Description
This fully annotated and modernized collection of plays--including Every Man in his Humour, Sejanus, Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair--represents the full range and complexity of Jonson's art as a playwright.
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The five plays in this collection represent the complexity of Jonson's art as a playwright. His first important play, Every Man in his Humour (1598), represents the high point of the 'humours' comedy with which Jonson is always associated. Sejanus, acted in 1603, is an experiment in tragedy on classical principles, and a disturbing analysis of political power. Volpone (performed in 1606) and The Alchemist (performed in 1610) are Jonson's most distinctive comedies, set among a world of rogues and dissemblers, with a strong moral and satirical intention which exposes trickery and yet seems also to delight in it. The later comedy Bartholomew Fair, acted in 1614, is more tolerant of human weakness, and is now perhaps the most appealing of Jonson's plays.
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