Five Plays

by Ben Jonson

Book Overview

The five plays in this collection are Everyman in his Humour, the tragedy Sejanus, Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair. They represent the full range and complexity of Jonson's art as a playwright. The text is the modernized version of Herford and Simpson's edition (OUP 1925-52), with full annotation.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0192839446
• ISBN13: 9780192839442
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 624 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 7.6" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

Meet Ben Jonson

FYI, the plays included in this edition are Every Man in his Humour, Sejanus, Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair. While Jonson's language is not as accessible as Shakespeare's, his plays are by no means a waste of time. No one had a sharper ear for the ways in which people in society delude themselves and others. Sejanus is rough going for anyone who isn't an ancient-Roman history buff, but the comedies offer wicked portraits of con artists, hustlers, wannabes, posers, and manglers of language. This edition doesn't offer a lot of help to readers unfamiliar with 17th-century English, but it's a good basic version of these plays, some of which aren't easy to find in cheap editions.