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Also included are three masques: Mercury Vindicated from the
Alchemist at Court, Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue, and new to the
Second Edition The Masque of Blackness, Jonson's first masque and
one that deals with issues of interest to contemporary culture.
Each text includes expanded annotations. Jonson on His Work
collects statements by the author on plays and on poetry taken from
some of the plays, from Discoveries, and from Conversations with
William Drummond of Hawthornden. Contemporary Readers on Jonson
includes tributes and poems about the author and his work. A new
section "Backgrounds and Sources" includes selections from texts
that helped shaped the dramatist's vision. Criticism includes
twelve essays nine of them new to the Second Edition by Jonas A.
Barish, Robert C. Evans, Anne Barton, John Dryden, Robert Watson,
Edward B. Partridge, Ian Donaldson, Richard Harp, D. J. Gordon,
Stephen Orgel, John Mulryan, and Leah S. Marcus."
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 sharpest, funniest comedy about money and morals in the 17th
century is still the sharpest and funniest about those things in
the 21st. The full play text is accompanied by incisive commentary
notes which communicate the devastating comic energy of Volpone's
satire. The introduction provides a firm grounding in the play's
social and literary contexts, demonstrates how careful
close-reading can expand your enjoyment of the comedy, shows the
relevance of Jonson's critique to our modern economic systems, and
provides a clear picture of how the main relationships in the play
function on the page and stage. Supplemented by a plot summary and
annotated bibliography, it is ideal for students of Jonson, city
comedy and early modern drama.
Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price
Face, Subtle and Dol Common are three rogues intent on conning the
gullible out of their money. Setting up a quack-doctor's practice
in Lovewit's house they promise miraculous services that cost their
customers dear. Everything goes swimmingly, until Lovewit returns
and the three turn against each other. Ben Jonson's classic comedy
The Alchemist was first performed by the King's Men in 1610. This
edition of the play in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series is
edited by Simon Trussler, with an introduction by Colin Counsell.
Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price Ben
Jonson's comedy, one of the finest of the Jacobean era. Volpone is
a Venetian aristocrat, a loveable rogue who enjoys the cunning
pursuit of wealth more than money itself. Pretending to be mortally
ill, he watches as his greedy neighbours swarm around him with
expensive gifts in the hope of inheriting his fortune. Volpone was
premiered by the King's Men at the Globe Theatre, London, in 1606.
This edition of Volpone, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics
series, is edited by R.B.Parker, and introduced by Colin Counsell.
The Alchemist is set during a plague epidemic in the Liberty of
Blackfriars in 1610 - and was first performed on tour in 1610 by
the company whose London home at Blackfriars was temporarily closed
due to a plague epidemic. The play is a sublimely accomplished
satirical farce about people's diverse dreams of self-refinement:
they all want to transform themselves into something nobler,
richer, more powerful, more virile, just as base metal was supposed
to be transformed into gold in the alchemical process. During their
master's absence from the house, the con-artists Face, Subtle and
Doll Common dupe a series of 'customers' whose greed leads them to
believe in the existence of the fabled Philosopher's Stone. As
their equipment boils over and blows up in the offstage kitchen, so
their plot heats up and is exploded by the sceptical Surly and the
arrival of their master - who quietly pockets their proceeds and
marries the rich widow to boot. The lively introduction focuses on
the play as a comedy about swindlers and characters on the margins
of society. It highlights Jonson's cratft as a dramatist and his
masterful use of language, building into the play all actors and
directors need to know about its characters and action. With
helpful on-page commentary notes, this student edition also
discusses the play in its theatrical and historical context and
traces its connections to modern theatre, bringing its farcical
comedy vividly to life.
'A silent and loving woman is a gift of the lord'
This 'excellent comedy of affliction' enjoyed enormous prestige
for more than a century after its first performance: for John
Dryden it had 'the greatest and most noble construction of any pure
unmixed comedy in any language'. Its title signals Jonson's satiric
and complex concern with gender: the play asks not only 'what
should a man do?', but how should men and women behave, both as fit
examples of their sex, and to one another? The characters furnish a
cross-section of wrong answers, enabling Jonson to create riotous
entertainment out of lack, loss and disharmony, to the point of
denying the straightfowardly festive conclusion which audiences at
comedies normally expect. Much of the comic vitality arises from a
degeneration of language, which Jonson called 'the instrument of
society', into empty chatter or furious abuse, and from a plot
which is a series of lies and betrayals (the hero lies to everyone
and Jonson lies to the audience). The central figure is a man named
Morose, who hates noise yet lives in the centre of London, and who,
because of his decision to marry a woman he supposes to be silent,
exposes himself to a fantastic cacophony of voices, male, female
and - epicene.
This student edition contains a lengthy Introduction with
background on the author, date and sources, theme, critical
interpretation and stage history.
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The Poetaster
Ben Jonson
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R917
Discovery Miles 9 170
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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The Poetaster
Ben Jonson
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R604
Discovery Miles 6 040
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Volpone
Ben Jonson
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R700
Discovery Miles 7 000
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Volpone
Ben Jonson
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R985
Discovery Miles 9 850
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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