Caroline Jonson (Ben Jonson)

This project examines the literary and political contexts of the late drama of Ben Jonson, and argues for the playwright's development of a specifically Caroline form of public theater address during the interval between 1629 and Jonson's death in 1637.; Chapter 1 of my dissertation analyzes the relevance of The New Inn (1629) to the historical events of Charles's early reign. It argues that the play is an extremely cautious celebration of the potential for a successful match between France and England, Henrietta Maria and Charles I, and ultimately between Charles and his own kingdom. The dissolution of the 1629 Parliament stopped the celebration, and changed Jonson's methods of writing for the Caroline era.; Chapter 2 focuses on Jonson's 1632 city comedy, The Magnetic Lady. In this play, Jonson translates a discussion of the nature of royal authority from a romantic context, the court, to a mercantile context. He does so in order to offer cautions about how the Caroline monarchy appears to the commercial community of the realm.; Chapter 3 discusses Jonson's 1633 comedy A Tale of A Tub and its representation of the plight of local English magistrates. I argue that the dramatist's language begins to reveal opposition to the royal prerogative, and that Jonson's play suggests the likelihood of increasing local resistance to badly articulated and demanding royal policy.; Chapter 4 analyzes Jonson's unfinished pastoral The Sad Shepherd (1637) as a subtle and appropriate warning to the King. In The Sad Shepherd, the troubling apparatus of the royal prerogative is passed over, allowing a sympathetic treatment of the king himself in the character of Robin Hood However, Jonson's depiction of the supernatural ability of characters like Maudlin, The Witch of Papplewick, to disrupt the economy and ruling structure of Sherwood emphasizes the severe nature of the challenges faced by an "outlaw" monarchy. The play is a sophisticated literary tour-de-force that works within the conventions of Caroline pastoral to alter perceptions of the genre, and raise difficult questions about the success of Charles I's attempt at ruling without Parliament.