Chapter 5
“My Shakespeare, rise”
Ben Jonson’s pronominal choices in “To the Memory of My Beloved, the
Author” (1623)
This chapter focuses on the book Mr. William Shakespeare’s
Comedies, Histories and Tragedies (1623), which is widely known
today as the First Folio. When the First Folio was printed in 1623, the
editors and printers included in its preliminary matter several poems in
praise of Shakespeare. Among these were two by the author’s friend and
rival, Ben Jonson. One of the poems, “To the Memory of My Beloved, the
Author”, displays an unusual pronominal density and contains some intriguing
pronominal choices. This chapter examines the rhetorical fabric of Jonson’s
eulogy for Shakespeare and dissects the critical and ideological
implications of its peculiar use of the pronominal system. It focuses in
particular on the use of first person possessive pronouns such as “my” and
“ours” in relation to Jonson’s personal agenda: his self-fashioning as
literary critic and his support, as Poet Laureate in all but name, for King
James’s vision of a united Britain.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Jonson and Shakespeare’s antagonistic friendship
- 3.The First Folio preliminary matter
- 4.The rhetorical fabric of Jonson’s eulogy
- 5.Pronominal density and possessive pronouns
- 6.Coda
-
References
-
Appendix
References
Baxter, J.
2016 “My Shakespeare, rise”: Ben Jonson’s celebration of his
Shakespeare.
Cahiers Élizabéthains 90: 30–41.
Barton, A.
1981 Harking Back to Elizabeth: Ben Jonson and Caroline Nostalgia.
ELH 48: 706–731 Stable URL:
[URL] Accessed: 09-02-2018 23:55 UTC
Bevington, D.
2016 Jonson and Shakespeare: A Spirited
Friendship.
Ben Jonson Journal 23: 1–23.
Brown, R. & A. Gilman
1960 The pronouns of power and solidarity. In
Style in Language.
Sebeok, T. A. (ed.), 253–276. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Connor, F. X.
2012 Shakespeare’s theatrical Folio.
Philological Quarterly 91: 221–246.
DeStefano, B. L.
1993 Ben Jonson’s eulogy on Shakespeare: Native maker and the
triumph of English.
Studies in Philology 90: 231–245.
Dobson, M.
1992 The Making of the National Poet: Shakespeare, Adaptation and
Authorship, 1660–1769. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Donaldson, I.
2011 Ben Jonson: A Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dutton, R.
2016 Jonson and Shakespeare: Oedipal Revenge.
Ben Jonson Journal 23: 24–51.
Fish, S.
1984 Authors-readers: Jonson’s community of the
same.
Representations 7: 26–58.
Hope, J.
2003 Shakespeare’s Grammar. The Arden
Shakespeare. London: Thomson Learning.
Jonson, Benjamin
1616 The Workes of Benjamin Jonson. London: William Stansby and Richard Meighen.
Jonson, Benjamin
1640 The Workes of Benjamin Jonson: The Second Volume. London: Richard Meighen.
Jonson, Benjamin
. 1641 [
1966]
Timber, or Discoveries, Made Upon Men and Matter. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Manning, J.
2011 The Buskin and the Sockes: Ben Jonson’s iconographical
portrait of Shakespeare.
Notes and Queries 58: 287–289.
Newton, R. H.
1982 Self-Crowned Laureates: Spenser, Jonson, Milton and the Literary
System. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Peterson, R.
1980 Imitation and Praise in the Poems of Ben Jonson. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Shakespeare, William
1623 Mr. VVilliam Shakespeares comedies, histories, & tragedies
Published according to the true originall copies. London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed. Blount [at the charges of W. Iaggard, Ed. Blount, I. Smithweeke, and
W. Aspley], 1623.
Smith, E.
2016 The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare’s First Folio. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Trimpi, W.
1962 Ben Jonson’s Poems: A Study of the Plain Style. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
van den Berg, S.
1978 “The Paths i Meant Unto Thy Praise”: Jonson’s Poem for
Shakespeare,
Shakespeare Studies 11: 207–218.
Wayne, V.
2015 The First Folio’s Arrangement and Its
Finale.
Shakespeare Quarterly 66: 389–408.
Cited by
Cited by 1 other publications
Statham, Simon
2020.
The year’s work in stylistics 2019.
Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics 29:4
► pp. 454 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 23 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.