Ben Jonson

Interest in Ben Jonson is higher today than at any time since his death and there has been a shift away from focusing on his plays to consider his full range of work. This new collection offers detailed readings of all the major plays, Sejanus, Volpone, Epicene, The Alchemist and Bartholomew Fair, and includes analysis of his poems, and later plays - only recently recovered as genuinely engaging pieces for the stage. Richard Dutton also examines the literary and cultural climate of Jonson's age, the concept of authorship itself, and its place in the transition from a largely oral culture to one predominantly of print, the workings of patronage, and the nature of a literary marketplace.