This study explores Ben Jonson's poetry and its publication to examine the evolving relationship between patronage, authorship, and print culture in early modern England. Focusing on his poetic collections, Epigrams, The Forest, and The Underwood, it ...
This study explores Ben Jonson's poetry and its publication to examine the evolving relationship between patronage, authorship, and print culture in early modern England. Focusing on his poetic collections, Epigrams, The Forest, and The Underwood, it traces Jonson’s development of an authorial identity based on literary merit rather than birth, within the socioeconomic shift from feudalism to capitalism in seventeenth-century England. Jonson strategically employed both manuscript circulation and print, in order to assert his authority and to claim ownership over his texts, revealing the tensions which he navigated between seeking aristocratic patrons and establishing his independence as a professional writer. The study highlights how Jonson's poetry reflects his complex views on patronage, social hierarchies, and the literary marketplace, ultimately shedding light on the emergence of modern authorship and the commercialization of literature in early modern England.