Jonson and the Emblematic Tradition: Ralegh, Brant, the Poems, The Alchemist, and Volpone

Abstract

that the work of previous scholars is both abundant and easily accessible. Yet these assumptions seem misguided. Young's article, for example, seems the only explicit, comprehensive discussion of Jonson and emblems to be recently published. And because most commentary on Jonson and emblems deals with the masques rather than with the great plays or poems, we find ourselves in a curious position: No one would deny the relevance of emblems and iconography to the masques, but these are not Jonson's most enduring works. If the masques inevitably strike many readers as rather minor and dated, then it might seem easy to conclude that emblematic thinking had only a peripheral and limited impact on Jonson 's best writing. My purposes here, then, are various. First, I hope to suggest some ways in which Jonson 's emblematic artistry is not confined to the masques (or to such masque-like plays as Cynthias Revels). In particular, I wish to suggest the emblematic nature of much of Jonson's non-dramatic poetry. I thereby hope to suggest that emblem scholarship and iconographie studies may also have more bearing on the great plays than we sometimes assume. As test cases, I hope to look closely at The Alchemist and Volpone to see how Jonson may have been influenced (consciously or not) by the emblematic tradition (including Sebastian Brant's The Ship of Fools) and also to see how Renaissance habits of emblematic thinking may have conditioned the reactions of the plays' original audiences. Furthermore, I hope to cite some previously unexamined archival evidence and to build on Young's fine article by reviewing previous scholarship. I hope that the