and privities of States [12],
Eyed like to Argus, Eared like to Midas [13], Nos'd like to Naso [14],
Wing'd like to Mercury, fittst of a Thousand for to be employ'd,
This, nay more than this doth practice of Italy in one year.
None do I name, but some do I know, that a piece of a twelvemonths
Hath so perfited [perfected] outly and inly both body, both soul,
That none for sense, and senses, half matchable with them.
A Vulture's smelling, Ape's tasting, sight of an Eagle,
A spider's touching, Hart's hearing, might of a Lion. [15]
Compounds of wisdom, wit, prowess, bounty, behavior,
All gallant Virtues, all qualities of body and soul:
O thrice ten hundred thousand times blessed and happy,
Blessed and happy Travail, Travailer most blessed and happy. [16]
Penatibus Hetruscis laribusque nostris Inquilinis.
[To the Etruscan Penates and to our adopted Lares.]
Tell me in good sooth, doth it not too evidently appear that this English Poet [17] wanted but a good pattern before his eyes, as it might be some delicate, and choice elegant Poesy of good Master Sidney's or Master Dyer's [18] (our very Castor and Pollux for such and many greater matters) when this trim gear was in hatching: Much like some Gentlewoman, I could name in England, who by all Physic and Physiognomy too, might as well have brought forth all goodly fair children, as they have now some ill-favoured and deformed, had they at the time of their Conception had in sight the amiable and gallant beautiful Pictures of Adonis, Cupido, Ganymedes, or the like, which no doubt would have wrought such deep impression in their fantasies and imaginations, as their children, and perhaps their Children's children too, might have thanked them for, as long as they have Tongues in their heads.
*Nosti manum & stylum*
(You know the hand and the style)
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Horace, Art of Poetry
Believe, ye Pisos, the book will be perfectly like such a picture, the ideas of which, like a sick man’s dreams, are all vain and fictitious: ***so that neither HEAD nor FOOT can correspond to ANY ONE FORM.*** “
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On Poet-Ape - Jonson
(Form- Shakespearean Sonnet)
Poor Poet-Ape, that would be thought our chief,
Whose works are e'en the frippery of wit,
From brokage is become so bold a thief,
As we, the robb'd, leave rage, and pity it.
At first he made low shifts, would pick and glean,
Buy the reversion of old plays; now grown
To a little wealth, and credit in the scene,
He takes up all, makes each man's wit his own:
And, told of this, he slights it. Tut, such crimes
The sluggish gaping auditor devours;
He marks not whose 'twas first: and after-times
May judge it to be his, as well as ours.
Fool! as if half eyes will not know a fleece
From locks of wool, or shreds from the whole piece?
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Horace - Ars Poetica
(EPISTLE TO THE PISOS)
If a painter should wish to unite a horse’s neck to a human head, and spread a variety of plumage over limbs [of different animals] taken from every part [of nature], so that what is a beautiful woman in the upper part terminates unsightly in an ugly fish below; could you, my friends, refrain from laughter, were you admitted to such a sight. **Believe, ye Pisos, the book will be perfectly like such a picture, the ideas of which, like a sick man’s dreams, are all vain and fictitious: so that neither head nor foot can correspond to any one form.** “Poets and painters [you will say] have ever had equal authority for attempting any thing.” We are conscious of this, and this privilege we demand and allow in turn but not to such a degree, that the tame should associate with the savage; nor that serpents should be coupled with birds, lambs with tigers.
In pompous introductions, and such as promise a great deal, it generally happens that one or two verses of purple patch-work, that may make a great show, are tagged on; as when the grove and the altar of Diana and the meandering of a current hastening through pleasant fields, or the river Rhine, or the rainbow is described. But here there was no room for these [fine things]: perhaps, too, you know how to draw a cypress [used for funerals]: but what is that to the purpose, if he, who is painted for the given price, is [to be represented as] swimming hopeless out of a shipwreck? A large vase at first was designed: why, as the wheel revolves, turns out a little pitcher? In a word, be your subject what it will, let it be merely simple and uniform.
The great majority of us poets, father, and youths worthy such a father, are misled by the appearance of right. I labour to be concise, I become obscure: nerves and spirit fail him, that aims at the easy: *one, that pretends to be sublime, proves bombastical:*
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Greene
Trust them not, for there is an upstart crow beautified with our feathers, that with his tiger's heart wrapped in a player's hide, supposes that he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you. And being an absolute Johannes Factotum is in his conceit the only Shakescene in the country."
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Gabriel Harvey, Rhetor
On Art.
Can anyone be an artist without art? Or have you ever seen a bird flying without wings, or a horse running without feet? Or if you have seen such things, which no one else has ever seen, come, tell me please, do you hope to become a goldsmith, or a painter, or a sculptor, or a musician, or an architect, or a weaver, or any sort of artist at all without a teacher? But how much easier are all these things, than that you develop into a supreme and perfect orator without the art of public speaking. There is need of a teacher, and indeed even an excellent teacher, who might point out the springs with his finger, as it were, and carefully pass on to you the art of speaking colorfully, brilliantly, copiously. But what sort of art shall we choose? Not an art entangled in countless difficulties, or packed with meaningless arguments; not one sullied by useless [31] precepts, or disfigured by strange and foreign ones; not an art polluted by any filth, or fashioned to accord with our own will and judgment; not a single art joined and sewn together from many, like a quilt from many rags and skins (way too many rhetoricians have given this sort of art to us, if indeed one may call art that which conforms to no artistic principles). We want rather an art that is concise, precise, appropriate, lucid, accessible; one that is decorated and illuminated by precise definitions, accurate divisions, and striking illustrations, as if by flashing gems and stars; one that emerges, and in a way bursts into flower, from the speech of the most eloquent men and the best orators. Why so? Not only because brevity is pleasant, and clarity delightful, but also so that eloquence might be learned in a shorter time, and with less labor and richer results, and so that it might stand more firmly grounded, secured by deeper roots. For thus said the gifted poet in his Ars Poetica: "Whatever instruction you give, let it be brief." Why? [32] He gives two reasons: "So that receptive minds might swiftly grasp your words and accurately retain them." And indeed, as the same poet elegantly adds: "Everything superfluous spills from a mind that's full."
(snip)
But those annual whistles and shouts I hear indicate that almost all, or at least the greater part of my auditors are newcomers, who do not understand what they should do or whom they should imitate, but who nonetheless are captivated by the splendor of rhetoric, and seek to be orators. Therefore I will now, if I am able, reveal those things and place them all in their view, in such a way that they might seem to see them with their eyes, and almost hold them in their hands. In the meantime I pray you, most eloquent and refined gentlemen, either withdraw, if you like, or with the kindness that you've shown so far hear me as I recite some precepts so common as to be almost elementary. And from those whose tongues and ears Cicero alone inhabits, I beg forgiveness, if by chance I let drop in my haste a word that is un-Ciceronian. We cannot all be Longeuils and Cortesis: [9] some of us don't want to be. As for those who study more Latin authors, but only the best and choicest, and who to accompany Cicero, the foremost of all, add Caesar, Varro, Sallust, Livy, Seneca, Terence too, and Plautus and Vergil and Horace, I am sure they will be sympathetic to me. For reading as I do many works by many authors, sometimes even the poets, as Crassus bids in Cicero, I cannot guarantee that in so impromptu an oration I will not use a word not found in a Ciceronian phrase book.
But those little CROWS and APES of Cicero were long ago driven from the stage by the hissing and laughter of the learned, as they so well deserved, and at last have almost vanished; and I now hope to find not only eager and attentive auditors, but friendly spectators as well, not the sort who scrupulously weigh every individual detail on the scales of their own refined tastes, but who interpret everything in a fair and good-natured way. I too in fact wanted, if I was able--but perhaps I was not--to speak in as Ciceronian a style as the Ciceronianest of them all. [10] Forgive me, illustrious Ciceronians, if I ought not use that word in the superlative.
