Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Challenging Reading, But Enjoyable - Comes in Two Versions
Every Man in His Humor was one of Ben Jonson's earliest plays. Although it is a somewhat obscure work today, remarkably, when first performed in 1598 by the Lord Chamberlain's Men, the cast included Shakespeare, Burbage, and Kemp.

The term humor, derived from Latin word for fluid, refers to a Medieval and Renaissance medical theory that a man's health and personality were due to the balance (or imbalance) of four fluids, or humors: blood, phlegm, yellow bile (choler), and black bile (melancholy). The Elizabethan audience would have recognized that Jonson's characters were caricatures of various temperaments and personalities.

Jonson later significantly revised this play. The original 1601 quarto had a Florentine setting and Italian names. His revision, the 1616 folio version, substitutes a London setting with English characters. In my discussion below, I have noted the 1616 English characters using parenthesis.

Every Man in His Humour was more challenging than I expected. I was into Act 2 before I began to appreciate the interplay between the characters.For me the turning point occurred when the servant Mosca (weirdly named Brainworm in the London version) disguised himself as a penniless soldier looking for charity. I gradually recognized four intertwined themes:

1) Two young, high-spirited gentlemen, Lorenzo Junior (Edward Kno'well) and Prospero (Wellbred), deliberately encourage the foolish antics of other characters, quietly laughing at them in frequent asides.

2) Meanwhile,Lorenzo Senior (Kno'well) worries that his son is mixing with less reputable acquaintances.

3) Mosca (Brainworm) independently embarks on several zany ventures, all involving disguises, to assure that Lorenzo Junior (Edward Kno'well) is beholden to him.

4) And lastly, the merchant Thorello (Thomas Kitely) mistakenly convinces himself that his wife Biancha (Dame Kitely) and his sister Hesperida (Mistress Budget) are being wooed by the foolish mix of characters that has descended upon his home. (Shakespeare may have derived the name Othello from Jonson's jealous Thorello.)

I had difficulty keeping track of the numerous characters that wandered on and off the stage, reminding me of my first reading of Bartholomew Fair, a Jonson play with an even larger cast. The dialogue rangesfrom scholarly quotes in Latin to lower class slang. I found the footnotes to be helpful.

Both the original 1601 play and Jonson's revised 1616 version make good reading. I had the good fortune to find a copy of a parallel text edition (Regents Renaissance Drama series by University of Nebraska Press) of the 1601 quarto and the 1616 folio of Every Man In His Humour.

One last comment: Is it Humor or Humour?It makes a difference when conducting a title search. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Download Description
Ovid. I like not this sudden and general heaviness amongst our godheads; 'tis somewhat ominous. Apollo, command us louder music, and let Mercury and Momus contend to please and revive our senses. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Ovid, Virgil, Horace and Two Inept Poets
Poetaster - one of Ben Jonson's earliest plays - was first staged in 1601, the same year as Hamlet. A poetaster is a trivial rhymester, a writer of doggerel, at best an inferior poet. A poetaster is pretentious, and places undue value on his own work. Apparently, the first occurrence of this term is in this play.

Ben Jonson was an exuberant individual that was often in trouble, with perhaps the most public example being the so-called War of the Theatres (1599-1601). Somehow he had managed to become entangled in an acrimonious exchange with two rival playwrights, John Marston and Thomas Dekker, and this satirical play, Poetaster, was a return volley from Jonson. Despite its setting in ancient Rome, the audience quickly recognized that the two rather mean-spirited, envious, inept poets, Crispinus and Demetrius, represented Marston and Dekker.

Poetaster is less scholarly than some of Jonson's plays, and consequently is easier going, but good footnotes are still to be valued. Although Jonson's ridicule of Crispinus and Demetrius comprises a significant number of scenes, this play is more about the Roman poets Ovid, Virgil, and Horace and their relationship with governmental authority.

Contrary to his father's urgings that he study law, Ovid pursues poetry; Ovid evens transcribes his law notes into poetry. Ovid loves and is loved by Julia, the only daughter of Emperor Augustus Caesar. Ovid has great talent, but exercises poor judgment leading to conflict with the Augustus himself.

Virgil, a commoner by birth, is a favorite of Augustus. The emperor seats Virgil by his side and asks him to read from the Aeneid. In contrast to Ovid, Virgil symbolizes the unity of poetry with the state.

Horace is a younger, less-experienced poet that has become the innocent victim of envy and libel by Crispinus and Demetrius. Vindicated by Roman law, Horace is allowed to select an appropriate punishment. Horace's (that is, Jonson's) punishment for Crispinus (that is, Marston) is memorable.

If you are new to Jonson, I suggest beginning with his better known comedies like The Alchemist and Volpone. But don't neglect his lesser known plays. Poetaster is quite good, and it is interesting for its insight on the Elizabethan theatre.

Fierce, funny comedy from the age of Shakespeare
Shakespeare's friend and rival, Ben Jonson, shows off his classical learning and comic brilliance at the same time with a satire about the Roman poets. Lovesick Ovid and honest Horace are the heroes, with a pack ofliars, slanderers, and terrible amateur poets (or "poetasters")as the villains. This play isn't as popular as Jonson's best known works,like _Volpone_ and _The Alchemist_, but there aren't many playwrights whocan get laughs both from literary criticism and from vomiting, let aloneget laughs from both at the same time. Jonson can. If you likeShakespeare's grittier works (say, _Troilus and Cressida_) or the comediesof Thomas Middleton, this is definitely for you. ... Read more

Book Description
This collection features three of Jonson's masterpieces: Volpone, Epicoene, and The Alchemist. Also included are three masques: Mercury Vindicated from the Alchemist at Court, Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue, and—new to the Second Edition—The Masque of Blackness, Jonson's first masque and one that deals with issues of interest to contemporary culture. Each text includes expanded annotations. Jonson on His Work collects statements by the author on plays and on poetry taken from some of the plays, from Discoveries, and from Conversations with William Drummond of Hawthornden. Contemporary Readers on Jonson includes tributes and poems about the author and his work. A new section—Backgrounds and Sources"—includes selections from texts that helped shaped the dramatist's vision. Criticism includes twelve essays—nine of them new to the Second Edition—by Jonas A. Barish, Robert C. Evans, Anne Barton, John Dryden, Robert Watson, Edward B. Partridge, Ian Donaldson, Richard Harp, D. J. Gordon, Stephen Orgel, John Mulryan, and Leah S. Marcus.

About the Series: No other series of classic texts equals the caliber of the Norton Critical Editions. Each volume combines the most authoritative text available with the comprehensive pedagogical apparatus necessary to appreciate the work fully. Careful editing, first-rate translation, and thorough explanatory annotations allow each text to meet the highest literary standards while remaining accessible to students. Each edition is printed on acid-free paper and every text in the series remains in print. Norton Critical Editions are the choice for excellence in scholarship for students at more than 2,000 universities worldwide. ... Read more

Book Description
Ben Jonson is, in many ways, the figure of greatest centrality to literary study of the Elizabethan and Jacobean period. He wrote in virtually every literary genre: in drama, comedy, tragedy and masque; in poetry, epigram, and lyric; in prose, literary criticism and English grammar. This Companion brings together leading scholars from both sides of the Atlantic to provide an accessible, up-to-date introduction to Jonson's life and works. It represents an invaluable guide to current critical perspectives, providing generous coverage not only of his plays but also his non dramatic works. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Authoritative, indeed!
This volume claims to have the authoritative texts of poems by Ben Jonson and his followers (including Richard Corbett, Robert Herrick, Thomas Carew, Thomas Randolph, and Edmund Waller, among others). This claim is certainly a fair one. Also incuded are wonderful, relevant critical essays, some of them modern, some written by Jonson and his contemporaries. The essays and the variety of poets give this edition a feeling of completness; it is very good to have one poet's work right next to the responses of other poets to said work.

The poetry itself, of course, is wonderful. During their lives, Jonson's work was thought to rival that of Shakespeare. These comparaisons are perhaps eaiser to understand when reading Jonson's still-easily-accessible poetry than when reading his plays.

This volume is essential to any reader of Jonson. ... Read more

Book Description
The Alchemist has been described as 'the greatest farce in the English language'. In this newly established edition, Ben Jonson's rich play offers intriguing insights into London life of the early seventeenth century. He satirises and celebrates the confusions and anarchy of a fast-moving city world populated by a fascinating array of diverse and devious characters.Download Description
The Alchemist has been described as "the greatest farce in the English language".In this newly established edition, Ben Jonson's rich play offers intriguing insights info London life of the early seventeenth century.He satirises and celebrates the confusions and anarchy of a fast-moving city world populated by a fascinating array of diverse and devious characters.Cambridge Literature is a series of study texts which presents writing in the English-speaking world from the 16th century up to the present day.The series includes novels, drama, short stories, poetry, essays and other types of non-fiction.Each edition has the complete text with an appropriate glossary.The student will find in each volume a helpful introduction and a full section of resource notes encouraging active and imaginative study methods. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

The apprentice always gets the treasure chest
A comedy that reveals some common traits in Ben Jonson plays. The Alchemist is a crook who, with the help of a woman and a servant, tries to get as much money as possible from anyone who is ready to believe brilliant promises founded on myths like turning lead into gold, or ready palms, or ready the stars and predicting the future, or getting married to some nobleman. It is all a bunch of lies wrapped up in beautiful language that uses a lot of Latin and Greek to make the promises both dim and brilliant, dim in meaning and brilliant in sound. It works very well till the neighbours start complaining about the agitation in the street and in the house, and till the owner of the house comes back and finds out what is going on. But the servant, aptly named Face, manages to get out of the trap by providing the owner of the house with a wife in the shape of a widow that had been brought in to marry a hypothetical Spanish count. She takes the first one that is ready to go through the procedure and it is the landlord. Since she brings a good dowry,this landlord keeps the servant Face in his service. On the other side the two other crooks, Subtle, the Alchemist, and Doll, his woman, have escaped through the backyard leaving everything behind, particularly everything they had been able to get from their gullible clients. Face gets the profit and is purified by his new master. The master of the house easily gets everyone out, all the complainers who do not dare go to a court, especially since they have no written evidence of the tricks they have been the victims of, which would mean they would look like fools. They just drop the matter and go away. Crooks once again work in groups and it is the lowest servant of the band that reveals himself to be more intelligent and swift than his own master, so that he cheats him out of the profit, he manages to get clean out of the business, and he even gets a better position than before. All along Ben Jonson ridicules doctors, puritans, rich people who want to satisfy their ambition for power with quick easy and somewhat magical means. Hence the gullible victims of such crooks are definitely made fun of, though Ben Jonson saves morality in a way by punishing the master crook who loses everything, and yet is immoral because the crook apprentice or helper gets all the profit, hence stealing all the victims of what they had paid or given. Rather brilliant though slightly verbose.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

Great Introduction to Ben Jonson's Comedies
I recently read the early 17th century comedy "Volpone", my first introduction to Ben Jonson.I was surprised by how well Jonson's humor had traveled through 400 years of cultural change. I did have difficulty with Jonson's dedication (several pages), the introductory argument, and the prologue as well as a "Pythagorean literary satire" in Act One, Scene One. But thereafter I found the humor to be natural and enjoyable. I even found myself somewhat sympathetic for the unscrupulous Volpone, Mosca, Voltore, Corbaccio, and Corvino.I immediately hunted around on my dustier bookshelves for other works of Ben Jonson.

"Epicene" was less easy to digest, but was worth the effort. There is a surprising twist in the final scene and I suggest that the reader avoid any literary criticism or introductions to "Epicene" until after your first reading. I had less empathy for the characters in "Epicene" and it was difficult to identify any "good guys". The characters were not terribly disagreeable, but simply dilettantes that had little concern for morality or ethics. The dialogue is more obscure (and more bawdy) than in "Volpone". I found it helpful to first read the footnotes for a scene before actually reading the scene itself.

"The Alchemist" is more like "Volpone".The main characters are unscrupulous con-men; their targets are gullible, greedy individuals. I learned quite a bit about alchemy, at least alchemy as practiced by 17th century con-men. As with "Volpone" and "Epicene", I was unable to predict how Ben Jonson would bring the play to a satisfactory conclusion. I enjoyed "The Alchemist" and I expect that I will read it again. I don't know if it is performed very often, but it would probably be quite entertaining.

"Bartholomew Fair" introduces a large, motley collection of characters that largely converse in lower class colloquialisms that require some effort to master. The comedy was intended in part to be a satire on Puritans and thereby please King James, but it was equally an introduction to the varied individuals that might be encountered at an annual fair.It was not easy to keep track of the many characters and I continually referred to the cast listing to reorient myself.

There are a number of collections of Ben Jonson's plays. I recommend an inexpensive collection, "The Alchemist and Other Plays", publish by Oxford University Press as a World's Classic. The introduction, glossary, and explanatory footnotes by Gordon Campbell are quite good. Begin with either "Volpone" or "The Alchemist" if you are new to Jonson. I hope you are as surprised and pleased as I was.

there are two books called the ALCHEMIST
most of the reviews here are for the book by Coehlo-- a modern fairy tale about "following your heart".THE BOOK ON THIS PAGE IS BY BEN JOHNSON the famous renaissance poet.Someone out there in amazon.com land should fix this!!!

Worth the effort
Ben Jonson, although modern audiences find him difficult to read, played an important role in the development of the English comedic play.Volpone is a dark comedy that explores the twisted world of a con artist and histoady.The play demonstrates Jonson's awareness of the hypocrisy of socialsituations.Similarly, Bartholomew Fair takes the reader on a tour of theseamier side of seventeenth century London life.Zeal of the Land Busy, areligious hypocrite, still speaks to our generation when questions ofreligious expression still plague us.Epicene is a gender-bender in whichthe ideal silent woman turns out to be a man.The Alchemist, although themost difficult of the plays to read, is worth the effort, as it exploresthe questions of knowledge, ownership of knowledge, and abuse common intoday's world.

aaagghhhh
What's going on?You are all referring to the WRONG BOOK ... Read more

Book Description
During the reign of James I, Ben Jonson's literary prestige and influence were unrivalled. This selection includes many of Jonson's best known poems: To Penshurst, A Speech According to Horace, various Epigrams and poems from The Forest and The Underwood. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great scholarship, written with wit.
As a student of Prof. Boehrer, some years back, I heard portions of this book while he was working on it. His writing is tight with fact and ideas and sharpened by exquisite irony of language. This book starts being witty at the title. Palatability increases thereafter. ... Read more

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This timely book challenges conventional critical wisdom about the work of Ben Jonson. Looking in particular at his Jacobean and Caroline plays, it explores his engagement with concepts of republicanism. Julie Sanders investigates notions of community in Jonson's stage worlds--his "theatrical republics"--and reveals a Jonson to contrast with the traditional image of the writer as conservative, absolutist, misogynist, and essentially "anti-theatrical." The Jonson presented here is a positive celebrant of the social and political possibilities of theatre. ... Read more

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