The Historical Context of the Epigraph to Jonson's Catiline

Abstract

THE epigraph that Ben Jonson provided for the printed edition of his play on the Catilinarian conspiracy is more complex than it first appears. Jonson modified a quotation from Horace's epistles for the epigraph: ‘his non Plebecula gaudet. / Verum Equitis quoque, iam migravit ab aure voluptas, / Omnis, ad incertos oculos, & gaudia vana’ (Jonson changes Horace's ‘nam’ to ‘non’ in the first line).1 The epigraph complains that the common people do not enjoy what Jonson presents to them, and that even the tastes of the upper class have already moved from what they hear to what they see. On one level, it is clear that Jonson is referring to the shabby treatment the play received in the theatre, where no one, not even the educated, tolerated Cicero's lengthy speech in Act IV. Jonson evidently hoped that the printed version would be easier to stomach. The play's publisher, Walter Burre, was in 1611 already making a name for himself by publishing plays that had not done well on the stage, but might be repackaged for learned readers.2 But the epigraph also refers to specific historical circumstances in Roman history that inform the events of Jonson's play. To my knowledge, no one has drawn attention to these circumstances or remarked on their relevance to the play.3