Not as well known today as Volpne and The Alchemist, this comedy of London’s lower classes was a great favorite of Ben Jonson’s contemporaries. The richness of its comic invention and the complexity of its plot and satirical view have returned it to its former high repute, and Professor Waith’s skillful and illuminating critical Introduction vividly demonstrates its artistic excellence. The high standards for textual accuracy and critical apparatus set for Volpone, the first volume of the Yale edition of Ben Jonson, are maintained here, and the format is identical. In addition, the editor has supplied an appendix and the original staging of the play that assists the reader greatly and is in itself a valuable contribution to studies of Elizabethan and Jacobean stagecraft. Eugene M. Waith is professor of English at Yale University. The Yale Ben Jonson, 2.

This case study traces the stage history and critical reception of Ben Jonson's play from 1614, when it was first performed, until 1978, when two productions ran concurrently in London. It discusses the play's rise, fall, and rise within the social and theatrical contexts in which Jonson wrote the play; the milieus in which it has been produced; and its adventures over more than three centuries.