Ben Jonson’s Court Masques And His Self-Authorization

Ever since Plato, the figure of author has dominated the whole western literary theories for more than2000years and the author problem in literature is of primary importance. However, the coming into being of author as a cultural concept is a very recent phenomenon. According to Foucault, author came to be recognized as the owner of the work at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century, when a system of ownership for texts and copy rights was enacted. Before this, what had prevailed in the literary and artistic world in Europe was the influential patronage system. In such a system, the artistic works could not have been understood as the making concrete of an individual artist’s personal beliefs, pursuits and emotions. Instead, it was the tastes, desires, and expectations of the patrons who commissioned the artist that were meant to be expressed. In such historical milieu, with man’s self-consciousness awaking during the English Renaissance, some artists began to think about their professional identity and embarked on the making and construction of such an identity in literary and extra-literary activities. As a distinguished dramatist and poet of this period, Ben Jonson was one of them.Ben Jonson is well-known for the institution of authorship in Britain. Throughout all his works, such as dramas, poems and entertainments, is permeated an implicit or explicit authorial figure. Authorial study in Jonson’s drama and poetry has been fully explored whereas it remains a relatively weak area in his court masques. As a fascinating cultural product, English court masque is rich in political and cultural valence. During the1980s, with the rise of multitudinous cultural theories, English court masque began to draw the attention of the scholars in both Britain and America. Its political theme has been profoundly researched. Many scholars held that it is the expression of the Stuart royal power, as well as the site of the courtly negotiations and struggles among the court factions. In these studies, the scripter of the court masque was generally viewed as the royal mouthpiece rather than its "author" in that the "author" of a court masque was undoubtedly the king, the royal family member or some patron. Therefore, scholars like Martin Butler, who is a renowned masque researcher, think that a scripter for the White Hall had little freedom in subject and idea. In such case, he was marginalized as the court servant or hired scribbler, far from the authoritative and dignified title of "author" in the modern sense. But the authorship of court masque is not as simple as it seems and has caught the attention of some scholars. One of them even claimed that the entire question of masque authorship needed a thorough revision.By using theories of cultural studies and methods such as close reading and anedotalism, this dissertation makes this claim as the point of departure to study the court masques written by the Stuart Poet Laureate Ben Jonson, in the hope of investigating how he subtly makes this genre as the means to carry out self-expression, self-elevation and self-monumentalization. Through careful investigations, we find that court masques mean more than mere occasional writings for Jonson. Instead, they are a vital constituent to his life-long "authorial project". They provide space for him to have his voice heard through the production, circulation and consumption of his works so that he could establish an independent and autonomous authorship under the context of patronage system and the emerging book market. This fact suggests that some late Renaissance writers would no longer passively rely on their undependable patrons for financial aid, nor would they simply yield to the publisher’s will. On the contrary, they actively participated in "the self-authorization or self-making as an author" and even "the commodification of literary works" as a result of their keen consciousness of authorial identity and author functions. This process ushers in the emergency of modern author as progenitor and intellectual proprietor of his work. Except for introduction and conclusion, the dissertation consists of3chapters.Introduction bases itself on the fact that court masque as a special genre involves identity, self-fashioning and author problem to set up the feasibility of this study and then its significance is highlighted. After the simple definition of "self-authorization" is the literature review of Jonson’s authorial study, from which we know there exist room and possibility of author study in Jonson’s court masques. The third section of this part is about critical theories and methods. Theories include theories in cultural studies, such as Greenblatt’s New Historicism, Mauss’Gift/Exchange Theory and Baudrillard’s theory of consumption, as well as the subjectivity of author in author theories. Besides, Genette’s theory’s paratext will be used while studying the physical appearance of the book. Methods used here are close reading, anecdotalism, etc.Chapter one investigates the tradition, research findings and the theme of self-representation in English court masque. It has2sections. Section one traces its origin and tradition to find out that the history of English court masque is the outcome of borrowings and absorptions of native and foreign elements. It has the native English folk entertainments and court revels as its bases and takes in the European folk-customs and court pageantry and ultimately develops itself into an elaborate artistic form rich in political and cultural meanings through Middle Ages, the Tudor Dynasty and the Stuart Dynasty. Such a combination of elite and popular culture makes it possible for Jonson to self-authorize in both gift and commodity exchange systems dominated by patronage and market respectively. Then this section summarizes the researches up to date in court masques. They are genre study, iconographical study, thematic study, cultural study and interdisciplinary study in all. Section two focuses on the characteristics of court masque to elicit the theme of self-representation in it. This chapter intends to provide a sketch to the tradition, the research findings of English court masque and bring the theme of self-representation in it into focus.Chapter two explores the three authorial strategies in Jonson’s court masques. They are self-expression, self-elevation and self-monumentalization. The authorial strategy of self-expression is illustrated in two aspects. The first one goes as follows. Jonson models himself on classic writers and borrows images and ideas from the ancient mythology and cosmology to express his sublimity in poetic ideal and dignity in poetic world, the ultimate purpose of which is to highlight man’s subjectivity. This section sums up several types of mythology and takes "Godess of Love" as an example to study how Jonson uses ancient mythology and cosmology to self-authorize. The second aspect in Jonson’s authorial self-expression is to create certain characters to express his ideas and attitudes. On the one hand he introduces surrogates to praise justice, peace and love; on the other hand, he uses foils to lash ugliness and vices of the society. The fact that Jonson makes court masque as a channel to express his thinking embodies a writer’s initiative in aesthetic activities.Jonson’s second authorial strategy in court masque is to make it a means to achieve self-elevation. It also involves two efforts. To start with, Jonson follows the then prevalent poetics to fashion the court masque into a formal literary genre rich in aesthetical value and ideological seriousness, making it free from such censures as toys, entertainments and flattery. Accordingly, the scripter of court masque is also liberated from the infamous labels of hack or hired scribbler and elevated into the role of advocate of princely virtues and the lasher of immoralities. The second aspect in Jonson’s self-elevation is to make the most of the unique Stuart court political situation to set himself as the accommodator or mediator by writing for the different royal members or court factions so that his political ambitions are made clear. The conspiracy of art and politics in the English court masques is the reflection of the Renaissance poet’s interference into the politics and culture, which embodies the fact that culture and politics coexist in a symbiotic relationship. Jonson’s effort in such a relationship is a writer’s enthusiastic representation of himself and his authorial subjectivity.The third authorial strategy in Jonson’s court masque is to make it a medium to accomplish self-monumentalization. This is effectuated through the theme of fame. During the Renaissance, man’s concern for fame was related with his interest in book. Writers realized that they could remain immortal or monumentalized through their books and printing provided the perfect tool. The printing of court masque helps preserve the fame of both the praised and the writer; in the meantime, it helps transform the court masque from a performance genre into a reading genre, expanding its audience. According to Mauss’Gift/Exchange Theory, the gift’s symbolic sign value will enlarge during the circulation. In addition, Jonson’s cooperation with renowned publisher is essentially an effective marketing strategy in literary market since it can win more readers’ interest. To summarize, printing individual’s writing to immortalize one’s fame has much to do with man’s increasing self-consciousness and subjectivity development.Chapter three discusses Jonson’s self-authorization and the birth of modern author. It is divided into two sections. The first section suggests that Jonson’s effort in self-authorization is displayed in his defense for poetry and construction of poetics, the epitome of which is the publishing of The Works of Benjamin Jonson in1616. This collection of work establishes and confirms a new ideology of authorship, which proves a writer’s inclination to defend, monumentalize and promote oneself. The second section begins with the defining and classifying feature of the court masque to discover how Jonson makes it one of the most effective genres in his self-authorization through its immense symbolic sign value.Conclusion argues that Jonson’s endeavor in his court masque to self-authorize is the manifestation of the Renaissance writer’s success to construct his professional identity. Such success is achieved through controlling the production, circulation and consumption of his writings in both the gift and commodity exchange systems under the guidance of his profound understanding of a genre and the historical context. Jonson’s achievement proves man’s awakening of subject consciousness in Renaissance and prepares for the publication of the1616Folio as a milestone and model in British literary history. The1616Folio ushers in the passage of the first copyright law "The Statute of Anne" in1710.To sum up, this dissertation relies on contemporary cultural theories and such methods as close reading and anecdotalism to investigate a cultural phenomenon. It involves how the best members of a culture reflect and maintain some fundamental ideological categories, and ultimately change them and their ideological connotations. This is what New Historicists call a two-way interactive construction process between the author and the text. In such a process, the artist actively promotes new concepts and creates new things while conforming to the current discourse and conspiring with the mainstream discourse. It is, in essence, the manifestation of man’s subjectivity.