1.
Ben Jonson
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Benjamin Jonson was an English playwright, poet, actor, and literary critic of the 17th century, whose artistry exerted a lasting impact upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours, Ben Jonson said that his family originally came from the folk of the Anglo-Scottish border country, which genealogy is attested by the three spindles in the Jonson family coat of arms. One spindle is a heraldic device shared with the Border-country Johnstone family of Annandale. Jonsons clergyman father died two months before his birth, his mother married a master bricklayer two years later, Jonson attended school in St. Martins Lane. Later, a family friend paid for his studies at Westminster School, on leaving Westminster School, Jonson was to have attended the University of Cambridge, to continue his book learning but did not, because of his unwilled apprenticeship to his bricklayer stepfather. According to the churchman and historian Thomas Fuller, Jonson at this time built a wall in Lincolns Inn. After having been a bricklayer, Ben Jonson went to the Netherlands. After his military activity on the Continent, Jonson returned to England and worked as an actor, as an actor, Jonson was the protagonist “Hieronimo” in the play The Spanish Tragedy, by Thomas Kyd, the first revenge tragedy in English literature. Regarding his marriage Jonson described his wife to William Drummond as a shrew, concerning the family of Anne Lewis and Ben Jonson, the St. Martins Church registers indicate that Mary Jonson, their eldest daughter, died in November 1593, at six months of age. Moreover,32 years later, a son, also named Benjamin Jonson. By summer 1597, Jonson had an engagement in the Admirals Men, then performing under Philip Henslowes management at The Rose. John Aubrey reports, on authority, that Jonson was not successful as an actor, whatever his skills as an actor. By this time Jonson had begun to write plays for the Admirals Men. None of his early tragedies survive, however, an undated comedy, The Case is Altered, may be his earliest surviving play. In 1597 a play which he co-wrote with Thomas Nashe, The Isle of Dogs, was suppressed after causing great offence, arrest warrants for Jonson and Nashe were issued by Queen Elizabeth Is so-called interrogator, Richard Topcliffe. Jonson was jailed in Marshalsea Prison and charged with Leude and mutynous behaviour, two of the actors, Gabriel Spenser and Robert Shaw, were also imprisoned. A year later, Jonson was again imprisoned, this time in Newgate Prison. While in jail Jonson converted to Catholicism, possibly through the influence of fellow-prisoner Father Thomas Wright, in 1598 Jonson produced his first great success, Every Man in His Humour, capitalising on the vogue for humorous plays which George Chapman had begun with An Humorous Days Mirth
2.
First Folio
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Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies is the 1623 published collection of William Shakespeares plays. Modern scholars commonly refer to it as the First Folio, printed in folio format and containing 36 plays, it was prepared by Shakespeares colleagues John Heminges and Henry Condell. It was dedicated to the pair of brethren William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke and his brother Philip Herbert. The paper industry in England was then in its infancy and the quantity of quality rag paper for the book was imported from France. It is thought that the typesetting and printing of the First Folio was such a job that the Kings Men simply needed the capacities of the Jaggards shop. William Jaggard was old, infirm and blind by 1623, and died a month before the book went on sale, most of the work in the project must have been done by his son Isaac. The First Folios publishing syndicate also included two stationers who owned the rights to some of the plays that had been previously printed, William Aspley. Smethwick had been a partner of another Jaggard, Williams brother John. The printing of the Folio was probably done between February 1622 and early November 1623, the printer originally expected to have the book ready early, since it was listed in the Frankfurt Book Fair catalogue as a book to appear between April and October 1622. The thirty-six plays of the First Folio occur in the order given below, each play is followed by the type of source used, as determined by bibliographical research. Comedies 1 The Tempest * – the play was set into type from a prepared by Ralph Crane. Crane produced a high-quality result, with formal act/scene divisions, frequent use of parentheses and hyphenated forms,2 The Two Gentlemen of Verona * – another transcript by Ralph Crane. 3 The Merry Wives of Windsor – another transcript by Ralph Crane,4 Measure for Measure * – probably another Ralph Crane transcript. 5 The Comedy of Errors * – probably typeset from Shakespeares foul papers,6 Much Ado About Nothing – typeset from a copy of the quarto, lightly annotated. 7 Loves Labours Lost – typeset from a copy of Q1. 8 A Midsummer Nights Dream – typeset from a copy of Q2, well-annotated,9 The Merchant of Venice – typeset from a lightly edited and corrected copy of Q1. 10 As You Like It * – from a quality manuscript,11 The Taming of the Shrew * – typeset from Shakespeares foul papers, somewhat annotated, perhaps as preparation for use as a prompt-book. 12 Alls Well That Ends Well * – probably from Shakespeares foul papers or a manuscript of them,13 Twelfth Night * – typeset either from a prompt-book or a transcript of one
3.
William Shakespeare
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William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the worlds pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called Englands national poet, and the Bard of Avon and his extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright, Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children, Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a career in London as an actor, writer. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, at age 49, Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories, which are regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, in his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and it was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare is hailed, presciently, as not of an age, but for all time. In the 20th and 21st centuries, his works have been adapted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship. His plays remain highly popular and are studied, performed. William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden and he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual date of birth unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April. This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholars mistake, has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and he was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son. At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, the consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of Hathaways neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage, twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596, after the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the bill of a law case before the Queens Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589
4.
Kenelm Digby
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Sir Kenelm Digby was an English courtier and diplomat. He was also a highly reputed natural philosopher, and known as a leading Roman Catholic intellectual, for his versatility, he is described in John Pointers Oxoniensis Academia as the Magazine of all Arts and Sciences, or the Ornament of this Nation. Digby was born at Gayhurst, Buckinghamshire, England and he was of gentry stock, but his familys adherence to Roman Catholicism coloured his career. His father, Sir Everard, was executed in 1606 for his part in the Gunpowder Plot, Kenelm was sufficiently in favour with James I to be proposed as a member of Edmund Boltons projected Royal Academy. He went to Gloucester Hall, Oxford, in 1618, where he was taught by Thomas Allen, in time Allen bequeathed to Digby his library, and the latter donated it to the Bodleian. He spent three years on the Continent between 1620 and 1623, where Marie de Medici fell madly in love with him and he was granted a Cambridge M. A. on the Kings visit to the university in 1624. Around 1625, he married Venetia Stanley, whose wooing he cryptically described in his memoirs and he had also become a member of the Privy Council of Charles I of England. Due to his Roman Catholicism being a hindrance in being appointed to government office, Digby became a privateer in 1627. Sailing his flagship, the Eagle, he arrived off Gibraltar on 18 January and he seized a Dutch vessel near Majorca, and after other adventures gained a victory over the French and Venetian ships in the harbour of Iskanderun on 11 June. His successes, however, brought upon the English merchants the risk of reprisals and he returned to become a naval administrator and later Governor of Trinity House. His wife Venetia Stanley, a beauty, died suddenly in 1633, prompting a famous deathbed portrait by Van Dyck. At that period, public servants were rewarded with patents of monopoly, Digby received the regional monopoly of sealing wax in Wales. This was an income, more speculative were the monopolies of trade with the Gulf of Guinea. These were doubtless more difficult to police, Digby became a Catholic once more in 1635. He went into exile in Paris, where he spent most of his time until 1660. There he met both Marin Mersenne and Thomas Hobbes, returning to support Charles I in his struggle to establish episcopacy in Scotland, he found himself increasingly unpopular with the growing Puritan party. He left England for France again in 1641, following an incident in which he killed a French nobleman, Mont le Ros, in a duel, he returned to England via Flanders in 1642, and was jailed by the House of Commons. He was eventually released at the intervention of Anne of Austria and he remained there during the remainder of the period of the English Civil War
5.
Every Man in His Humour
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Every Man in His Humour is a 1598 play by the English playwright Ben Jonson helped out by Jason Simons. The play belongs to the subgenre of the comedy, in which each major character is dominated by an over-riding humour or obsession. All the available evidence indicates that the play was performed by the Lord Chamberlains Men in 1598 at the Curtain Theatre, the play was also acted at Court on 2 February 1605. A theatre legend first recorded in 1709 by Nicholas Rowe has it that Shakespeare advocated production of the play at a point when the company was about to reject it. While this legend is unverifiable, it is all but certain, based on the playlist published in the folio, that Shakespeare played the part of Knowell and this is consistent with Shakespeares habit of playing older characters, such as Adam in As You Like It. It is thought that this entry was an attempt to block publication of the four plays, if so, the attempt failed, since the latter three plays appeared in print soon after. Every Man In was re-registered ten days later, on 14 August 1600, by the booksellers Cuthbert Burby and Walter Burre, in the 1601 Quarto version, the play was set in Florence, Italy. Gerard Langbaine reports that the play was revived by the Kings Company in 1675, the play remained vivid enough in memory for John Rich to revive it at Lincolns Inn Fields in 1725. However, it was not until David Garrick revived the play with substantial alterations in 1751 that the play regained currency on the English stage. The scene was a favourite, praised by Arthur Murphy and others, Kitely became one of Garricks signature roles, the play declined in popularity in the last quarter of the century, in large part because it was seen as a Garrick vehicle. George Frederick Cooke revived the play at Covent Garden, elizabeth Inchbald lauded the performance, calling Cookes Kitely the equal of Garricks. Cooke had mixed success with the play, though, it failed in Edinburgh in 1808, after 1803, Cooke may have alternated with Kemble in the title role for productions at Covent Garden. Thereafter, the play has been subject to tentative revivals, none of which have established it as viable for modern repertory, edmund Kean played Kitely in an unsuccessful 1816 production, his performance was praised by William Hazlitt. William Charles Macready essayed the role at the Haymarket Theatre in 1838, Robert Browning attended and approved the performance, perhaps the most unusual revival occurred in 1845, when Charles Dickens and his friends mounted a benefit production. Aided by Macready, Dickens took the faintly Dickensian role of Bobadill, George Cruikshank was Cob, the production went off well enough to be repeated three or four times over the next two years. Bulwer-Lytton wrote a poem as prologue for an 1847 production, in addition to Browning, Tennyson, Ben Iden Payne produced the play in Manchester in 1909, and again in Stratford for the Jonson tercentenary in 1937. The later production received much more favourable reviews, John Caird directed the play during the inaugural season of the Swan Theatre in 1986. In general outline, this play follows Latin models quite closely and these types are clearly slightly Anglicized versions of ancient types of Greek New Comedy, namely the senex, the son, and the slave
6.
Volpone
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Volpone is a comedy play by English playwright Ben Jonson first produced in 1605-06, drawing on elements of city comedy and beast fable. A merciless satire of greed and lust, it remains Jonsons most-performed play, probably partly based on Sir Henry Wotton, and partly on the traveller, Anthony Shirley. In their turns, each man arrives to Volpone’s house bearing a gift, intent upon having his name inscribed to the will of Volpone. To Volpone, Mosca mentions that Corvino has a beautiful wife, disguised as Scoto the Mountebank, Volpone goes to see Celia. Corvino drives away Scoto, who then becomes insistent that he must possess Celia as his own, Mosca deceives Corvino into believing that the moribund Volpone will be cured of his illness if he lies in bed beside a young woman. Believing that Volpone has been rendered impotent by his illness, Corvino offers his wife in order that, just before Corvino and Celia are due to arrive at Volpones house, Corbaccio’s son Bonario arrives to catch his father in the act of disinheriting him. Mosca guides Bonario to a sideroom, and Volpone and Celia are left alone, upon failing to seduce Celia with fantastic promises of luxury and wealth, Volpone attempts to rape her. Bonario comes forward to rescue Celia, there are episodes involving the English travellers Sir and Lady Politic Would-Be and Peregrine. Sir Politic constantly talks of plots and his business plans. Mosca co-ordinates a mix-up between them which leaves Peregrine, a more sophisticated traveller, feeling offended and he humiliates Sir Politick by telling him he is to be arrested for sedition and making him hide inside a giant tortoise shell. The play appeared in quarto in early 1607, printed by George Eld for publisher Thomas Thorpe. The quarto contains Jonsons dedication to Oxford and Cambridge, as well as a number of commendatory verses, in English and Latin, by fellow-poets such as Francis Beaumont. Its next appearance was in the folio of 1616, and the latter, presumably having been subject to Jonsons careful review, the play premiered at the Globe Theatre in Spring 1606. It was performed by the Kings Men, but casting is uncertain, John Lowin may have performed the title role, as he is associated with the role in James Wrights Historia Histrionica. William Gifford hypothesized that Alexander Cooke may have played Lady Would-be, either that summer or the next, an outbreak of plague closed the London theatres, and the company performed the play at Oxford and Cambridge. Jonson may have added the first acts satire on Pythagoras for these audiences, the play certainly remained in the Kings Mens repertoire throughout the period. It was performed for Charles in 1624 while he was still Prince of Wales, in 1630, after the Restoration, the play enjoyed a lengthy prominence, John Genest records over fifty performances before 1770. John Evelyn saw it performed at the court of Charles II on 16 October 1662, when the theatres reopened, the play was owned by the Kings Men of Thomas Killigrew, it was performed at Drury Lane in 1663
7.
The Alchemist (play)
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The Alchemist is a comedy by English playwright Ben Jonson. The plays clever fulfilment of the unities and vivid depiction of human folly have made it one of the few Renaissance plays with a continuing life on stage. The Alchemist premiered 34 years after the first permanent public theatre opened in London, it is, then, the theatres had survived the challenge mounted by the city and religious authorities, plays were a regular feature of life at court and for a great number of Londoners. The venue for which Jonson apparently wrote his play reflects this newly solid acceptance of theatre as a fact of city life. In 1597, the Lord Chamberlains Men had been denied permission to use the theatre in Blackfriars as a winter playhouse because of objections from the neighbourhoods influential residents. Some time between 1608 and 1610, the company, now the Kings Men, reassumed control of the playhouse and their delayed premiere on this stage within the city walls, along with royal patronage, marks the ascendance of this company in the London play-world. The Alchemist was among the first plays chosen for performance at the theatre, Jonsons play reflects this new confidence. In it, he applies his conception of drama to a setting in contemporary London for the first time. An outbreak of plague in London forces a gentleman, Lovewit, to flee temporarily to the country, leaving his house under the charge of his butler. Jeremy uses the opportunity given to him to use the house as the headquarters for fraudulent acts and he transforms himself into Captain Face, and enlists the aid of Subtle, a fellow conman, and Doll Common, a prostitute. The play opens with a violent argument between Subtle and Face concerning the division of the riches which they have, and will continue to gather, Face threatens to have an engraving made of Subtle with a face worse than that of the notorious highwayman Gamaliel Ratsey. Doll breaks the pair apart and reasons with them that they must work as a team if they are to succeed. Their first customer is Dapper, a clerk who wishes Subtle to use his supposed necromantic skills to summon a familiar or spirit to help in his gambling ambitions. The tripartite suggest that Dapper may win favour with the Queen of Fairy and their second gull is Drugger, a tobacconist, who is keen to establish a profitable business. After this, a nobleman, Sir Epicure Mammon, arrives, expressing the desire to gain himself the philosophers stone. He is accompanied by Surly, a sceptic and debunker of the idea of alchemy. He is promised the philosophers stone and promised that it will turn all base metal into gold, Surly however, suspects Subtle of being a thief. Mammon accidentally sees Doll and is told that she is a Lords sister who is suffering from madness, Subtle contrives to become angry with Ananias, an Anabaptist, and demands that he should return with a more senior member of his sect
8.
The Hue and Cry After Cupid
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The masque celebrated the marriage of John, Lord Ramsay, Viscount Haddington, to Lady Elizabeth Radclyffe, the daughter of Robert Radclyffe, Earl of Sussex. The groom, the former Sir John Ramsay, was a confederate of the King. The preparation of the masque was supervised by Jamess Queen, Anne of Denmark and their Zodiac was supported by a cast of mythical figures that included Venus, Cupid, the Graces, Hymen, and Vulcan, among others. The musicians were priests of Hymen, while Cyclops beat time with their hammers, the set for the masque was noteworthy in that it may well have been the first instance in which the proscenium arch was employed in British theatre. Within the arch, the initial set took the form of a red cliff. The red cliff split open to display a silver sphere that held the masquers, contemporary accounts state that the singular brave masque and the general dancing that followed lasted till three oclock in the morning. The twelve principal masquers reported spent £300 each on their costumes of carnation, the masque adapts a tale from the Idyll of the Ancient Greek pastoral poet Moschus. The Idyll was extremely popular during the Renaissance and was known in various French and Italian adaptations, the masque was published in quarto, in an undated edition that probably was issued soon after the February performance. The text was reprinted in the first folio collection of Jonsons works in 1616,4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press,1923. Inigo, The Troubled Life of Inigo Jones, Architect of the English Renaissance
9.
Bartholomew Fair
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The Bartholomew Fair was one of Londons pre-eminent summer Charter fairs. The fair continued, after the Dissolution within the Liberty of the parish of St Bartholomew-the-Great, whereas the fair was chartered to be a three-day event, it would last a full two weeks in the 17th century, but in 1691, it was shortened to only four days. With a change in the calendar, the fair commenced on 3 September from 1753, a trading event for cloth and other goods as well as a pleasure fair, the event drew crowds from all classes of English society. It was customary for the Lord Mayor of London to open the fair on St Bartholomews Eve, the Mayor would stop at Newgate Prison to accept a cup of sack from the governor. The Merchant Taylors Guild processed to Cloth Fair to test the measures for cloth, using their standard silver yard, the annual fair grew to become the chief cloth sale in the kingdom. By 1641, the fair had achieved international importance and it had outgrown the former location along Cloth Fair, and around the Priory graveyard to now cover four parishes, Christ Church, Great and Little St Bartholomew’s and St Sepulchre’s. The fair featured sideshows, prize-fighters, musicians, wire-walkers, acrobats, puppets, freaks, the fair was suppressed in 1855 by the City authorities for encouraging debauchery and public disorder. The Newgate Calendar had denounced the fair as a school of vice which has initiated more youth into the habits of villainy than Newgate itself, attribution Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Bartholomew Fair. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
10.
George Chapman
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George Chapman was an English dramatist, translator, and poet. He was a scholar whose work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman has been identified as the Rival Poet of Shakespeares sonnets by William Minto, Chapman is best remembered for his translations of Homers Iliad and Odyssey, and the Homeric Batrachomyomachia. Chapman was born at Hitchin in Hertfordshire, there is conjecture that he studied at Oxford but did not take a degree, though no reliable evidence affirms this. Very little is known about Chapmans early life, but Mark Eccles uncovered records that much about Chapmans difficulties. Chapmans courtly ambitions led him into a trap and he apparently never received any money, but he would be plagued for many years by the papers he had signed. As Sadler died in 1587, this gives Chapman little time to have trained under him and it seems more likely that he was in Sadlers household from 1577–83, as he dedicates all his Homerical translations to him. Chapman spent the early 1590s abroad, and saw action in the Low Countries fighting under renowned English general Sir Francis Vere. His earliest published works were the obscure philosophical poems The Shadow of Night, the latter has been taken as a response to the erotic poems of the age, such as Philip Sidneys Astrophil and Stella and Shakespeares Venus and Adonis. The former was executed for treason by Elizabeth I in 1601, Chapmans resultant poverty did not diminish his ability or his standing among his fellow Elizabethan poets and dramatists. Chapman died in London, having lived his latter years in poverty and he was buried at St Giles in the Fields. A monument to him designed by Inigo Jones marked his tomb, by the end of the 1590s, Chapman had become a successful playwright, working for Philip Henslowe and later for the Children of the Chapel. Among his comedies are The Blind Beggar of Alexandria, An Humorous Days Mirth, All Fools, Monsieur DOlive, The Gentleman Usher, May Day, and The Widows Tears. With The Widows Tears, he was one of the first writers to meld comedy with more serious themes, creating the tragicomedy later made famous by Beaumont. He also wrote one play in collaboration. Eastward Ho, written with Jonson and John Marston, contained references to the Scots which landed Chapman. Various of their letters to the king and noblemen survive in a manuscript in the Folger Library known as the Dobell MS, in the letters, both men renounced the offending line, implying that Marston was responsible for the injurious remark. Chapmans friendship with Jonson broke down, perhaps as a result of Jonsons public feud with Inigo Jones, some satiric, scathing lines, written sometime after the burning of Jonsons desk and papers, provide evidence of the rift
