Jonson and Carew on Donne: Censure into Praise

摘要: Is John Donne a twentieth-century invention?1 stands next to Shakespeare among Renaissance or Early Modern writers in the importance and attention which this century has accorded him. Yet himself, while properly intensely concerned for his soul, manifests little concern afterlife of writing What follows investigates seventeenth-century views poet, particular those Donne's exact contemporary Ben Jonson finest elegist, Thomas Carew. Special is given toJonson's Carew's predictions regarding likely fate poetry when subject test time as means question extent adequacy our century's claims understandJohn Donne. Unlike Donne, BenJonson does not take Barthesian news death author lying down. Quite literally so, since he buried upright Westminster Abbey.2 Funerary idiosyncrasies apart-ifJohn was "much possessed by death," then much exercised possibilities posterity. Although anarchic, comedic impulses produce complicating