This edition contains an introduction which looks at the special place of the play in Jonson's own life, his interest in London, the theatrical setting of the play and its sources and analogues. It also includes critical and explanatory commentaries and a glossarial index.

A quintesstential selection of the dramatic work of Ben Jonson, this edition features the plays Poetaster, Sejanus, The Devil is An Ass, and New Inn. Jonson's work is renowned for its wit and biting religions and social commentary these four plays are no exception. The plays featured in this edition have been freshly edited from the earliest printed texts. The introduction focuses on the interaction between poet and state authority, and the need for new productions of these rarely performed classics from our dramatic heritage.

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.

This edition of "The Devil is an Ass" (1616) aims to provide an insight into Jonson's life and work, the theatrical qualities of the play, its political background and its textual history. In his introduction, Peter Happe looks at the special place of the play in Jonson's own life, his interest in London, the theatrical setting of the play and its sources and analogues. There are critical and explanatory commentaries and a glossarial index. The play is seen in its historical and political context, by linking it with late medieval and Elizabethan plays, as well as with the Jacobean stage. The text is meticulously and reliably edited, with modernized spelling for today's reader. A commentary is provided to explain difficult or significant passages. The stage history of the play also includes very recent productions. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.