Ben Jonson folios
Encyclopedia
The folio collections of Ben Jonson
Ben Jonson
Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...

's works
published in the seventeenth century were crucial developments in the publication of English literature and English Renaissance drama. The first folio collection, issued in 1616
1616 in literature
The year 1616 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*Nicolaus Copernicus' De revolutionibus is placed on the Index of Forbidden Books by the Roman Catholic Church....

, treated stage plays as serious works of literature instead of popular ephemera—at the time, a controversial position. The 1616 folio stood as a precedent for other play collections that followed—most notably the First Folio
First Folio
Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. is the 1623 published collection of William Shakespeare's plays. Modern scholars commonly refer to it as the First Folio....

 of Shakespeare's
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

 plays in 1623
1623 in literature
The year 1623 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*February 2 - The King's Men perform Twelfth Night at Court on Candlemas....

, but also the first Beaumont and Fletcher
Beaumont and Fletcher
Beaumont and Fletcher were the English dramatists Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, who collaborated in their writing during the reign of James I ....

 folio of 1647
1647 in literature
The year 1647 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* Thomas Hobbes becomes tutor to the future Charles II of England.* Plagiarist Robert Baron publishes his Deorum Dona, a masque, and Gripus and Hegio, a pastoral, which draw heavily on the poems of Edmund Waller and John Webster's...

, and other collections that were important in preserving the dramatic literature of the age for subsequent generations.

The first folio, 1616

The first Jonson folio of 1616, printed and published by William Stansby
William Stansby
William Stansby was a London printer and publisher of the Jacobean and Caroline eras, working under his own name from 1610. One of the most prolific printers of his time, Stansby is best remembered for publishing the landmark first folio collection of the works of Ben Jonson in 1616.-Life:As for...

 and sold through bookseller Richard Meighen
Richard Meighen
Richard Meighen was a London publisher of the Jacobean and Caroline eras. He is noted for his publications of plays of English Renaissance drama; he published the second Ben Jonson folio of 1640/1, and was a member of the syndicate that issued the Second Folio of Shakespeare's collected plays in...

, contained nine plays, all previously published, plus two works of non-dramatic poetry, thirteen masques, and six "entertainments."
  • Plays:
    • Every Man in His Humour
      Every Man in His Humour
      Every Man in His Humour is a 1598 play by the English playwright Ben Jonson. The play belongs to the subgenre of the "humours comedy," in which each major character is dominated by an overriding humour or obsession.-Performance and Publication:...

    • Every Man out of His Humour
      Every Man Out of His Humour
      Every Man out of His Humour is a satirical comedy written by English playwright Ben Jonson, acted in 1599 by the Lord Chamberlain's Men. It is a conceptual sequel to his 1598 comedy Every Man in His Humour...

    • Cynthia's Revels
      Cynthia's Revels
      Cynthia's Revels, or The Fountain of Self-Love is a late Elizabethan stage play, a satire written by Ben Jonson, The play was one element in the so-called Poetomachia or War of the Theatres between Jonson and rival playrwights John Marston and Thomas Dekker.-Performance:The play was first performed...

    • The Poetaster
      The Poetaster
      The Poetaster is a late Elizabethan stage play, a satire written by Ben Jonson, and first performed in 1601. The play formed one element in the back-and-forth exchange between Jonson and his rivals John Marston and Thomas Dekker in the so-called Poetomachia or War of the Theatres of...

    • Sejanus: His Fall
    • Volpone
      Volpone
      Volpone is a comedy by Ben Jonson first produced in 1606, drawing on elements of city comedy, black comedy and beast fable...

    • Epicoene, or the Silent Woman
      Epicoene, or the Silent Woman
      Epicœne, or The silent woman, also known as The Epicene, is a comedy by Renaissance playwright Ben Jonson. It was originally performed by the Blackfriars Children, a group of boy players, in 1609...

    • The Alchemist
      The Alchemist (play)
      The Alchemist is a comedy by English playwright Ben Jonson. First performed in 1610 by the King's Men, it is generally considered Jonson's best and most characteristic comedy; Samuel Taylor Coleridge claimed that it had one of the three most perfect plots in literature...

    • Catiline: His Conspiracy

  • Poetry:
    • Epigrams
    • The Forest

  • Masques:
    • The Masque of Blackness
      The Masque of Blackness
      The Masque of Blackness was an early Jacobean era masque, first performed at the Stuart Court in the Banqueting Hall of Whitehall Palace on Twelfth Night, January 6, 1605. The masque was written by Ben Jonson at the request of Anne of Denmark, the queen consort of King James I, who wished the...

    • The Masque of Beauty
      The Masque of Beauty
      The Masque of Beauty was a courtly masque composed by Ben Jonson, and performed to inaugurate the refurbished banqueting hall of Whitehall Palace on January 10, 1608. It was a sequel to the preceding Masque of Blackness, which had been performed three years earlier, on January 6, 1605...

    • Hymenaei
      Hymenaei
      Hymenaei, or The Masgue of Hymen, was a masque written by Ben Jonson for the marriage of Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, and Lady Frances Howard, daughter of the Earl of Suffolk, and performed on their wedding day, January 5, 1606...

    • The Hue and Cry After Cupid
      The Hue and Cry After Cupid
      The Hue and Cry After Cupid, or A Hue and Cry After Cupid, also Lord Haddington's Masque or The Masque at Lord Haddington's Marriage, or even The Masque With the Nuptial Songs at the Lord Viscount Haddington's Marriage at Court, was a masque performed on Shrove Tuesday night, February 9, 1608, in...

    • The Masque of Queens
      The Masque of Queens
      The Masque of Queens, Celebrated From the House of Fame is one of the earlier works in the series of masques that Ben Jonson composed for the House of Stuart in the early 17th century...

    • The Speeches at Prince Henry's Barriers
      The Speeches at Prince Henry's Barriers
      The Speeches at Prince Henry's Barriers, sometimes called The Lady of the Lake, is a masque or entertainment written by Ben Jonson in honour of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, the son and heir of King James I of England...

    • Oberon, the Faery Prince
      Oberon, the Faery Prince
      Oberon, the Faery Prince was a masque written by Ben Jonson, with costumes, sets and stage effects designed by Inigo Jones, and music by Alfonso Ferrabosco and Robert Johnson...

    • Love Freed from Ignorance and Folly
      Love Freed from Ignorance and Folly
      Love Freed from Ignorance and Folly was a Jacobean era masque, written by Ben Jonson and designed by Inigo Jones, with music by Alfonso Ferrabosco...

    • Love Restored
      Love Restored
      Love Restored was a Jacobean era masque, written by Ben Jonson; it was performed on Twelfth Night, January 6, 1612, and first published in 1616...

    • A Challenge at Tilt, at a Marriage
    • The Irish Masque at Court
    • Mercury Vindicated from the Alchemists
      Mercury Vindicated from the Alchemists
      Mercury Vindicated from the Alchemists at Court is a Jacobean era masque, written by Ben Jonson and designed by Inigo Jones. It was performed at Whitehall Palace on Twelfth Night, January 6, 1615...

    • The Golden Age Restored
      The Golden Age Restored
      The Golden Age Restored was a Jacobean era masque, written by Ben Jonson and designed by Inigo Jones; it was performed on January 1 and January 6, 1616, almost certainly at Whitehall Palace.-The show:...


  • Entertainments:
    • The King's Entertainment in Passing to His Coronation
      The Coronation Triumph
      The Coronation Triumph is a Jacobean era literary work, usually classed as an "entertainment," written by Ben Jonson for the coronation of King James I and performed on 15 March 1604. Jonson's work was half of a total performance, the other half written by Thomas Dekker...

      [The Coronation Triumph]
    • A Panegyre, on the Happy Entrance of James
    • A Particular Entertainment of the Queen and Prince (at Althorp)
      The Entertainment at Althorp
      The Entertainment at Althorp, or The Althorp Entertainment, is an early Jacobean era literary work, written by Ben Jonson. It is also known by the alternative title The Satyr. The work marked a major development in Jonson's career, as the first of many entertainments and masques that he would write...

      [The Satyr]
    • A Private Entertainment of the King and Queen (on May-Day) [The Penates]
    • The Entertainment of the Two Kings (of Great Britain and Denmark) [The Hours]
    • An Entertainment of King James and Queen Anne


The first five of the masques, from Blackness through Queens, had been printed previously, as had three of the entertainments, the Panegyre, and the Epigrams.

The abortive 1631 addition

In 1631
1631 in literature
The year 1631 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 9 - Love's Triumph Through Callipolis, a masque written by Ben Jonson and designed by Inigo Jones, is staged at Whitehall Palace....

 Jonson planned a second volume to be added to the 1616 folio, a collection of later-written works to be published by Robert Allot
Robert Allot
Robert Allot was a London bookseller and publisher of the early Caroline era; his shop was at the sign of the black bear in St. Paul's Churchyard...

. Jonson, however, became dissatisfied with the quality of the printing (by John Beale), and cancelled the project. Three plays were set into type for the projected collection, and printings of those typecasts were circulated—though whether they were sold commercially or distributed privately by Jonson is unclear. The three plays are:
  • Bartholomew Fair
  • The Devil is an Ass
    The Devil is an Ass
    The Devil is an Ass is a Jacobean comedy by Ben Jonson, first performed in 1616 and first published in 1631.The Devil is an Ass followed Bartholomew Fair , one of the author's greatest works, and marks the start of the final phase of his dramatic career...

  • The Staple of News
    The Staple of News
    The Staple of News is an early Caroline era play, a satire by Ben Jonson. The play was first performed in late 1625 by the King's Men at the Blackfriars Theatre, and first published in 1631.-Publication:...



Allot died in 1635; in the 1637–39 period, the rights to Jonson's works were involved in a complex legal dispute between Philip Chetwinde
Philip Chetwinde
Philip Chetwinde was a seventeenth-century London bookseller and publisher, noted for his publication of the Third Folio of Shakespeare's plays.-A rough start:Chetwinde was originally a clothworker...

, the second husband of Allot's widow, and stationers Andrew Crooke
Andrew Crooke and William Cooke
Andrew Crooke and William Cooke were London publishers of the mid-17th-century. In partnership and individually, they issued significant texts of English Renaissance drama, most notably of the plays of James Shirley....

 and John Legatt, who believed they owned the rights to the works.

The second folio, 1640/1

Two folio collections of Jonsonian works were issued in 1640-41. The first, printed by Richard Bishop for Andrew Crooke, was a 1640 reprint of the 1616 folio with corrections and emendations; it has sometimes been termed "the second edition of the first folio." The second volume was edited by Jonson's literary executor Sir Kenelm Digby
Kenelm Digby
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 and Blackloist. For his versatility, Anthony à Wood called him the "magazine of all arts".-Early life and career:He was born at Gayhurst,...

, and published by Richard Meighen
Richard Meighen
Richard Meighen was a London publisher of the Jacobean and Caroline eras. He is noted for his publications of plays of English Renaissance drama; he published the second Ben Jonson folio of 1640/1, and was a member of the syndicate that issued the Second Folio of Shakespeare's collected plays in...

, in co-operation with Chetwinde. That volume contained later works, most of them unpublished or uncollected previously—six plays (including the three printed in 1631), two of them incomplete, and fifteen masques, plus miscellaneous pieces. In the Digby/Meighen volume—identified on its title page as "the Second Volume" of Jonson's works—the varying dates (1631, 1640, 1641) in some of the texts, and what editor William Savage Johnson once called "irregularity in contents and arrangement in different copies," have caused significant confusion.
  • Plays:
    • Bartholomew Fair
      Bartholomew Fair
      Bartholomew Fayre: A Comedy is a comedy in five acts by Ben Jonson, the last written of his four great comedies. It was first staged on October 31, 1614 at the Hope Theatre by the Lady Elizabeth's Men...

    • The Devil is an Ass
      The Devil is an Ass
      The Devil is an Ass is a Jacobean comedy by Ben Jonson, first performed in 1616 and first published in 1631.The Devil is an Ass followed Bartholomew Fair , one of the author's greatest works, and marks the start of the final phase of his dramatic career...

    • The Magnetic Lady
      The Magnetic Lady
      The Magnetic Lady, or Humors Reconciled is a Caroline era stage play, the final comedy of Ben Jonson. It was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on October 12, 1632, and first published in 1641, in Volume II of the second folio collection of Jonson's works.The...

    • A Tale of a Tub
      A Tale of a Tub (play)
      A Tale of a Tub is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by Ben Jonson. The last of his plays to be staged during his lifetime, A Tale of a Tub was performed in 1633 and published in 1640 in the second folio of Jonson's works.-History:...

    • The Sad Shepherd (unfinished)
    • Mortimer: His Fall (fragment)

  • Masques:
    • Christmas, His Masque
      Christmas, His Masque
      Christmas, His Masque, also called Christmas His Show, was a Jacobean era masque, written by Ben Jonson and performed at the English royal court at Christmas of 1616...

    • A Masque Presented in the House of Lord Hay
      Lovers Made Men
      Lovers Made Men, alternatively titled The Masque of Lethe or The Masque at Lord Hay's, was a Jacobean era masque, written by Ben Jonson, designed by Inigo Jones, and with music composed by Nicholas Lanier...

    • The Vision of Delight
      The Vision of Delight
      The Vision of Delight was a Jacobean era masque written by Ben Jonson. It was most likely performed on Twelfth Night, January 6, 1617 in the Banqueting House at Whitehall Palace, and repeated on January 19 of that year....

    • Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue
      Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue
      Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue is a Jacobean era masque, written by Ben Jonson and designed by Inigo Jones. It was first performed on Twelfth Night, January 6, 1618, in the Banqueting House at Whitehall Palace...

    • For the Honour of Wales
    • News from the New World Discovered in the Moon
      News from the New World Discovered in the Moon
      News from the New World Discovered in the Moon was a Jacobean era masque, written by Ben Jonson; it was first performed before King James I on January 7, 1620, with a second performance on February 29 of the same year...

    • A Masque of the Metamorphos'd Gypsies
      The Gypsies Metamorphosed
      The Gypsies Metamorphosed, alternatively titled The Metamorphosed Gypsies, The Gypsies' Metamorphosis, or The Masque of Gypsies, was a Jacobean era masque written by Ben Jonson, with music composed by Nicholas Lanier...

    • The Masque of Augurs
      The Masque of Augurs
      The Masque of Augurs was a Jacobean era masque, written by Ben Jonson and designed by Inigo Jones. It was performed, most likely, on Twelfth Night, January 6, 1622....

    • Time Vindicated to Himself and to His Honours
      Time Vindicated to Himself and to His Honours
      Time Vindicated to Himself and to his Honours was a late Jacobean era masque, written by Ben Jonson and with costumes, sets, and stage effects designed by Inigo Jones...

    • Neptune's Triumph for the Return of Albion
      Neptune's Triumph for the Return of Albion
      Neptune's Triumph for the Return of Albion was a Jacobean era masque, written by Ben Jonson, and designed by Inigo Jones. The masque is notable for the contradictory historical evidence connected with it and the confusion it caused among generations of scholars and critics.- Context :The masque was...

    • Pan's Anniversary, or The Shepherd's Holiday
      Pan's Anniversary
      Pan's Anniversary, or The Shepherd's Holiday was a Jacobean era masque, written by Ben Jonson and designed by Inigo Jones. The date of the masque's performance at the English Court has long been in dispute: while the earliest text assigns it to 1625, mid-twentieth-century scholars placed it on June...

    • The Masque of Owls
    • The Fortunate Isles, and Their Union
    • Love's Triumph Through Callipolis
      Love's Triumph Through Callipolis
      Love's Triumph Through Callipolis was the first masque performed at the Stuart Court during the reign of King Charles I, and the first in which a reigning monarch appeared...

    • Chloridia: Rites to Chloris and Her Nymphs
      Chloridia
      Chloridia: Rites to Chloris and Her Nymphs was the final masque that Ben Jonson wrote for the Stuart Court. It was performed at Shrovetide, February 22, 1631, with costumes, sets and stage effects designed by Inigo Jones.-The masque:...

    • The King's Entertainment at Welbeck
      The King's Entertainment at Welbeck
      The King's Entertainment at Welbeck in Nottinghamshire, alternatively titled Love's Welcome at Welbeck, was a masque or entertainment written by Ben Jonson, and performed on May 21, 1633 at the Welbeck estate of William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle...

    • Love's Welcome at Bolsover
      Love's Welcome at Bolsover
      Love's Welcome at Bolsover is the final masque composed by Ben Jonson. It was performed on July 30, 1634, three years before the poet's death, and published in 1641....


  • Miscellaneous:
    • Underwoods
    • Horace, His Art of Poetry
    • The English Grammar
    • Timber, or Discoveries

The third folio, 1692

The 1692
1692 in literature
The year 1692 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*Nahum Tate becomes Poet Laureate.*Thomas Rymer is made Historiographer Royal, and mounts a major effort to preserve and publish historical documents....

 single-volume third folio was printed by Thomas Hodgkin and published by a syndicate of booksellers—the title page lists H. Herringman
Henry Herringman
Henry Herringman was a prominent London bookseller and publisher in the second half of the 17th century. He is especially noted for his publications in English Renaissance drama and English Restoration drama; he was the first publisher of the works of John Dryden...

, E. Brewster, T. Bassett, R. Chiswell, M. Wotton, and G. Converse. The third folio added two works to the previous total: the play The New Inn
The New Inn
The New Inn, or The Light Heart is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy by English playwright and poet Ben Jonson.The New Inn was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on 19 January 1629, and acted later that year by the King's Men at the Blackfriars Theatre...

,
and Leges Convivales.

Two other works by Jonson were left out of the 17th-century folios but added to later editions: the plays The Case is Altered
The Case is Altered
The Case is Altered is an early comedy by Ben Jonson. First published in 1609, the play presents a range of problems for scholars attempting to understand its place in Jonson's canon of works.-Date and publication:...

and Eastward Ho (the latter written with Marston and George Chapman
George Chapman
George Chapman was an English dramatist, translator, and poet. He was a classical scholar, and his work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman has been identified as the Rival Poet of Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Minto, and as an anticipator of the Metaphysical Poets...

).

External links

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