ABSTRACT
Jonson's work is full of sly touches that remind us of the author, often at unexpected moments. It was a fairly mature Jonson who wrote in Epicoene, 'shee may censure poets, and authors, and stiles, and compare 'hem, daniel with spenser, ionson with the tother youth'. Jonson claims here to be impervious to what the world says of him. That claim is made over and over in his work; it is generally accompanied by a savage attack on the fools and knaves to whom he professes indifference, and as Jonas A. The world being what it is, retreat from it is no disgrace; and it allows inspired vision. Normally a love-poet will not describe his own appearance, but he may describe the lady's in lavish detail. Jonson turns that device on its head: the lady disappears and the blazon becomes a point-by-point description of his own gross body.
