Pornos and Playwrights

Mammon, a man clearly interested in not only excess and sensuality but also sensual excesses, desires the finer things in life. Some of which include bedding that is not too hard and a plethora of pornographic photographs. A simple man, really. This idea is presented in Act II, Scene 2 where he tells Face, “I will have all my beds blown up, not stuffed: Down is too hard. And then mine oval room filled with such pictures as Tiberius took from Elephantis, and dull Aretine but coldly imitated” (Jonson 65).

To modern day readers the phrase “dull Aretine” may be lost; however, this was not so during the Renaissance. When Mammon references “dull Aretine” he is speaking of Pietro Aretino, an Italian who would become known as the inventor of modern literate pornography. Aretine was famous (or infamous, whichever way you choose to view it) during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries in England as an author, playwright, poet and satirist.

Noteworthy examples of his work include his most known book Ragionamenti and sixteen sonnets I Sonnetti Lussuriosi. Ragionamenti portays two harlets recalling techniques and practices of sex through dialogue about the lives of controversial figures. These figures included nuns, married women, and courtesans. The sixteen sonnets dealt with modes of intercourse and also included graphics of accompanying sexual positions designed by Giolio Romano and engraved by Marcantanio Raimondi. Saad El-Gabalawy, author of Aretino’s Pornography and Renaissance Satire describes the impact of these texts by writing: “In many cases the references to Aretino’s “pictures” and “dialogues” become functional as a medium of social, moral, and political satire in the later English Renaissance” (El-Gabalawy).

While Aretino’s racy work has left its mark on society today, the saturation of his writing into Renaissance London culture undoubtedly affected the lives of the people experiencing it during the time as well. El-Gabalawy writes, “The obscene manuals of Italy led to bawdy actions which corrupted the religious beliefs and moral values of Englishmen” (El-Gabalawy).  However, the influence proved to be two-fold. El-Gabalawy continues, “There was in England, however, a love-hate relationship with Italy, manifest in the admiration for the literary ideals and models which were worthy of imitation as well as denunciation of Italian pornographic books which engendered moral depravity” (El-Gabalawy).

With this idea of moral depravity in the depictions of sex written and illustrated by Aretino, we see a connection to the characters in The Alchemist. Jonson’s text is littered with examples of corruption, greed, and sexuality so it is fitting that he included the topical allusion “dull Aretine” by utilizing the immoral Mammon.