Sir John Harington’s Emblematic Process

With the exception of Michael Bath, English emblem scholars have not addressed Sir John Harington’s unique relation to emblems. While Bath focuses on the fascinating collaboration between Harington and the emblematist Thomas Combe in The Metamorphosis of Ajax, this paper will analyze the emblematic frontispiece of Harington’s most famous project: his translation of Ariosto’s Orlando furioso. In the frontispiece, Harington deploys impresa and a visual allusion to the emblematist Sambucus to further his project of self-fashioning, transforming the frontispiece from its Italian model into one that glorifies translator over original author. And yet, as in The Metamorphosis of Ajax, Harington’s irreverent use of these emblematic conventions undermines their humanistic freight. Accordingly, Harington’s appropriation of the “comely frontispiece” tradition broadens our understanding of England’s emblematic mentality.