Ben Jonson

John Palmer

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138236080
• eBook ISBN: 9781315302171
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Performing Arts

While most critical writing on Jonson concentrates on the plays, poems or masques seen in isolation, this title, first published in 1981, ranges across the genres to explore Jonson's vision as a whole. The author points to the inner connections that make of the rich variety of Jonson's writing a single coherent body of work. We see Jonson exploring the relations between culture and society, the difficulties of ideal virtue in a far from ideal world, and above all the problems of art itself. Combining a wide-ranging discussion of Jonson's interests with a detailed examination of his major works, this book provides a balanced critical introduction to one of the most complex and fascinating figures in English Literature.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Routledge Library Editions: Renaissance Drama
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• List Of Illustrations
• CHAPTER I The First Twenty-Five Years
• CHAPTER II The Comedy of Humours
• CHAPTER III Poetomachia
• CHAPTER IV Elizabeth and James
• CHAPTER V Star Chamber
• CHAPTER VI Maturity
• CHAPTER VII The Tragedies
• CHAPTER VIII Whitehall
• CHAPTER IX The Masterpieces
• CHAPTER X Bartholomew Fair
• CHAPTER XI The Happy Laureate
• CHAPTER XII Discoveries
• CHAPTER XIII The Later Masks
• CHAPTER XIV Decline and Fall
• CHAPTER XV The Dotages
• CHAPTER XVI Anthology
• CHAPTER XVII Green Fields
• Index