Ben jonson
(1573-1637)
Personally Jonson is the most commanding literary figure among the Elizabethan. For twenty-five years he was the
Literary dictator of london, the chief of all the wits that gathered nightly at the old devil tavern. With his great learning, his ability, and his commanding position as poet laureate, he set himself squarely against his contemporaries and the romantic tendency of the age.
Ben jonson full name was Benjamin jonson (1573-1637). Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon english poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for the satirical Plays Every man in his humour (1598), volume, the alchemist (1610)and Bartholomew fair (1614)and for his lyric and epigrammatic poetry. "He is generally regarded as the second most important English dramatist, after William shakespeare, during the reign of james1."
Jonson was a classically educated, well-read and cultured man of the English Renaissance with an appetite for controversy whose cultural influence was of unparalleled breadth upon the playwright and the poets of the Jacobean era (1603-1625)and of the Caroline era (1625-1642).
Early career
English literature, and particularly the drama, had already entered its golden age when Ben jonson began his career. Jonson's special contribution to this remarkably exuberant age was his strong sense of artistic form and control. Although an accomplished scholar, he had an unusual appreciation of the colloquial speech habits of the unfettered, which he used with marked effect in many of his plays.
Jonson's first major work, Every man in His Humour, was performed by the lord chamberlain men, with shakespeare taking the lead role. This play stands as a model of the "comedy of humours ", in which each characters behavior is dictated by a dominating whim or affectation. It is also a very cleverly constructed play.
Major work
Jonson's dramatic genius was fully revealed for the first time in Volpone (1606), a brilliant satiric comedy which jonson claimed was "fully penned" in 5 weeks. It was favorably received not only by london theatergoers but by more sophisticated audiences at Oxford and Cambridge.
The satire of jonson's next three comedies is more indulgent. Epicoene, or the silent woman (1609) is an elaborate intrigue built around a farcical character with an insane hatred of noise. The principal intriguer, sir Dauphie Eugenie, trick his noise -hating uncle morose into marrying a woman morose believes to be docile and quiet. She, however, turns out to be an extremely talkative person with a horde of equally talkative friends. After tormenting his uncle and in effect forcing him into a public declaration of his folly, sir Dauphine reveals that morose's volume wife is actually a boy disguised as a woman.
In The Alchemist (1610) the character are activated more by vice than folly -participants the vices of hypocrisy and greed.Jonson's treatment of such character, however, is less harsh than it was in Volpone, and their punishment consists largely in their humiliating self - exposure. Bartholomew fair (1614), unlike jonson's other comic masterpieces, does not rely on complicated intrigue and deception. It's relatively thin plot is little more than an excuse for parading an enormously rich and varied collection of unusual characters.
This YouTube video about Ben jonson life.
Ben jonson folios
Ben jonson collected his plays and other writings into a book he titled The workers of Benjamin jonson. In 1616 it was printed in London in the form of a folio. Second and third editions of his works were published posthumously in 1640 and 1692.
These editions of Ben jonson's works were a crucial development in the publication of English Renaissance drama. The first follo collection, the workers of Benjamin jonson, treated stage play as serious works of literature and stood as a precedent for other play collection that followed-notably the first folio of Shakespeare's play in 1623, the first Beaumont and fletcher folio in 1647, and other collections that were important in preserving the dramatic literature of the age.
THE FIRST FOLIO, 1616
The worker of Ben jonson, the first jonson folio of 1616, printed and published by William stansby and sold through bookseller Richard Meighen, contained nine plays all previously published, two works of non-dramatic poetry, thirteen masques, and six "entertainment."
The abortive 1631 addition
In 1631 jonson planned a second volume to be added to the 1616 follo, a collection of later -written works to be published by Robert Allot. Jonson, however, became dissatisfied with the quality of the printing, and canceled the project. Three plays were set into type for the projected collection, and printings of those typecast were circulated though whether they were sold commercially or distributed privately by jonson is unclear. The three plays are:
Bartholomew fair
The devil is an ass
The staple of news
The second folio,,1640/1
Two folio collections of jonson works were issued in 1640-41. Tha first, printed by Richard Bishop for Andrew crooke, was a 1640 reprint of the 1616 follo with corrections and emendations; it has something been termed " the second edition of the first folio." The second volume was edited by jonson's literary executor sir Kenelm Digby, and published by Richard Meighen, in co-operation with chetwind. That volume contained latek works, most of them unpublished or uncollected previously-six plays, two of them incomplete, and fifteen masques, plus miscellaneous pieces. In the Digby/Meighen volume-identified on its title page as "the second volume" of jonson's works - the varying dates(1631,1640, 1641) in some of the texts, and what editor William savage jonson once called "irregularity in contents and arrangements in different copies," have caused significant confusion.
The third folio,1692
The 1692 single-volume third folio was printed by Thomas Hodgkins and published by a syndicate of booksellers the title page lists Herringman, E.Brewster, T.Bassett, R. Chiswell, M.wotton,and G.conyers. the third folio added two works to the previous total; the play The New Inn, and leges convivial.
Two other works by jonson were left out of the 17th century folio but added to later editions: the plays The case is Altered and Eastward Ho.
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