Ben Jonson on father Thomas Wright

buir.contributor.authorLenthe, Victor
buir.contributor.orcidLenthe, Victor|0000-0001-8270-9598
dc.citation.epage51
dc.citation.issueNumber1
dc.citation.spage30
dc.citation.volumeNumber31
dc.contributor.authorLenthe, Victor
dc.date.accessioned2025-02-18T07:47:10Z
dc.date.available2025-02-18T07:47:10Z
dc.date.issued2024-05
dc.departmentProgram in Cultures, Civilization and Ideas
dc.description.abstractThis article reassesses Ben Jonson's relationship to the Roman-Catholic priest and missionary Thomas Wright (c. 1561–1623). Wright plays two roles in critical accounts of Jonson's life and works: first as the spiritual mentor who probably worked Jonson's conversion in 1598, second as the dedicatee of one of Jonson's only six extant sonnets. My article applies literary analysis to the sonnet Jonson wrote for Wright in order to show that it signals negative feelings for the priest. This recognition is important to Jonson studies for two reasons. It contributes the first extended literary analysis of an artful poem by Jonson. In addition, it raises questions about the tendency of much recent scholarship to explain various aspects of Jonson's life and works by reference to his religion. In contrast to this recent religious turn stands an older narrative about Jonson as a secular individualist largely indifferent to the supernatural. By revealing Jonson to be struggling against a figure central to his spiritual biography, I suggest a middle ground between these two narratives in which the secularizing aspects of Jonson's thought are enmeshed with, rather than opposed to, the religious aspects emphasized by recent scholarship.
dc.identifier.doi10.3366/bjj.2024.0360
dc.identifier.eissn1755-165X
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/11693/116355
dc.language.isoEnglish
dc.publisherEdinburgh University Press
dc.relation.isversionofhttps://dx.doi.org/10.3366/bjj.2024.0360
dc.rightsCC BY 4.0 (Attribution 4.0 International Deed)
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.source.titleBen Jonson Journal
dc.subjectBen Jonson
dc.subjectBiographical approaches
dc.subjectReligious context
dc.subjectReligious turn
dc.subjectCommendatory verses
dc.subjectThomas Wright
dc.subjectSecond person pronouns
dc.titleBen Jonson on father Thomas Wright
dc.typeArticle

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