Table Of ContentBEN JONSON: THE CRITICAL HERITAGE
THE CRITICAL HERITAGE SERIES
General Editor: B.C.Southam
The Critical Heritage series collects together a large body of criticism on major figures in
literature. Each volume presents the contemporary responses to a particular writer,
enabling the student to follow the formation of critical attitudes to the writer’s work and
its place within a literary tradition.
The carefully selected sources range from landmark essays in the history of criticism to
fragments of contemporary opinion and little published documentary material, such as
letters and diaries.
Significant pieces of criticism from later periods are also included in order to
demonstrate fluctuations in reputation following the writer’s death.
BEN JONSON
THE CRITICAL HERITAGE
Edited by
D H.CRAIG
London and New York
First Published in 1990
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of
thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Compilation, introduction, notes and index © 1990 D H.Craig
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or
by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
ISBN 0-203-19451-9 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-19454-3 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-13417-X (Print Edition)
General Editor’s Preface
The reception given to a writer by his contemporaries and near-contemporaries is
evidence of considerable value to the student of literature. On one side we learn a great
deal about the state of criticism at large and in particular about the development of critical
attitudes towards a single writer; at the same time, through private comments in letters,
journals or marginalia, we gain an insight upon the tastes and literary thought of individual
readers of the period. Evidence of this kind helps us to understand the writer’s historical
situation, the nature of his immediate reading-public, and his response to these pressures.
The separate volumes in the Critical Heritage Series present a record of this early
criticism. Clearly, for many of the highly productive and lengthily reviewed nineteenth-
and twentieth-century writers, there exists an enormous body of material; and in these
cases the volume editors have made a selection of the most important views, significant
for their intrinsic critical worth or for their representative quality—perhaps even
registering incomprehension!
For earlier writers, notably pre-eighteenth century, the materials are much scarcer and
the historical period has been extended, sometimes far beyond the writer’s lifetime, in
order to show the inception and growth of critical views which were initially slow to
appear.
In each volume the documents are headed by an introduction, discussing the material
assembled and relating the early stages of the author’s reception to what we have come to
identify as the critical tradition. The volumes will make available much material which
would otherwise be difficult of access and it is hoped that the modern reader will be
thereby helped towards an informed understanding of the ways in which literature has
been read and judged.
B.C.S.
Contents
PREFACE xiii
NOTE xv
ABBREVIATIONS xvi
INTRODUCTION 1
1 JOHN WEEVER, Marston and Jonson, 1599 29
2 BEN JONSON, Every Man out of his Humour, 1599 31
3 BEN JONSON, prologue to Cynthia’s Revels, 1600 37
4 JOHN WEEVER, Jonson as humorist, 1601 39
5 NICHOLAS BRETON on the satirical fashion, 1601 41
6 BEN JONSON, Poetaster, 1601 43
7 THOMAS DEKKER, Horace untrussed, 1601–2 51
8 CHARLES FITZGEFFREY on Jonson, 1601 67
9 Cambridge views on the War of the Theatres, 1601–2 69
10 HENRY CHETTLE, Jonson’s steel pen, 1603 71
11 SAMUEL DANIEL attacks the learned masque, 1604 73
12 THOMAS DEKKER on Jonson’s pedantry, 1604 75
13 JOHN MARSTON, tribute to Jonson, 1604 77
14 SIR EDWARD HERBERT on Jonson’s Horace, 1604 79
15 Jonson as laureate, 1605 81
16 On Sejanus, 1605 83
17 JOHN MARSTON glances at Sejanus, 1606 89
18 BEN JONSON on his masques, 1606 91
19 On Volpone, 1605–7 93
vii
20 BEN JONSON, more principles for the masque, 1609 99
21 Jonson’s comedy malicious and factious, 1610 101
22 BEN JONSON, prologue to The Alchemist, 1610 103
23 On Catiline, 1611 105
24 JOHN SELDEN on Jonson’s scholarship, 1614 109
25 BEN JONSON, Bartholomew Fair, 1614 111
26 On Jonson’s epigrams, 1615 113
27 WILLIAM FENNOR on the reception of Sejanus, 1616 115
28 ROBERT ANTON, Jonson among the melancholic creators, 1616 117
29 From The Workes of Benjamin Jonson, 1616 119
30 WILLIAM DRUMMOND, Jonson’s character, 1619 123
31 INIGO JONES, attack on Jonson, 1619 or later 125
32 EDMUND BOLTON on Jonson’s language, 1621 127
33 GEORGE CHAPMAN, expostulation with Jonson, 1623 or later 129
34 BEN JONSON on The Staple of News, 1626 135
35 NICHOLAS OLDISWORTH on Jonson, 1629 137
36 Controversy over The New Inn, 1629–31 139
37 FALKLAND on Jonson as the dispenser of fame, 1631 or earlier 151
38 LEONARD DIGGES, Shakespeare’s plays more popular than Jonson’s, 155
(?) 1632
39 THOMAS RANDOLPH on the power of Jonson’s verses, 1632 or later 159
40 BEN JONSON, The Magnetic Lady, 1632 161
41 ALEXANDER GILL, attack on The Magnetic Lady, 1633 165
42 JAMES HOWELL, letters to Jonson, 1632–5 167
43 SIR JOHN SUCKLING, caricature of Jonson, 1637 or earlier 169
44 BEN JONSON, prologue to The Sad Shepherd, 1637 or earlier 171
45 SIR JOHN SUCKLING, Jonson’s arrogance, 1637 173
46 JAMES SHIRLEY on Jonson and The Alchemist, between 1637 and 1640 175
47 NEWCASTLE, tribute to Jonson, 1637 or later 177
48 GEORGE STUTVILE, Jonson as tutor, 1637 or later 179
49 Tributes from Jonsonus Virbius, 1638 181
viii
50 GEORGE DANIEL, elegy on Jonson, 1638 207
51 JOHN BENSON, dedication of Jonson’s Poems, 1640 209
52 On Jonson’s translation of Horace’s Ars Poetica, 1640 211
53 JAMES SHIRLEY on Shakespeare, Fletcher, and Jonson, 1642 215
54 WILLIAM CARTWRIGHT on Jonson’s love-scenes, 1647 217
55 ROBERT HERRICK, tributes to Jonson, 1648 219
56 EDMUND GAYTON, Jonson the scholar’s playwright, 1654 221
57 On reviving Jonson at the Restoration, 1660 223
58 SAMUEL PEPYS on performances of Epicoene and Bartholomew Fair, 225
1661
59 The Play of the Puritan, 1661 227
60 MARGARET CAVENDISH on Jonson’s plays, 1662 229
61 THOMAS FULLER, portrait of Jonson, 1662 231
62 RICHARD FLECKNOE, Jonson’s part in the history of the English 233
stage, 1664
63 SAMUEL PEPYS on performances of Epicoene and Bartholomew Fair, 235
1664–5
64 SAINT-EVREMOND, Jonson central to a French view of English 237
comedy, 1666–7
65 SAMUEL BUTLER on Jonson and Shakespeare, 1667–9 241
66 SAMUEL PEPYS reads Every Man in his Humour, sees Epicoene, 1667 243
67 JOHN DRYDEN’S Essay, 1667 245
68 JOHN DRYDEN makes Shakespeare monarch over Fletcher and Jonson, 255
1667
69 JOHN DRYDEN, Jonson’s borrowings, 1668 257
70 THOMAS SHADWELL on Jonson’s humour comedy, 1668 259
71 JOHN DRYDEN cites Jonson in the controversy over rhymed drama, 261
1668
72 SAMUEL PEPYS on Bartholomew Fair, Epicoene, Catiline, and The 263
Alchemist, 1668–9
73 CLARENDON on Jonson’s talents and achievements, 1668–70 267
74 CHARLES SACKVILLE, epilogue to an Every Man in his Humour revival, 269
1670
ix
75 RICHARD FLECKNOE answers Dryden on Jonson, 1670–1 271
76 JOHN DRYDEN explains his view of Jonson, 1671 273
77 THOMAS SHADWELL defends his estimate of Jonson, 1670–1 277
78 EDWARD HOWARD on Jonson, 1671 281
79 EDWARD HOWARD on Jonson’s imaginary creations, 1671 285
80 EDWARD RAVENSCROFT, Jonson the model for didactic comedy, 287
1671
81 On Jonson and Shakespeare, 1672 289
82 JOHN DRYDEN on the faults of predecessors like Jonson, 1672 291
83 APHRA BEHN on Shakespeare and Jonson, 1673 297
84 EDWARD HOWARD, Jonson unparalleled among ancient or modern 299
authors, 1673
85 EDWARD PHILLIPS on Jonson’s achievements, 1675 301
86 JOHN DRYDEN, Jonson distinguished from Shadwell, 1676 303
87 JOHN OLDHAM on Jonson, 1678 305
88 JOHN DRYDEN, low farce in Volpone, 1683 315
89 EDWARD HOWARD on Jonson’s allegory and on a statue of Jonson, 317
1689
90 GERALD LANGBAINE, notes on Jonson, 1691 319
91 THOMAS RYMER on Catiline, 1692 325
92 NAHUM TATE, farce in Jonson, 1693 329
93 JOHN DRYDEN, Jonson and Fletcher matched at last, 1694 331
94 BEAT LOUIS de MURALT on Jonson and Molière, 1694 333
95 WILLIAM WOTTON on Jonson’s Grammar, 1694, 1697 335
96 JOHN DENNIS and WILLIAM CONGREVE on Jonson’s comedy, 337
1695
97 JEREMY COLLIER on Jonson as a model playwright, 1698 343
98 WILLIAM CONGREVE and JEREMY COLLIER on profanity in 347
Bartholomew Fair, 1698
99 WILLIAM BURNABY, Jonson a model for the comedy of characters 349
and action, 1701
100 JOHN DENNIS on Jonson’s comedy, 1702 351
101 Jonson discussed in a critical dialogue on the theatre, 1702 353
