Civic Humanism and Gender Politics in Jonson's Catiline

Women characters in Ben Jonson's Catiline and women authors in late-sixteenth- and early-seventeenth-century England deploy civic humanist principles in order to claim authoritative public roles. Jonson altered his sources to give women larger, structurally crucial roles and to make Cicero depend upon the intelligence of a woman spy. The play's ambivalence about Cicero suggests Jonson's and, more broadly, his culture's concern that civic humanist principles encouraged (or at least, failed to discourage) the public ambitions of rhetorically skillful women. This concern helps to explain why English culture turned away from the civic humanist tradition during this period.