Literary Criticism (1400-1800) | Jonson, Ben - Gabriele Bernhard Jackson (essay date 1968)

Gabriele Bernhard Jackson (essay date 1968)

SOURCE: "Clues to Just Judgment: I," in Vision and Judgment in Ben Jonson's Drama, Yale University Press, 1968, pp. 95-125.

[In the essay below, Jackson explores the relation between dramatic art and moral judgment in Jonson's plays. Jackson focuses on the theme of nobility and the recurrence of money symbolism to reveal the rhetorical character of Jonson's dramaturgy.]

Justum judicium judicate.

John 7:24.

He only judges right, who weighs, compares, And, in the sternest sentence which his voice Pronounces, ne'er abandons charity.

Wordsworth, Ecclesiastical Sonnets, II.I

The "critical sense of life," [Rhys, Ben Jonson] which Jonson followed further than any other impulse or talent, led him to pass judgment upon the company on...

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