Works: Collated With All the Former Editions, and Corrected With Notes Critical and Explanatory

Works: Collated With All The Former Editions, And Corrected With Notes Critical And Explanatory is a scholarly edition of Ben Jonson’s dramatic corpus, offering text and commentary on major works such as Every Man in His Humour and Cynthia’s Revels, with front matter, Life of the author, legal documents, and editorial apparatus. The volume presents two linked works in sequence—a boisterous London tavern farce and a meta-theatrical court satire—blending farce with social critique of manners, vanity, and performative virtue. It situates Jonson’s practice in a frame of masque, masque-like revels, and allegorical personae (Arete, Cynthia, Mercury) as they lampoon courtiers, flattery, and pretence while pursuing reform through discernment and virtue. The edition emphasizes Jonson’s craft, the tension between appearance and true merit, and the role of theatre as both entertainment and moral experiment. It also includes editor’s notes, biographical material, and documentary appendices that illuminate early modern dramatic composition.