ABSTRACT
If we think of Jonson’s epideictic verse as portraiture, then we must conclude that Jonson did not paint his subjects ‘warts and all’. His motivations in this, we have seen, are complex. His reasons for presenting his subjects’ best selves are political, personal, didactic, and artistic. Jonson himself likens poetry to painting, and this comparison may shed light on his artistic motivation in the portrait poems:
Poetry and picture are arts of a like nature, and both are busy about imitation. It was excellently said of Plutarch, poetry was a speaking picture, and picture a mute poesy. For they both invent, feign, and devise many things, and accommodate all they invent to the use and service of nature. Yet of the two, the pen is more noble than the pencil; for that can speak to the understanding, the other to the sense...
