Ben Jonson and the Cavalier Poets

by Ben Jonson, James Shirley, Robert Herrick, et al.

Book Overview

Jonson is represented by a wide selection from the Epigrams, including the mock epic "On the Famous Voyage"; The Forest, complete; extensive selections from Underwood, including such well-known pieces as "A Celebration of Charis" and the Cary-Morison ode, together with the "Epithalamion" on the Weston-Stuart nuptials and "An Execration Upon Vulcan"; and more.

Also included is a copious selection from the works of Richard Corbett, Robert Herrick (eighty-two poems from Hesperides and fifteen from His Noble Numbers), Thomas Carew, James Shirley, Mildmay Fane, Thomas Randolph, Edmund Waller, William Harbington, Sir John Suckling, Sidney Godolphin, William Cartwright, James Graham (Marquis of Montrose), Sir John Denham, Richard Lovelace, Abraham Cowley, Henry Vaughan, and Thomas Stanley.

The spelling and punctuation of the poems have been made consistent with modern practice. These and other alterations are discussed in the Textual Notes. Footnotes serve primarily to gloss unfamiliar terms, to clarify syntax, and to explain allusions to mythological and historical figures and episodes.

Among the critics represented are Ben Jonson, Francis Beaumont, Edmund Bolton, James Howell, Thomas Fuller, Edward Hyde, Samuel Butler, John Dryden, Samuel Johnson, William Hazlitt, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Patrick Cruttwell, Joseph Summers, Earl Miner, Geoffrey Walton, G. A. E. Parfitt, L. A. Beaurline, Stephen Orgel, Ronald Berman, Bruce King, Hugh Richmond, Earl Wasserman, D. C. Allen, T. S. Eliot, and Hugh Maclean.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393093085
• ISBN13: 9780393093087
• Release Date: January 1975
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 624 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.2" x 8.3"
• Grade Range: Grades 9 to 12

Customer Reviews

Authoritative, indeed!

This volume claims to have the authoritative texts of poems by Ben Jonson and his followers (including Richard Corbett, Robert Herrick, Thomas Carew, Thomas Randolph, and Edmund Waller, among others). This claim is certainly a fair one. Also incuded are wonderful, relevant critical essays, some of them modern, some written by Jonson and his contemporaries. The essays and the variety of poets give this edition a feeling of completness; it is very good to have one poet's work right next to the responses of other poets to said work.The poetry itself, of course, is wonderful. During their lives, Jonson's work was thought to rival that of Shakespeare. These comparaisons are perhaps eaiser to understand when reading Jonson's still-easily-accessible poetry than when reading his plays.This volume is essential to any reader of Jonson.