Jonson, Ben

Court Masques: Jacobean and Caroline Entertainments, 1605-1640 (World's Classics)

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Unique Fusion of Dance, Drama, Music, and Stagecraft

Court Masques: Jacobean and Caroline Entertainments, 1605-1640 (World's Classics)
Ben Jonson , and Thomas Campion
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

The masque had a brief but splendid life as the dominant mode of entertainment at the early Stuart court, and it has increasingly come to be recognized as a genre offering a fascinating insight into the culture and politics of the early seventeenth century. This selection of 18 masque for Charles I, performed just before the outbreak of civil war. It also includes examples of entertainments performed on royal progresses, as well as one domestic masque. Court masques were extravagant multi-media happenings, imbued with often arcane allegorical programmes by writers and designers, and frequently commenting on tipical political issues. In this, the most substantial available selection, readers are offered the annotation necessary for understanding the complexities of the individual texts. Under the General Editorship of Michael Cordner, of the University of York, the texts of the plays have been newly edited and are presented with modernized spelling and punctuation. In addition to the detailed notes there is a scholarly introduction, making this edition invaluable to students of Renaissance drama and court culture.

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Unique Fusion of Dance, Drama, Music, and Stagecraft.......2005-04-24

More than fifty court masques were held in the period 1605-1640. Eighteen representative masques have been compiled in this Oxford University Press (World's Classics series) book, titled Court Masques. This text offers a good introduction to this largely unfamiliar form of entertainment.

The court masque was an extravagant, ostentatious, theatrical spectacle that dominated entertainment in the Stuart courts of King James I and Charles I. Inordinately costly, these aristocratic entertainments were often a source of friction between the king and parliament. Following the revolution of Oliver Cromwell, court masques came to an end.

The editor, David Lindley, provides valuable supplementary material: a general introduction to the court masque, a chronology of Stuart masques, and a select bibliography on general studies, stagecraft, music and dance, as well as sources for Jonson, Campion, Chapman, Daniel, and Davenant.

I especially appreciated the extensive explanatory notes as many of the masques presumed audience familiarity with relatively obscure elements of Greek and Roman mythology. The notes also clarified oblique references to sensitive political issues of the Stuart period, even the high cost of the masques themselves.

Ben Jonson was clearly the dominant creator of court masques and he was its most pugnacious defender. Throughout this long period Jonson forcefully argued that the key value of court masque was its intellectual message. Contrastingly, the remarkable Indigo Jones that designed and built the complex stage scenery and its associated machinery wrote, "... and indeed, these shows are nothing else but pictures with light and motion."

Despite the excellent supplementary material and explanatory notes, Court Masques may initially seem difficult, in part due to the unfamiliarity of the masque. In some ways reading a masque is like reading an opera, except that we can easily visualize an operatic performance. David Lindley is to be commended for creating this interesting collection that makes the Jacobean and Caroline court masques accessible to non-specialists.

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Five Plays (Oxford World's Classics)
Ben Jonson
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Christopher Marlowe: The Complete Plays
The Duchess of Malfi and Other Plays (Oxford World's Classics)
'Tis Pity She's a Whore and Other Plays: The Lover's Melancholy; The Broken Heart; 'Tis Pity She's a Whore; Perkin Warbeck (Oxford World's Classics)
Doctor Faustus and Other Plays (Oxford World's Classics)
Five Plays (Penguin Classics)

ASIN: 0192839446

Book 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.

The Selected Plays of Ben Jonson: Sejanus, Volpone, Epicoene or the Silent Woman (Plays by Renaissance and Restoration Dramatists)

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The Selected Plays of Ben Jonson: Sejanus, Volpone, Epicoene or the Silent Woman (Plays by Renaissance and Restoration Dramatists)
Ben Jonson
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521292484

Book Description

This volume contains three of Ben Jonson's greatest plays--Sejanus (1603), Volpone (1606) and Epicoene, or The Silent Woman (1609).

The Roaring Girl and Other City Comedies [The Shoemaker's Holiday, Every Man In His Humour, Eastward Ho!] (Oxford English Drama)

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The Roaring Girl and Other City Comedies [The Shoemaker's Holiday, Every Man In His Humour, Eastward Ho!] (Oxford English Drama)
Thomas Dekker , Ben Jonson , Thomas Middleton , James Knowles , and Eugene Giddens
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0192828002

Book Description

Thomas Dekker: The Shoemaker's Holiday George Chapman, Ben Jonson, John Marston: Eastward Ho! Ben Jonson: Every Man In His Humour Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker: The Roaring Girl Oxford English Drama offers plays from the sixteenth to the early twentieth centuries in selections that make available both rarely printed and canonical works. The texts are freshly edited using modern spelling. Critical introductions, wide-ranging annotation, and informative bibliographies illuminate the plays' cultural contexts and theatrical potential for reader and performer alike. 'The series should reshape the canon in a number of significant areas. A splendid and imaginative project.' Professor Anne Barton, Cambridge University

Notes of Ben Jonson's Conversations With William Drummond of Hawthornden January 1619

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Notes of Ben Jonson's Conversations With William Drummond of Hawthornden January 1619
Ben Jonson
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1417921862

Book Description

1842. When he was about forty-five years old, Jonson set out for Scotland, the home of his ancestors. Jonson's prose style is vividly sketched in the notes of William Drummond of Hawthornden, who recorded their conversations during Jonson's visit to Scotland. The volume's lengthy preface was written by David Laing. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

The Devil Is an Ass: And Other Plays (Oxford World's Classics)

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Excellent Collection of Ben Jonson's Lesser Known Plays

The Devil Is an Ass: And Other Plays (Oxford World's Classics)
Ben Jonson
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0198132298

Book Description

Poetaster Sejanus The Devil is an Ass New Inn Oxford English Drama offers plays from the sixteenth to early twentieth centuries in selections that make available both rarely printed and canonical works. The texts are freshly edited using modern spelling. Critical introductions, wide-ranging annotation, and informative bibliographies illuminate the plays' cultural contexts and theatrical potential for reader and performer alike. 'The series should reshape the canon in a number of significant areas. A splendid and imaginative project.' [Professor Anne Barton, Cambridge Universirty]

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Collection of Ben Jonson's Lesser Known Plays.......2005-01-30

This excellent Oxford World's Classics collection is unusual in that none of these plays by Ben Jonson were well-received when first performed, and furthermore, have seldom been staged until recent years. Nonetheless, all four plays - Poetaster, Sejanus his Fall, The Devil is an Ass, and The New Inn - make good reading.

I especially recommend these plays to readers already familiar with Jonson's better known works like Volpone, The Alchemist, Epicene, and Bartholomew Fair. Reading Jonson can require effort and this Oxford World's Classics edition is to be highly commended for the excellent introduction, explanatory notes, and glossary by Margaret Jane Kidnie.

Poetaster: Among his earliest plays, Poetaster was first staged in 1601, the same year as Hamlet. (A poetaster is a trivial rhymester, a writer of doggerel, at best an inferior poet.) Although Poetaster is primarily about the relationship of the Roman poets Ovid, Virgil, and Horace with governmental authority, several scenes are devoted to ridiculing two mean-spirited, envious, plagiaristic poets, Crispinus and Demetrius. Despite the setting in ancient Rome, the audience quickly recognized that these two inept poets were caricatures of Jonson's bitter rivals, John Marston and Thomas Dekker.

Sejanus his Fall: Previously, Jonson had focused on satirical comedies; writing a historical tragedy was quite a change. Unfortunately, despite a cast that included Richard Burbage and William Shakespeare (perhaps, playing the lascivious Tiberius), Sejanus his Fall was a failure. To make matters worse, despite Jonson's effort to carefully document the historical accuracy of his play, he was summoned by the Privy Council to defend himself against charges of sedition and slander. Apparently, in recent performances Sejanus has fared much better. While I enjoyed reading Sejanus, Jonson may have overly constrained his artistic freedom by his insistence to adhere rigidly to historical accounts.

The Devil is an Ass: This mildly satirical play, like Bartholomew Fair, abounds with unscrupulous characters, con men, and gullible dupes. Jonson successfully interweaves several subplots involving deceit and trickery, creating an enjoyable comedy. The play begins as a lesser devil, named Pug, requests an opportunity to visit London to entrap innocents, thereby ensuring their doom. Satan is skeptical. He considers modern 1616 London to be more corrupt and dissolute than Hell itself. Satan reluctantly allows Pug to proceed.

The New Inn (or, The Light Heart): Jonson's final play was notably unsuccessful, being cancelled after a single night. Contrastingly, a modern production by the Royal Shakespeare Company received much acclaim. The editor, Margaret Jane Kidnie, urges the reader to read the play before reading Jonson's introductory summary, titled the Argument, which gives away the ending. It is probably prudent also to skip the short description of the play's characters. Act Five is best as a surprise.

The Works Of Ben Jonson With Notes, Critical And Explanatory And A Biographical Memoir

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The Works Of Ben Jonson With Notes, Critical And Explanatory And A Biographical Memoir
Ben Jonson , and William Gifford
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

1873. Volume Three of Three. Edited by Lt. Colonel Francis Cunningham. Dramatist, poet, scholar and writer of court masques, Ben Jonson was the leading literary figure during the reign of King James I. Jonson was known as an avid scholar of Latin and Greek, and his mastery of the classics, the high-spirited buoyancy of his plays and the brilliance of his language have earned him a reputation as one of the great playwrights in English literature. Jonson was appointed court poet in 1605, and became a writer of court masques-elaborate spectacles that involved music, dancing, and pageantry. Contents of the Third Volume: The Masque of Blackness; The Masque of Beauty; Hymenaei; The Hue and Cry After Cupid; The Masque of Queens; The Speeches at Prince Henry's Barriers; Oberon, the Fairy Prince; Love Freed from Ignorance and Folly; Love Restored; A Challenge at Tilt, at a marriage; The Irish Masque at Court; Mercury Vindicated from the Alchemists; The Golden Age Restored; Christmas His Masque; The Masque of Lethe; The Vision of Delight; Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue; For the Honour of Wales; News from the New World in the Moon; A Masque of the Metamorphosed Gipsies; The Masque of Augurs; Time Vindicated; Neptune's Triumph; Pan's Anniversary; The Masque of Owls; The Fortunate Isles and Their Union; Love's Triumph Through Callipolis; Chloridia; An Expostulation with Inigo Jones; Love's Welcome at Welbeck; Love's Welcome at Bolsover and Epigrams. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing. Other volumes in this set are ISBN(s): 1417944676, 1417944684.

Volpone and Other Plays (Penguin Classics)

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Each version and edition reveals new facets
Scathing comedy

Volpone and Other Plays (Penguin Classics)
Ben Jonson , and Michael Jamieson
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Doctor Faustus (Signet Classics)
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The School for Wives and The Learned Ladies, by Moliere: Two comedies in an acclaimed translation.
Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Comedy (Norton Critical Editions)
Phedre: Dual Language Edition (Penguin Classics)

ASIN: 0141441186

Customer Reviews:

Each version and edition reveals new facets.......2006-08-14

I came upon this play and Ben Jonson by the back door. I was watching a movie titled "The Honey Pot" with Rex Harrison. His character Cecil Fox after observing this play used the outline for his own purposes. So naturally I have to read the play to see what the movie is mimicking.

I have several copies of "Valpone" (the fox) to compare information on Ben. This is a review of the "New Mermaids Series" I have several of their series. They give you all the background information and any annotation needed. They make the information interesting enough that you feel that Ben Jonson is in the room with you. I am sure some people would not want to be in the same room. I was surprised to find that William Shakespeare acted in some of Ben's plays.

The play is well written and has many levels to it. If it did not have so many footnotes I would be in trouble. It reads like an English play yet has parts that would make Stephen King blush.

Scathing comedy.......2005-10-31

The title play of this collection, 'Volpone' is Jonson's most famous play. It is fierce exploration of human greed. Volpone is a great miser who plans to make a bundle by pretending that he is dying , and receiving gifts from his friends who he promises to bequeath his legacy to. His fellow collaborator is his servant Mosca( The fly) who in the end turns against Volpone and tries to , after allegedly inheriting Volpone's wealth, keep him dead. The result of his action is disaster for all parties concerned.
Jonson's strength is in making us laugh at human folly. However his language is difficult and his jaundiced view of character gives, for me anyway , less than full satisfaction.

Volpone and The Alchemist (Thrift Edition)

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Volpone and The Alchemist (Thrift Edition)
Ben Jonson
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0486436306

Book Description

These much-studied and frequently performed comedies by the great Elizabethan playwright satirize the greed, mendacity, gullibility, and pretension that Jonson saw rampant in 17h-century London society. Both plays feature colorful characters, ingenious plotting, biting wit, and sharp insight into human nature. This is the only edition to include both plays in one, inexpensive volume.

Ben Jonson's Plays and Masques (Second Edition)

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Ben Jonson's Plays and Masques (Second Edition)
Ben Jonson
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0393976386

Book Description

This collection features three of Jonson's masterpieces: Volpone, Epicoene, and The Alchemist. Also included are three masques: Mercury Vindicated from the Alchemist at Court, Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue, and—new to the Second Edition—The Masque of Blackness, Jonson's first masque and one that deals with issues of interest to contemporary culture. Each text includes expanded annotations. Jonson on His Work collects statements by the author on plays and on poetry taken from some of the plays, from Discoveries, and from Conversations with William Drummond of Hawthornden. Contemporary Readers on Jonson includes tributes and poems about the author and his work. A new section— Backgrounds and Sources"—includes selections from texts that helped shaped the dramatist's vision. Criticism includes twelve essays—nine of them new to the Second Edition—by Jonas A. Barish, Robert C. Evans, Anne Barton, John Dryden, Robert Watson, Edward B. Partridge, Ian Donaldson, Richard Harp, D. J. Gordon, Stephen Orgel, John Mulryan, and Leah S. Marcus.

<B>About the Series</B>: No other series of classic texts equals the caliber of the <B>Norton Critical Editions</B>. Each volume combines the most authoritative text available with the comprehensive pedagogical apparatus necessary to appreciate the work fully. Careful editing, first-rate translation, and thorough explanatory annotations allow each text to meet the highest literary standards while remaining accessible to students. Each edition is printed on acid-free paper and every text in the series remains in print. Norton Critical Editions are the choice for excellence in scholarship for students at more than 2,000 universities worldwide.

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