Ben Jonson and the Early Modern Public Sphere

In Elizabethan England there was no formal forum for public discourse. Theatre, by satirising government, royalty, and social customs, often filled this vacuum. Ben Jonson, a playwright usually overshadowed by his contemporary William Shakespeare, used his position as both austere classicist and comic satirist to challenge the authorities and incite debate. Although the relationship between city, court, and theatre was nebulous and indefinite, Jonson’s work provided a tangible outlet for public frustrations. For this he regularly ran afoul of the authorities, even coming close to execution in 1603 for Sejanus , a play analysing corruption in Tudor politics. The titular character’s similarities to the Earl of Essex – the disgraced lord who incited rebellion just two years earlier – proved too close to the bone for those in government, and Jonson was accused of ‘popery and treason’. Luckily for Jonson, unlike Essex, his life was spared. Not to be silenced, Jonson continued his criticism in the comedy, Eastward Hoe (1605), which proved popular for its thinly veiled anti-Scots satire. The target was the new Scottish king, James I, and his tendency to give patronage to Scottish over English lords. Again, Jonson was imprisoned for his work, and his release was only narrowly secured. Yet he proved imperturbable and continued to write, publishing 16 more plays in his lifetime. Although not the only playwright to satirise society in early modern England, Jonson’s particularly biting work tested the limits of the authorities’ tolerance, and provided a vehicle to express everyday discontent when no alternative existed.

404

500