SOURCE: "Clues to Just Judgment: I," in Vision and Judgment in Ben Jonson's Drama, Yale University Press, 1968, pp. 95-125.

In the essay below, Jackson explores the relation between dramatic art and moral judgment in Jonson's plays. Jackson focuses on the theme of nobility and the recurrence of money symbolism to reveal the rhetorical character of Jonson's dramaturgy.

Justum judicium judicate.

John 7:24.

He only judges right, who weighs, compares, And, in the sternest sentence which his voice Pronounces, ne'er abandons charity.

Wordsworth, Ecclesiastical Sonnets, II.I

The "critical sense of life," [Rhys, Ben Jonson] which Jonson followed further than any other impulse or talent, led him to pass judgment upon the company on stage as well as that in the pit; but his main object was to equip the men and women within the circle of his theater to judge of those within the circle of his play, and...