Jonson Ben

This edition of Ben Jonson's four middle comedies places the works in the popular history and culture of the times, 1605-1614, and surveys the influences, both classical and contemporary, on Jonson as a playwright. On-the-page annotations recreate the audiences 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 realism. Brief introductions to each play discuss the local settings, sources, theatre history and further readings. The general introduction includes a biography of Jonson, a chronology of the plays and masques, and separate essays on each play, dealing particularly with Jonson's satirical treatments of trends and shams of the day, whether political, social, commercial, or spiritual.

The Alchemist is a comedy by English playwright Ben Jonson. It is generally considered Jonson's best and most characteristic comedy; Samuel Taylor Coleridge believed that it had one of the three most perfect plots in literature. The play's clever fulfilment of the classical unities and vivid depiction of human folly have made it one of the few Renaissance plays (except the works of Shakespeare) with a continuing life on stage, apart from a period of neglect during the Victorian era.

The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson presents Jonson's complete writings in the light of current editorial thinking and recent scholarly interpretation and discovery. It provides a clear sense of the shape, scale and variety of the entire Jonsonian canon, including plays, court masques and entertainments, poems, prose works and letters. Each text, edited in modern spelling, is accompanied by an introduction containing essential information about its date, sources and interpretation, and is supported by detailed on-page commentary and collation. The Edition presents Jonson's texts in a form which combines thoroughness of explanation with readability. An accompanying electronic edition is in development for launch in 2013. The Edition as a whole explicates Jonson's works fully in the light of modern scholarship, making them accessible to students, scholars, theatrical practitioners and anyone wishing to explore the work of Shakespeare's great contemporary. For further information, additional resources and textual essays, please visit http://blog.cewbj.org.

First published in 1905, this edition of Ben Jonson's poetic collection Underwoods provides the original text from 1640 in its totality. This heterogeneous collection is notable for containing 'A Celebration of Charis', Jonson's most extended effort at love poetry, together with numerous other points of interest. Beautifully presented, this edition will be of value to anyone with an interest in Jonson's poetry and Renaissance literature in general.