Ben Jonson, Renaissance Dramatist / / Sean McEvoy.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Edinburgh University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2013-2000
• VerfasserIn: McEvoy, Sean,
• Place / Publishing House: Edinburgh : : Edinburgh University Press, , [2022]; ©2008
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: Renaissance Dramas and Dramatists : RDD
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (192 p.) :; 5 B/W illustrations

GBS_insertPreviewButtonPopup('ISBN:9780748623020');This new guide to the English renaissance's most erudite and yet most street-wise dramatist strongly asserts the theatrical brilliance of his greatest plays in performance, then and now.The book integrates all of Jonson's major plays into the milieu of the turbulent years which produced them, and analyses the way each work examines the issues and challenges of those years: money, power, sex, crime, identity, gender, the theatre itself. It offers a lucid guide to the competing critical views of a playwright who is far more than the obverse of his friend and rival William Shakespeare, and it explains in detail how the undoubted power and energy of these plays in modern performance should be the touchstone of their quality to both critic and reader. The plays discussed include the early Comedies, the Roman Tragedies (Sejanus and Catiline), Volpone, Epicoene, The Alchemist, Bartholomew Fair and The Devil is an Ass. Key FeaturesThe book is an up-to-date introduction to all the major plays, covering the major criticism from a variety of critical perspectivesBen Jonson's skill as a writer of brilliantly theatrical drama is emphasised throughoutEach play is securely and informatively placed in its literary and historical contextThere is a lively account of how the plays have worked on stage in recent productions"

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- List of abbreviations used -- Illustrations -- Chronology -- Introduction -- 1 Life and Culture -- 2 The Early Comedies (1597-1601) -- 3 The Roman Tragedies – Sejanus (1603) and Catiline (1611) -- 4 Volpone, or The Fox (1605-6) -- 5 Epicoene, or The Silent Woman (1609) -- 6 The Alchemist (1610) -- 7 Bartholomew Fair (1614) -- 8 The Devil is an Ass (1616) -- 9 The Late Plays (1626-34) -- Further Reading -- Bibliography -- Index