Abstract
Abstract
French
Ben Jonson played a seminal role in establishing the contours of Shakespeare criticism, but discussion of his relationship to his great contemporary is fraught with difficulty. His dedicatory poem to the Shakespeare First Folio (1623) is filled with praise, elevating its subject to mythic status. But his comments on Shakespeare in Discoveries are more acerbic, and they raise questions about exactly where Jonson’s sympathies lie and what they mean. This essay explores the way his principles and his sympathies are grounded in the Aristotelian theory of tragedy that Jonson got from the Dutch humanist Daniel Heinsius.
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