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Ben Jonson and Sidneian Legacies of Hospitality

Ben Jonson and Sidneian Legacies of Hospitality by Lisa Celovsky EN Jonson's celebration of the Sidney family in "To Penshurst" hasgeneratedseverallinesofcriticalinquiry.Ingeneral,scholars have argued that Jonson offers Sidneian hospitality as a model forreaderstoemulate.Moreparticularly,somestudiessuggestthathis praisecommentsonchangingpoliticalandeconomicconditionsinthe period,especiallywithrespecttothepracticesofambitiouscourtiers andthedisplacementofaristocraticreciprocitybycapitalistmodesof exchange.Otherstudiessetthepoem'snostalgicdepictionofliberality againstthefamily'sactualfinancialpracticesanddebts,oritsrepresentationofidealizedmaster-servantexchangesagainstactuallaborconditionsandstatusdistinctions. See Paul M. Cubeta, "A Jonsonian Ideal: `To Penshurst,'" Philological Quarterly 42 (1964): 14­24; William A. McClung, The Country House in English Renaissance Poetry (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), 132­33; G. R. Hibbard, "The Country HousePoemoftheSeventeenthCentury,"Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 19(1956):159;andAlastairfowler,Conceitful Thought: The Interpretation of English Renaissance Poems(Edinburgh:EdinburghUniversityPress,1975),128. forgeneraldiscussionsofthesetrends,seeR.H.Tawney,"TheRiseoftheGentry, 1558­1640," The Economic History Review 11 (1941): 1­38; and Keith Wrightson, English Society, 1580­1680(NewBrunswick:RutgersUniversityPress,1982;1984),27­31.Critics who consider Jonson's poem in these contexts include Hibbard, "The Country House Poem,"159and161;fowler,Conceitful Thought,124;RaymondWilliams,The Country and the City(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1973),27­34;MichaelC.Schoenfeldt,"`The MysteriesofManners,Armes,andArts':`InvitingafriendtoSupper'and`ToPenshurst,'" in"The Muse's Common-Weale":Poetry and Politics in the Seventeenth Century,ed.ClaudeJ. Summers and Ted-Larry Pebworth (Columbia: Universityof Missouri Press, 1988), 75; JeffreyHart,"BenJonson'sGoodSociety,"Modern Age: A Quarterly Review7(1962­63): 62­63;andCharlesMolesworth,"Propertyandvirtue:TheGenreoftheCountry-House PoemintheSeventeenthCentury,"Genre1(1968):147­50. J.C.A.Rathmell,"Jonson,LordLisle,andPenshurst,"English Literary Renaissance1 (1971):esp.256and260;GermaineWarkentin,"Jonson'sPenshurstReveal'd?APenshurst Inventoryof1623,"Sidney Journal20(2002):esp.2­5and21­22. Williams,The Country and the City,27­34. 178 ©2009TheUniversityofNorthCarolinaPress Lisa Celovsky YettheSidneysoftheseventeenthcenturywereasmuch"newcapitalists"astheywerethe"feudalaristocrats"portrayedinsomeofthese discussions.Moreover,hospitalityhasimplicationsbeyondthosethat have been previously identified. first, in "To Penshurst" and in The Forestasawhole,themotifofhospitalityofferstheSidneysaspecifically familial link to the past. Repeated references to entertainment in poems about Robert Sidney and his family--his wife Barbara, his daughterMaryandson-in-lawRobert(Wroth),andhisheirWilliam-- recallalegacyofgoodhospitality,especiallytheexemplaryhospitality of Robert's father Henry Sidney. Secondly, http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Studies in Philology University of North Carolina Press

Ben Jonson and Sidneian Legacies of Hospitality

Studies in Philology , Volume 106 (2) – Apr 5, 2009

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University of North Carolina Press
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Abstract

by Lisa Celovsky EN Jonson's celebration of the Sidney family in "To Penshurst" hasgeneratedseverallinesofcriticalinquiry.Ingeneral,scholars have argued that Jonson offers Sidneian hospitality as a model forreaderstoemulate.Moreparticularly,somestudiessuggestthathis praisecommentsonchangingpoliticalandeconomicconditionsinthe period,especiallywithrespecttothepracticesofambitiouscourtiers andthedisplacementofaristocraticreciprocitybycapitalistmodesof exchange.Otherstudiessetthepoem'snostalgicdepictionofliberality againstthefamily'sactualfinancialpracticesanddebts,oritsrepresentationofidealizedmaster-servantexchangesagainstactuallaborconditionsandstatusdistinctions. See Paul M. Cubeta, "A Jonsonian Ideal: `To Penshurst,'" Philological Quarterly 42 (1964): 14­24; William A. McClung, The Country House in English Renaissance Poetry (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), 132­33; G. R. Hibbard, "The Country HousePoemoftheSeventeenthCentury,"Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 19(1956):159;andAlastairfowler,Conceitful Thought: The Interpretation of English Renaissance Poems(Edinburgh:EdinburghUniversityPress,1975),128. forgeneraldiscussionsofthesetrends,seeR.H.Tawney,"TheRiseoftheGentry, 1558­1640," The Economic History Review 11 (1941): 1­38; and Keith Wrightson, English Society, 1580­1680(NewBrunswick:RutgersUniversityPress,1982;1984),27­31.Critics who consider Jonson's poem in these contexts include Hibbard, "The Country House Poem,"159and161;fowler,Conceitful Thought,124;RaymondWilliams,The Country and the City(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1973),27­34;MichaelC.Schoenfeldt,"`The MysteriesofManners,Armes,andArts':`InvitingafriendtoSupper'and`ToPenshurst,'" in"The Muse's Common-Weale":Poetry and Politics in the Seventeenth Century,ed.ClaudeJ. Summers and Ted-Larry Pebworth (Columbia: Universityof Missouri Press, 1988), 75; JeffreyHart,"BenJonson'sGoodSociety,"Modern Age: A Quarterly Review7(1962­63): 62­63;andCharlesMolesworth,"Propertyandvirtue:TheGenreoftheCountry-House PoemintheSeventeenthCentury,"Genre1(1968):147­50. J.C.A.Rathmell,"Jonson,LordLisle,andPenshurst,"English Literary Renaissance1 (1971):esp.256and260;GermaineWarkentin,"Jonson'sPenshurstReveal'd?APenshurst Inventoryof1623,"Sidney Journal20(2002):esp.2­5and21­22. Williams,The Country and the City,27­34. 178 ©2009TheUniversityofNorthCarolinaPress Lisa Celovsky YettheSidneysoftheseventeenthcenturywereasmuch"newcapitalists"astheywerethe"feudalaristocrats"portrayedinsomeofthese discussions.Moreover,hospitalityhasimplicationsbeyondthosethat have been previously identified. first, in "To Penshurst" and in The Forestasawhole,themotifofhospitalityofferstheSidneysaspecifically familial link to the past. Repeated references to entertainment in poems about Robert Sidney and his family--his wife Barbara, his daughterMaryandson-in-lawRobert(Wroth),andhisheirWilliam-- recallalegacyofgoodhospitality,especiallytheexemplaryhospitality of Robert's father Henry Sidney. Secondly,

Journal

Studies in PhilologyUniversity of North Carolina Press

Published: Apr 5, 2009

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