Master of humor and satire, Ben Jonson was a playwright, poet and actor; he was also known as one of Shakespeare's theatrical contemporaries, if not Shakespeare's chief literary rival. His poem "To the Memory of My Beloved Author, Mr. William Shakespeare" was an elegy to commemorate Shakespeare and his works. However, Jonson is not truly sincere in his admiration for Shakespeare. Jonson subtly undermines Shakespeare by hiding his criticisms under the poem's laudatory guise. Jonson subverts the masterly and expected image of Shakespeare by openly praising him in a theatrical manner, discrediting his admirers, exposing his flaws, and questioning his greatness compared to the great poets of the past. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay While the poem is written as an elegy to Shakespeare and therefore should be uplifting in nature, Jonson's excessive use of praise prevents the reader from fully admiring Shakespeare. The title not only exaggerates the poem's obvious intention (a devotion to Shakespeare), but is also particularly long and superfluous enough to hint at falsehood. Jonson attempts to praise Shakespeare by giving him several adjectives as decorative titles. It opens with “My Beloved,” an intimate and loving term. However, instead of being consistent with this level of affection, he unexpectedly distances himself and calls Shakespeare “the Author” and then formally addresses him as “Mr. William Shakespeare,” with the full prefix, first and last name, preventing the reader from seeing Shakespeare fully and lovingly and signaling the reader to question his relationship with Shakespeare. This disconnect also makes it seem as if Jonson can find no other good things to say about Shakespeare and is resorting to a fact By using such a formal term and resorting to the obvious (i.e., his profession and official name respectively) Jonson manages to feign praise, while not evoking any admirable feelings from him. part of the reader for Shakespeare. Immediately, the title of the poem sets the stage for the rest of the poem as it makes the reader more skeptical: look for Jonson's criticisms beyond his praise for Shakespeare Jonson continues to stage the. obvious and over-exaggerates his praise for Shakespeare to the point of bordering on derision, trivializing Shakespeare and his works Jonson presents the poem with an over-exaggeration of everything, as if it were staged. Therefore, praise should not be taken seriously, thus transitively trivializing Shakespeare's achievements. To illustrate, Jonson stops halfway through the poem and announces, “I will begin then” (17), referring to how he will begin to praise Shakespeare. The sudden change in the first-person narrative voice, and the fact that the speaker expresses his intentions instead of simply praising, creates an image of Jonson as a narrator on stage, telling the audience that the show is about to begin, the show is his applause for Shakespeare's "great" successes. In fact, in addition to the abrupt change of narrative voice, the period at the end of the sentence also creates a dramatic pause, interrupts the flow of the poem, making everything that follows the sentence unnatural. Jonson further dramatizes his praise of Shakespeare through his excessive use of exclamation marks. Using exclamation points one after another with praise like “soul of the age!” followed by “the applause, the joy, the wonder of our stage!” (17/18), takes away the impact that the exclamation point usually has. Suddenly, praise carries less weight and becomes trivialized. Furthermore, later in the poem Jonson tries to surpass his earlier praise in saying thatShakespeare is “the soul of the age” when he exclaims how Shakespeare “was not of an age but of all times!” as if he was playing to see how much more exaggerated he could be. Logically, these two phrases also contradict each other, which causes both laudatory statements to cancel each other out, leaving them as empty praise. Therefore, Jonson's image of a stage as well as his exaggerated compliments trivialize Shakespeare and his works. Indeed, Jonson not only belittles Shakespeare through his hyperbolic praise, but also discredits other people's praise of Shakespeare. Jonson understands that one reason for Shakespeare's popularity is because he is celebrated for being celebrated (similar to the idea of ​​being famous for being famous): people admire him because many other people praise him. Therefore, Jonson attempts to take away this shield of praise as he explains how praise can be harmful and discredits Shakespeare's admirers. Jonson presents the concept that praise is not always positive when he uses “too much” to describe praise in the phrase “neither man nor muse can praise too much” (4). The phrase “too much” seems rather unconventional. In contrast to the use of “can praise enough” which evokes the idea of ​​an empty space that still needs to be filled to completion, Jonson uses “can praise too much” which presents the image of an overload of praise, as if had passed. the point of completeness. Therefore, presenting how praise is now doing more harm than good. This slight change in wording makes the reader look at Shakespeare's praise differently, if not more critically. Jonson delves into this idea of ​​how praise can be more harmful than beneficial when he analyzes Shakespeare's admirers. Jonson is introducing the fact that many of Shakespeare's admirers are “blind [in affection]” and praise him for “the deepest ignorance,” lacking the ability and knowledge to truly appreciate his works (9). Naturally, such an argument causes the reader to look at themselves and ask whether they hold Shakespeare in high regard because of others. As a result, making the reader even more critical of their own opinions of him. At the same time, denigrating some of Shakespeare's admirers further gains trust in Jonson's reader as they present themselves as the few who can truly understand Shakespeare's work. Jonson doesn't stop there as he compares the situation to when "some infamous fool or whore / should praise a matron" (13-14). Suddenly, Jonson presents the case as worse than it actually is, as comparing someone who can't appreciate work to a whore or pimp is pretty extreme. However, it proves effective as it converts these praises from something positive to negative and detracts from Shakespeare's greatness. Jonson not only erases many of Shakespeare's ignorant and therefore false admirers, but also diminishes the praise of Shakespeare's leading admirers such as Queen Elizabeth. and King James I. Instead of addressing them formally by their respective titles of “Queen” and “King,” Jonson refers to them as “Eliza and our James” (74). Jonson's reference to the Queen and King in such casual terms may show on the surface Shakespeare's close relationship with them. However, by using informal language, Jonson also reduces monarchs, something so lofty and unattainable, to familiars, which takes away from the awe-inspiring fact that Shakespeare is under the patronage of the highest-ranking person in the land. Therefore, by discrediting Shakespeare's blind admirers and familiarizing his high-ranking admirers, Jonson is depriving Shakespeare of the praise that makes him so great, consequently reducing Shakespeare to the shadow of hisprevious, admirable self. In the same way that Jonson makes monarchs seem more relatable, he also tries to lift Shakespeare from his pedestal by familiarizing him and presenting him as a flawed commoner who makes mistakes as opposed to an unattainable literary genius. Jonson begins by exposing Shakespeare's low level of education while superficially praising Shakespeare for making it this far when Shakespeare “had little Latin and less Greek” (31). Although it seems that Jonson is praising Shakespeare for being successful despite his educational background, the reader cannot fully admire Shakespeare. The reason for this incomplete admiration is due to Jonson's use of superlatives. Jonson could have simply said "you had lower case Latin and Greek" without the "less Greek" and he would still have conveyed the same point. However, by adding the extra superlative, it creates a descending image, which conflicts with the idea of ​​Shakespeare leaning in place, consequently preventing the reader from truly admiring Shakespeare. In fact, Jonson is quite biased in his commentary, as Jonson is known for his knowledge of the classics and judges Shakespeare by his own high standards. Shakespeare's educational background alone creates a hole in the previous image of a perfect Shakespeare. Furthermore, Jonson tears away at the image of a genius Shakespeare when he reveals that Shakespeare can make mistakes, like any other ordinary person. Jonson states that "he who sets out to write a living line, must sweat (like yours)" referring to how hard Shakespeare had to work to produce prose so good that it was "living". Such a statement is meant to compliment Shakespeare's hard work ethic, but Jonson's real motive is to attribute Shakespeare's success to his hard work and not his genius as a way to knock him off his pedestal. Jonson also uses parentheses as a means of demoting Shakespeare to a commoner when he places "(like yours)" in parentheses. While “Yours” could refer to Shakespeare, it could also refer to the reader. The parentheses allow Jonson to break the fourth wall and address the readers as it creates a space for a digression, as it does not interrupt the flow of the poem. By exposing Shakespeare's educational backstory and demonstrating that Shakespeare can make mistakes, Jonson is able to take Shakespeare off his pedestal as he presents him as ordinary. Jonson recognizes Shakespeare's abilities. However, it attempts to diminish Shakespeare's greatness while asking the question of how great Shakespeare is compared to the great poets of history while questioning Shakespeare's burial place. Jonson pretends to be outraged that Shakespeare is buried in Stratford and not buried where “Chaucer, or Spencer, or bid Beaumont lie” (20) in Westminster Abbey. However, the real reason for Jonson's protest is to shed light on this issue so that the reader will, naturally, be inclined to wonder why he wasn't buried there in the first place? Did the authorities see something they didn't? Or was Shakespeare good, but not exemplary enough to be buried with other great poets? trying to squeeze into the poet's corner. Jonson begins by mockingly challenging Shakespeare to find a space when he shouts "Shakespeare rises!" By using the word "resurrect", Jonson evokes the image of a dead Shakespeare "rising" from the dead, which is not only disrespectful to Shakespeare, but also paints Shakespeare in a very weak and disturbing state, an image that it makes Shakespeare seem downright creepy. further from the poetic martyr. Also, using a monosyllabic verb followed by an exclamation point, Jonson.