Ben Jonson - Discoveries Flashcards
Why is it important to consult others?
‘Few men are wise by their own counsel, or learned by their own teaching’
WHat is wisdom without honesty?
Wisdom without honesty is mere craft…a good life is a main argument’
What lies open to all?
Turth lies open to all; it is no man’s several
what should we take care of?
‘Take care not to be too curious….God is best known by our not knowing’
What is knoweldge?
Knowledge is the action of the soul…but not without the services of the sense’
What is nature?
Nature…is always the same, like herself’
what are the ancients?
‘The ancients’ are ‘guides, not commanders’; ‘our own experience’ we have ‘better means to pronounce’
What will happen ‘if the men be naught’
‘If the men be naught, the times will be such’
What is said of the ‘ancient language’?
‘what was the ancient langauge…btu the ancient custom?’
What is more ridiculous…
‘nothing is more ridiculous than to make an author a dictator’
What can we make?
‘we can make farther discoveries of turht’
What is reputation?
‘the opinion of his honesty and the opinion of his wisdom’
What does language do?
‘language…imitates the public riot’
What shoudl lanauge bring?
should bring ‘delight….take the eye and be taken by the hand’
What shoudl ‘the true artificer’ do?
‘the true artificer will not run away from Nature….
but speak to the capacity of his hearers’
‘his lanuage…shall not fly form all humanity’ [like Tamburlaine]
why is poetry superior to visiual cart?
it ‘can speak to the understanding’, not just ‘the sense’
However ‘both behold pleasure and profit as their common object….but should abstain from all base pleasures, lest they destroy manners’
What is the instrument of society?
‘Language…is the instrument of society’ - suggests necessity of language to soical formation
what most shows a man?
‘language most shows a man..the iamge of the parent of it, the mind’
what do we ‘require in our poet’
‘we require in our poet a goodness of natural wit…a divine insticnt’
what is important?
‘to be able to convert the substance of antoher poet to his own use’
Who should we love and why?
to not love ‘the prince..after God..violates nature’
what is a good king?
‘a good king is a public servant’
which ‘art’ do princes learn?
‘the art of horsemanship’
What is ‘impostura’?
‘many men believe not themselves wat they woud persuade others’
what do men seek?
‘men should seek immortality’
What is the only immortal thing?
‘truth…the only immortal thing’
what is the order of God’s cratures
‘the order of God’s creatures…[is] glorious [and] eloquent’
