This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Selective guide to further reading and resources
Editions
Ben Jonson, Ben Jonson ed. C. H. Herford, P. Simpson, and E. Simpson, 11 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1925–52). Large, maddening, but still indispensable for some purposes.
Ben Jonson, Four Comedies, ed. Helen Ostovich (London: Longman, 1997). The best single-volume edition of the major plays.
Ben Jonson, Epicene [sic], ed. Richard Dutton (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003). This play is on the list partly as a representative of the excellent series of which it forms part, which now includes many of Jonson’s full-length plays, and partly too because it contains an annotated edition of the Entertainment at Britain’s Burse discussed above.
Journals
The Ben Jonson Journal. Currently in its twelfth year of publication, this is the only journal devoted solely to Jonson, and is an important resource for anyone working in the field. Abstracts of articles from past issues are available online at http://www.geocities.com/benjonsonjournal/benjonsonjournal.htm.
Electronic resources (subscription)
For Jonson, the main subscription-based electronic resources are the same as for other early modern dramatists. Literature Online <http://lion.chadwyck.co.uk> and Early English Books Online <http://eebo.chadwyck.com> have full-text transcriptions of most of Jonson’s work, while the latter also contains page images of every page of every pre-1700 printing of Jonson.
Electronic resources (free-to-air)
Jokkinen, Aniina. Ben Jonson (1572–1637) <http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/jonson/>, part of the Luminarium website <http://www.luminarium.org/>. This site does what its title claims: it illuminates Jonson, by including a short biography and online editions of many texts, derived from William Gifford’s nineteenth-century edition, and links to editions of many others. It also contains an excellent listing of the scholarly articles on Jonson which are available electronically without subscription.
Holloway, Clark J. The Holloway Pages Ben Jonson Page, <http://www.hollowaypages.com/Jonson.htm>. This marvellous site presents an online edition of Jonson based mainly on the 1692 Folio. Transcription completed so far includes all Jonson’s plays, Jonson’s poetry, and Jonson’s earlier masques.
McLean, Adam. The Alchemy Web Site <http://www.levity.com/alchemy/home.html>. This site earns its mention on the list as a wonderful teaching resource for work on The Alchemist. An enormous repository of alchemical texts and illustrations.
Project Gutenberg, <http://www.gutenberg.org>. Contains several texts of Jonson plays, mainly derived from Felix Schelling’s edition of 1910. Conveniently in modern-spelling.
The Schoenberg Centre for Electronic Text and Image, <http://dewey.library.upenn.edu/sceti/>. Includes a beautiful colour photographic fascimile of Jonson’s 1616 Folio.
Thorndike, Ashley H. “Ben Jonson,” in The Cambridge History of English and American Literature (1907–21), online at Project Bartleby, <http://www.bartleby.com/216/index.html>. A complete, synoptic, and usefully old-fashioned account of Jonson.
“Ben Jonson,” from Charles Wells Moulton (ed.), The Library of Literary Criticism (1901), online at <http://www.geocities.com/litpageplus/jonsonmoul.html>, as part of Robert C. Evans’s Litpage project. Invaluable anthology of brief critical remarks from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, ideally suited for the preparation of seminar handouts.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2007 Matthew Steggle
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Steggle, M. (2007). Ben Jonson. In: Hiscock, A., Hopkins, L. (eds) Teaching Shakespeare and Early Modern Dramatists. Teaching the New English. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230593206_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230593206_8
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-4039-9476-9
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-59320-6
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)