Ben Jonson on Spectacle

1 COMPAKATIVE ? ama Volume 21Summer 1987Number 2 Ben Jonson on Spectacle Richard Finkelstein Because he links it to painting's expression, Ben Jonson calls "comic poetry" the most eminent form of verse to function as oratory: The Poet is the neerest Borderer upon the Orator, and expresseth all his vermes, though he be tyed more to numbers; is his equall in ornament, and above him in his strengths. And, (of the kind) the Comicke comes neerest: Because, in moving the minds of men, and stirring of affections (in which Oratory shewes, and especially approves her eminence) hee chiefly excells. What figure of a Body was Lysippus ever able to forme with his Graver, or Apelles to paint with his Pencill, as the Comedy to life expresseth so many, and various affections of the minde? (Discoveries 2528-37; VIII, 640-41)1 This passage defines the comic genre by its rhetorical dimension —the power to move audiences. Jonson implies that comedy has this strength because comic poets have the combined skills of painters and writers. Surprisingly, he represents such force as a function of comedy's visual elements which, we will see, he identifies with spectacle. Although Stephen Orgel, D. J. Gordon, RICHARD FINKELSTEIN, Assistant Professor of English at the State University of New York at Geneseo, has published articles on Ben Jonson and other Renaissance writers. He is working on a study of Jonson's poetics and Roman rhetorical traditions. 103 104Comparative Drama and Mary Livingston have situated Jonson's rivalry with Inigo Jones in theories about spectacle's meaning, I will argue that the paragone largely derives from Jonson's concerns about the effects of images.2 Because he believes all comic poets are painters too, Jonson's problems in the paragone transcend his rivalry with Jones. Our quotation shows that Jonson admires comedy for its persuasive force, but he is ultimately ambivalent about this energeia. Convinced that it derives principally from the visual elements of drama, he fears that energeia might disrupt his control over instruction and interpretation. Underlying this special anxiety about spectacle is Jonson's attachment to several common Renaissance assumptions about images, emotions , and perception which bear on assessments of rhetorical force. Jonson's uneasiness about spectacle informs issues raised by Crispinus, Volpone, Mosca, Face, and even the host of The New Inn: both plays and masques repeatedly show the inherently problematic nature of persuasive languages, be they verbal or visual. That the poet borders on the orator Jonson paraphrases from Cicero (De oratore 1.16.70), but the implication that the comic author approaches a superior kind of orator is Jonson's own. Translated literally, Cicero actually says that the poet, although slightly more reined in by numbers than the orator, uses similarly noble ornaments with a freer verbal license.3 Jonson thus is emphasizing the poet's association with virtue. For that reason he also alters "license" to strength, but the change has still another purpose: it emphasizes a forceful ability to move people. Hence, we in part judge poets by their power to persuade virtuously. Choosing the best means to effect such movement then becomes vitally important; and Jonson's reasons for praising the comic poet assume that comedy's medium and manner differentially further rhetorical aims. Strong persuasions apparently spring from examples comic poets draw from "perturbations in common life" which the orator "findes an example of ... in the scene" (Discoveries 2541-43). Poetic invention thus signifies an orator gathering his matter by visualizing human affairs. Naming insights into these matters ethical knowledge, Cicero especially recommends them to the orator (De oratore 1.13.53). We would expect Jonson to say that a poet's vivid expression of ethical insights using virtuous words marks excellence. However, by omitting Cicero's phrase "verborum licentia liberior," comparing Richard Finkelstein105 poets to Lysippus and Apelles, and noting invention's visual part, Jonson deems comic writers great for a facility with images, not words. (Even Jonson's metaphors emphasize that comedy asserts itself with visual mechanisms: "Oratory shines"; all the numerous conditions occur in the "scene." Poetry has all the ethical power of virtuous oratory, but comic poetry adds to that the force of images...