Imitation and Praise in the Poems of Ben Jonson

Richard S. Peterson is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. He specializes in the literature of Rome and Renaissance France and England.

• Contents: Preface; Note to the second edition; Note on editions and translations; The turn: imitation and praise; The stand: noble natures raised; The full circle: poet as vessel; Well-turned and true-filed lines: Jonson on Shakespeare; Turn, counter-turn and stand: the ode on Cary and Morison; Afterword; Bibliography; Index.

'This is a book that makes Jonson into the first-rate poet he was and gives us a critical vocabulary that enforces that option.' Renaissance Quarterly 'By providing depth and relevance to Jonson’s energetic and allusive style, Peterson elucidates, transforms, and universalizes Jonson’s poems of imitation and praise.' Sixteenth Century Journal Praise for the first edition: 'Scholarly criticism at its best: learned, well-written, compactly organized, shedding fresh light on every page upon a subject now revealed almost for the first time in its truly inexhaustible richness.' Thomas M. Greene 'One feels like a witness of Jonson in the process of creation. I can think of no other book that handles sources so imaginatively.' Thomas P. Roche, Jr., Princeton University, USA