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    New Light on Jonson and Roman Comedy: Volpone and Eunuchus, Magnetic Lady and Truculentus

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    Issue Date
    2013
    Author
    Hardin, Richard F.
    Publisher
    Edinburgh University Press
    Type
    Article
    Article Version
    Scholarly/refereed, publisher version
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    Abstract
    Behind the practice of imitation in Renaissance literature lay the knowledge that the ancients themselves had imitated. Roman followed Greek comedy as Virgil followed Homer. Terence readily countered the charge that he had kidnapped characters from Greek comedy. So do all comic playwrights: indeed, “Nothing in fact is ever said which has not been said before” (Nullumst iam dictum quod non sit dictum prius).1 As it happens, Terence’s remark appears in the preface to a play that shows evidence of Ben Jonson’s imitation in Volpone – The Eunuch. The connection between these plays has apparently not previously been made, despite work on Jonson and ancient comedy over the past century.2 My discussion of Volpone and Eunuchus will lead into observations on the English playwright’s The Magnetic Lady as it echoes the plot of the mysterious pregnancy in Plautus’s Truculentus. Peter Happé writes that The Magnetic Lady shows Jonson, beginning around 1632, inclining toward “the staging practices of Plautus and Terence. The latter in fact are the chief debt, and Jonson both acknowledges their importance to him at this time and makes several minor allusions to them.”3 The allusions in both Volpone and The Magnetic Lady are beyond minor.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/1808/20907
    DOI
    https://doi.org/10.3366/bjj.2013.0080
    Collections
    • English Scholarly Works [308]
    Citation
    Hardin, Richard. "New Light on Jonson and Roman Comedy: Volpone and Eunuchus, Magnetic Lady and Truculentus," Ben Jonson Journal 20 (2013): 179-200.

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    Contact KU ScholarWorks
    785-864-8983
    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
    785-864-8983

    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
    Image Credits
     

     

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