Ben Jonson and Catiline
Around 1611, Ben Jonson wrote a play entitled Catiline about the rebellion. It was a notorious failure. One modern critic said that the play was so terrible, students who cheated should be forced to read it. About 30 years ago, I read the play and concluded that it had been falsely maligned. It didn’t seem to be the weighty bore I had expected. Sometime later I reread the play, and my reaction was, “Hey, this play really does stink!” Strange how our reactions to a given work can vary upon different readings. Strange how our appreciations of works can be affected by extra-literary factors, such as colds, toothaches, quarrels, anxiety, weariness, the afternoon doldrums, etc. Strange also how we pay little attention to these factors and assume that everyone equally is open to each literary work any time it might be picked up. I suppose I owe Jonson a third reading of this play to see, if I can, what I really feel about it.
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