SUBJECTING THE KING: BEN JONSON’S PRAISE OF JAMES I JEAN LE D R E W M E T C A L F E Huron College A s a highly self-conscious poet, Jonson is aware of the problems of sub jectivity and excess that inevitably confront the panegyrist. As a morally righteous and enormously confident poet, he is adamant in his denial of flat tery — that “honey distilling from a whorish voice; which is not praise, but poyson” (8: 596-97; Discoveries 1081-83). Jonson’s concern for a reputation for truthfulness is recorded in the Conversations with Drummond, where his interlocutor attests, “of all stiles he loved most to be named honest” (1: 150; 631). To this end, the desire to reconcile praise and honesty (and, in doing so, to dignify both king and poet) informs Jonson’s panegyric and distinguishes his manipulation of the genre. I In his defence against the charge of flattery, Jonson insists upon the veracity of his praise. Complimenting Alphonso Ferrabosco on his musical settings for Hymenaei, Jonson claims, “It cannot be Flatterie, in me, who never did it to Great ones', and lesse then Love, and Truth it is not, where it is done out of Knowledge" (7: 232). Jonson’s authority as panegyrist derives from the sincere motivation of his praise ( “Love, and Truth” ) and its foundation in “Knowledge.” In a poem to the Earl of Suffolk (Epigrammes 67), he writes: . . . truth brings That sound, and that authoritie with her name, As, to be rais’d by her, is onely fame. (8: 49; 2-4) Harris Friedberg describes Jonson’s epigrammatic verse as a “poetry of ref erence” rather than a “visionary poetry” (112). Instead of feigning, Jonson’s poetry names, and in doing so “circumvents its own inherent duplicity by establishing a uniquely perfect correspondence between word and object” (117). Alongside the “truth” of his praise, Jonson situates “love.” His gen uine political support of the Stuart monarchy and, in particular, his personal and intellectual affinity to James,1 if they do not excuse the hyperbole and extravagance intrinsic to panegyric, at least attest to the sincere intention inspiring the poetic excess. English Studies in Ca n a d a , x v ii, 2, June 19 9 1 More important, however, the basic premise of the political ideology that Jonson shares with James — the absolute authority of a king over his people — provides a useful analogue to the artist’s own power. Jonson’s poetic absolutism (over both his subject-matter and his reader) allows him in his celebration of royal prerogative simultaneously to assert his own authority as poet. Jonson sets his panegyrics within a system of power in which praiser and praised, poet and king, are equally authoritative and offer not only equally valuable exchanges, but equal exchanges. Fame, prestige, and authority devolve upon the poet as well as his subject. Jonson’s notorious egoism, then, encourages the celebration of other exceptional individuals. His panegyric, as a result, is more allusive, more replete with meaning, and more complex in its intentions than the blatant flattery of some of his contemporaries. The motivation of Jonson’s epideictic verse becomes most overt during the later stages of his career. In an “Ode to Himselfe,” Jonson bitterly rebukes his theatre audience, condemning the taste and understanding of the “lothsome age” (6: 492; 2) and announcing his intention to abandon dramatic endeavours. Beyond the personal context of the poem, written in response to the failure of The New Inne and specifically attacking the playwright Richard Brome, Jonson’s abusive withdrawal from the English stage echoes the concluding passages of Horace’s epistle to Augustus (Epistles 2.1). Voicing a similar contempt for the Roman theatre and public, Horace advises Augustus on the importance of employing the service of fit poets, and advances that higher sort of poetry which takes res gestae as its theme. Jonson, following his classical predecessor’s lead, declares his intention to focus his poetic talent on the subject of the king (something that he had done for much of his career) as a means of triumphing over his critics. A concern for authority pervades the “Ode.” To begin...