ABSTRACT
Both gender and genre influence the dynamic between praiser and praised. Since the term ‘praiser’ may in some cases designate the author himself, Ben Jonson, and in others a persona constructed by him, this chapter will take a four-pronged approach in an attempt to address the issue of the nature of the praiser in epideictic poetry. Four questions will be considered: (1) when is the persona the author, Ben Jonson; when is he (or she) an entity separate and distinct from Jonson; (2) to what extent is the author/persona relationship generically determined; (3) what is the nature of the relationship between praiser and praised, and to what extent does the quality of that relationship determine epideixis; and (4) how do female objects of praise affect the posture of the poet and, specifically, what effect does gender have on subject/object identification?
