Dido, Queene of Carthage is calibrated to disrupt the smooth passage of the translation of empire... more Dido, Queene of Carthage is calibrated to disrupt the smooth passage of the translation of empire and studies embraced by humanist pedagogy. Taking full ad- vantage of the theatrical affordances offered by the boy actors of the Children of her Majesty’s Chapel, the play aims to whisk its target audience, the sophisticated wits of the Inns of Court, back to their early encounters with the matter of Troy in their studies of Vergil and Ovid in grammar school. This essay focuses on the play’s first two acts to show how Marlowe deploys the materials of classical letters and rhetoric in ways that test and contest their ideological functions.
The range of poetic invention that occurred in Renaissance English literature was vast, from the ... more The range of poetic invention that occurred in Renaissance English literature was vast, from the lyric eroticism of the late sixteenth century to the rise of libertinism in the late seventeenth century. Heather James argues that Ovid, as the poet-philosopher of literary innovation and free speech, was the galvanizing force behind this extraordinary level of poetic creativity. Moving beyond mere topicality, she identifies the ingenuity, novelty and audacity of the period's poetry as the political inverse of censorship culture. Considering Spenser, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Jonson, Milton and Wharton among many others, the book explains how free speech was extended into the growing domain of English letters, and thereby presents a new model of the relationship between early modern poetry and political philosophy.
Ludovico Ariosto devoted over twenty-five years to composing his Orlando furioso, which he revise... more Ludovico Ariosto devoted over twenty-five years to composing his Orlando furioso, which he revised and expanded in three editions of 1516, 1521, and 1532. While these editions involve changes great and small in the poem's narrative sequence and patterns of imitation, just one matter of form dominates modern criticism: the sense of the ending. No one disputes that all versions conclude in a dynastic compliment to the Estes of Ferrara, Ariosto's patrons. The finale reaches its full statement in 1532, when Ariosto added elaborate set pieces in praise of the Este court. Yet this edition also heightens the tension between the Furioso's dynastic goals and the formal liberties Ariosto takes earlier in the poem. Prior to the end, anything goes: an indefinite range of narrative possibilities may be spun from ancient, medieval, and contemporary forms of genre, aesthetics, moral philosophy, geography, history, depictions of warfare, and visions of sex and gender. Poetic traditions invite improvisation and change, while ideological rules seem there for the breaking. In the end, the principle of dynasty brings the plotlines to order but does little to justify the scope of the poem's materials or the liberties Ariosto takes with them. Criticism has long focused on Ariosto's use of classical, imperial epic to fuel his poem's drive, however delayed, toward a dynastic conclusion that neatly converges with plots focused on the triumph of Europe over Africa and Christianity over Islam. 1 In this view of the ending, Vergil's Aeneid, as Rome's epic about empire building, oversees the Furioso's ultimate duties to military triumph, hierarchical order, and dynastic succession. By contrast, the romance genre, spurred by its classical precedents in Homer's
Book chapter on historical trauma and the arts of humanist education in Titus Andronicus, as a pl... more Book chapter on historical trauma and the arts of humanist education in Titus Andronicus, as a play that throws into question the secure transfer of power at stake in the Troy legend or translation of empire.
Heather James examines the ways in which Shakespeare handles the inheritance and transmission of ... more Heather James examines the ways in which Shakespeare handles the inheritance and transmission of the Troy legend. She argues that Shakespeare's use of Vergil, Ovid, and other classical sources demon-strates the appropriation of classical authority in the interests of developing a ...
A Handbook to the Reception of Ovid, eds. John Miller and Carole E. Newlands, ads. John Miller and Carole E. Newlands, 2014
Ben Jonson’s formidable classical learning was skewed towards the Stoic philosophers, but in his ... more Ben Jonson’s formidable classical learning was skewed towards the Stoic philosophers, but in his poetic tastes he favored the light genres over tragedy and epic. The relationship between Jonson’s weighty classicism and his delight in comedy, elegy, epigram, and satire has not always made sense to modern critics, who rightly note the tension between Jonson’s love of forceful moral judgment and his equal if not greater love of the bold liberties that the slender genres take with social, political, and moral proprieties. This chapter aims to explain how and why Jonson defended the slender genres and, in particular, the Roman love poet most often said to be Jonson’s polar opposite: Ovid. Ben Jonson accepted and even insisted on his difference from the Elizabethan Ovidians but he defended them, himself, and poetic liberties per se through his fierce embrace of Ovid, the politically bold poet of exile.
I will be happy to send a copy of the essay to interested scholars on an individual basis.
Dido, Queene of Carthage is calibrated to disrupt the smooth passage of the translation of empire... more Dido, Queene of Carthage is calibrated to disrupt the smooth passage of the translation of empire and studies embraced by humanist pedagogy. Taking full ad- vantage of the theatrical affordances offered by the boy actors of the Children of her Majesty’s Chapel, the play aims to whisk its target audience, the sophisticated wits of the Inns of Court, back to their early encounters with the matter of Troy in their studies of Vergil and Ovid in grammar school. This essay focuses on the play’s first two acts to show how Marlowe deploys the materials of classical letters and rhetoric in ways that test and contest their ideological functions.
The range of poetic invention that occurred in Renaissance English literature was vast, from the ... more The range of poetic invention that occurred in Renaissance English literature was vast, from the lyric eroticism of the late sixteenth century to the rise of libertinism in the late seventeenth century. Heather James argues that Ovid, as the poet-philosopher of literary innovation and free speech, was the galvanizing force behind this extraordinary level of poetic creativity. Moving beyond mere topicality, she identifies the ingenuity, novelty and audacity of the period's poetry as the political inverse of censorship culture. Considering Spenser, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Jonson, Milton and Wharton among many others, the book explains how free speech was extended into the growing domain of English letters, and thereby presents a new model of the relationship between early modern poetry and political philosophy.
Ludovico Ariosto devoted over twenty-five years to composing his Orlando furioso, which he revise... more Ludovico Ariosto devoted over twenty-five years to composing his Orlando furioso, which he revised and expanded in three editions of 1516, 1521, and 1532. While these editions involve changes great and small in the poem's narrative sequence and patterns of imitation, just one matter of form dominates modern criticism: the sense of the ending. No one disputes that all versions conclude in a dynastic compliment to the Estes of Ferrara, Ariosto's patrons. The finale reaches its full statement in 1532, when Ariosto added elaborate set pieces in praise of the Este court. Yet this edition also heightens the tension between the Furioso's dynastic goals and the formal liberties Ariosto takes earlier in the poem. Prior to the end, anything goes: an indefinite range of narrative possibilities may be spun from ancient, medieval, and contemporary forms of genre, aesthetics, moral philosophy, geography, history, depictions of warfare, and visions of sex and gender. Poetic traditions invite improvisation and change, while ideological rules seem there for the breaking. In the end, the principle of dynasty brings the plotlines to order but does little to justify the scope of the poem's materials or the liberties Ariosto takes with them. Criticism has long focused on Ariosto's use of classical, imperial epic to fuel his poem's drive, however delayed, toward a dynastic conclusion that neatly converges with plots focused on the triumph of Europe over Africa and Christianity over Islam. 1 In this view of the ending, Vergil's Aeneid, as Rome's epic about empire building, oversees the Furioso's ultimate duties to military triumph, hierarchical order, and dynastic succession. By contrast, the romance genre, spurred by its classical precedents in Homer's
Book chapter on historical trauma and the arts of humanist education in Titus Andronicus, as a pl... more Book chapter on historical trauma and the arts of humanist education in Titus Andronicus, as a play that throws into question the secure transfer of power at stake in the Troy legend or translation of empire.
Heather James examines the ways in which Shakespeare handles the inheritance and transmission of ... more Heather James examines the ways in which Shakespeare handles the inheritance and transmission of the Troy legend. She argues that Shakespeare's use of Vergil, Ovid, and other classical sources demon-strates the appropriation of classical authority in the interests of developing a ...
A Handbook to the Reception of Ovid, eds. John Miller and Carole E. Newlands, ads. John Miller and Carole E. Newlands, 2014
Ben Jonson’s formidable classical learning was skewed towards the Stoic philosophers, but in his ... more Ben Jonson’s formidable classical learning was skewed towards the Stoic philosophers, but in his poetic tastes he favored the light genres over tragedy and epic. The relationship between Jonson’s weighty classicism and his delight in comedy, elegy, epigram, and satire has not always made sense to modern critics, who rightly note the tension between Jonson’s love of forceful moral judgment and his equal if not greater love of the bold liberties that the slender genres take with social, political, and moral proprieties. This chapter aims to explain how and why Jonson defended the slender genres and, in particular, the Roman love poet most often said to be Jonson’s polar opposite: Ovid. Ben Jonson accepted and even insisted on his difference from the Elizabethan Ovidians but he defended them, himself, and poetic liberties per se through his fierce embrace of Ovid, the politically bold poet of exile.
I will be happy to send a copy of the essay to interested scholars on an individual basis.
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I will be happy to send a copy of the essay to interested scholars on an individual basis.
I will be happy to send a copy of the essay to interested scholars on an individual basis.