Volpone: Revised Edition

by Ben Jonson, Robert N. Watson (Editor)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350007772
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	06/13/2019
Series:	New Mermaids
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	216
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Robert N. Watson is Distinguished Professor of English at UCLA, USA. He is the editor of Ben Jonson: Four Plays (Bloomsbury), Every Man in His Humour by Ben Jonson (New Mermaids series) and Critical Essays on Ben Jonson. He teaches Shakespeare, English Renaissance poetry and historical ecocriticism at UCLA.
Ben Jonson (1572-1637) was an English dramatist and poet, whose reputation amongst playwrights of the period is only second only to Shakespeare's. Although Jonson found little success as an actor, his reputation as a dramatist was firmly established in 1598 with Every Man in his Humour. This sucess was followed by Every Man out of his Humour and the classically influenced satire Cynthia's Revels. Jonson wrote all of the major comedies upon which his reputation is now based during the period 1605 to 1614.
Robert N. Watson is Distinguished Professor of English and Associate Dean of Humanities at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA. He is the author of many award-winning books, including Back to Nature: The Green and the Real in the Late Renaissance (2006) and Shakespeare and the Hazards of Ambition (2004), and editor of several volumes of Ben Jonson's plays.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Preface
Plot summary
Analysis
1. Historical and literary contexts
2. Performance aspects of the text
3. Critical interpretations
Resources and annotated bibliography
A note on the text
The Play

Editorial Reviews

...a solid and useful book. Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England

From the Publisher