An Idea of Old Comedy: Ben Jonson’s Metatextual Appropriation of Aristophanes

This study argues that the relationship between Ben Jonson and Aristophanes evolves considerably over time and starts displaying an allegiance to Attic Old Comedy mediated in fact by Horace’s satiric poetry. Through Horace, Jonson was led to think of Aristophanes as a forerunner of Roman satire – an idea that was widely shared in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century culture. In Jonson and Horace’s view, Aristophanes’ dramatic art was essentially equated with his sharp representation of characters. Explicit references to Aristophanes in the metatheatrical sections of EMO, in contrast to the almost complete lack of close intertextual passages linking Jonson’s ‘comical satires’ to the Aristophanic corpus, suggest that up to at least 1606 Jonson was not familiar with Aristophanes’ comedies, but only with their metatextual representation in literary texts and studies, from antiquity to his time. This is why I would propose to understand the Jonson-Aristophanes relationship entailed in the ‘comical satires’ of 1598- 1601 as a form of ‘metatextual appropriation’. Jonson’s effort to place his ‘comical satires’ under the banner of Attic Old Comedy results in a peculiar triangular relationship linking him to Aristophanes through Horace, and unveils his need for an eminent precursor in whose shadow he could stand out as both a satirist and a playwright.