Jonson, Four Comedies

This edition of Ben Jonson's four middle comedies places these works in the popular history and culture of the times, 1605-1614, and surveys the influences, classical and contemporary, on Jonson as a playwright. Its purpose is to revise attitudes towards Jonson's plays, once considered densely intellectual and verbal, by demonstrating their stage-worthiness and physical immediacy. The annotations attempt to recreate the audience's perception of the plays as performances by commenting on the stage-directions, the self-conscious theatricality of characters and scenes, and the vivid colloquialisms of early modern London that give the dialogue a heightened dimension of reality. Brief introductions to each play discuss the local settings, sources, theatre history and further readings.