Ben Jonson and the Lucianic Tradition

Duncan suggests Jonson's challenge to the audience originates in the practice of 'oblique teaching', which was developed by Erasmus and More out of their admiration for Lucian.

Douglas Duncan (Author)

9780521129190, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 4 February 2010

264 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.5 cm, 0.34 kg

The challenge to the audience in Jonson's major comedies is usually seen as an extension of the provocative techniques of English Morality drama. In this lucid and penetrating study, Professor Duncan aims to supplement that view by suggesting a more sophisticated precedent for Jonson's methods in the practice of 'oblique teaching', which Erasmus and More developed out of their admiration for the Greek author Lucian. Jonson shows that stage-comedy is not as incompatible with the techniques of 'Menippean' non-dramatic satire as has often been thought. More generally, what is called here his 'art of teasing' places him in the centre of a long line of Christian humanist writers - stretching from Erasmus and More to Milton and Swift - who used fiction to educate their public through devious processes of moral and intellectual testing.

Acknowledgements
Introduction: Jonson's art of teasing
Part I. Lucian and Lucianism: 1. Lucian
2. Erasmus
3. More
4. Images of Lucian
5. Teasing drama: Medwall to Marlowe
Part II. Ben Jonson: 6. Before Volpone
7. Volpone
8. Epicoene
9. Comedies of accommodation
10. After the Fair: conclusions
Notes
Index.

Subject Areas: Educational: English literature [YQE], Literary studies: general [DSB]