Abstract

Between 1584 and 1589, Justus Lipsius, a Flemish humanist, was provoked by the effects of the European Wars of Religion to produce his neostoic synthesis--an amalgamation of Senecan stoical teachings and Tacitean political exegesis. Lipsian neostoicism was self-consciously classical, and it was characterized by three main features: the call for the pursuit of "right reason," or "constancy," the prescription of prudentia mixta--the exercise of mixed prudence in political dealings--and a belief that the past--particularly the period of the Roman Empire--offered a store-house of political exempla fit for contemporary application. This study examines both the nature of Lipsius' achievement and the reception of his teachings in late Elizabethan and early Stuart England. ;Five well-known English writers and political thinkers are demonstrated to have been disciples of Lipsius and heavily involved in adapting his teachings to the English political context. They were Sir Walter Ralegh, Francis Bacon, Fulke Greville, Ben Jonson and Joseph Hall. And the questions they sought to answer through recourse to neostoicism were questions of political loyalty and participation, issues that had become critical in light of the growing trend among successive monarchs to fill their council tables with favourites from outside the traditional governing circles. In response to questions of political ostracization, each of the English neostoics so identified adopted specific aspects of Lipsian neostoicism for different purposes. "Constancy" was accepted universally, although Joseph Hall considered that the Lipsian definition of it was something of a travesty. Ralegh was more concerned to redefine the precept of prudentia mixta as a rule for governors, while Bacon altered it to make it pertain to individual political actors and hoped as well to prove that its exercise was only logical. He strove to reform contemporary opinions and education and sought to set them on a sound neostoic basis. Greville turned to Calvinist discourse to alter the expression of neostoicism but remained a firm neostoic to the end. Ben Jonson lived the life of an unconventional neostoic, yet he spent his literary time proselytizing and attempting to create political relationships based upon Lipsian tenets