Ian Donaldson’s biography of Ben Jonson is the most complete picture of this underrated playwright. Jonson, not Shakespeare, was the most popular and celebrated playwright of his time. It was only much later that Shakespeare’s genius was recognized and Jonson’s works fell into obscurity. Donaldson starts with the bizarre problem of where Jonson’s body was buried (not a simple problem) and then explores Jonson’s complicated history as a writer and artist. If you haven’t ready of Jonson’s plays, reading this biography will motivate you to seek them out. I have three volumes of Jonson’s plays that I hope to read this summer during my recovery. GRADE: A
Interesting. We studied Jonson’s most performed play, VOLPONE, in a great college theater course I took. It was adapted by Larry Gelbart into SLY FOX in 1976, and performed on Broadway with George C. Scott, Bob Dishy, Hector Elizondo and Jack Gilford. We saw it after Scott was replaced by Robert Preston in 1977.
I’ve heard good things about Jonson’s VOLPONE, Jeff. I’ll have to check out SLY FOX.
However popular Jonson was, he acknowledged Shakespeare as the genius he was with the poem he wrote upon Shakespeare’s death, which includes the line “He had little Latin and less Greek.”
Jonson praised Shakespeare even though they were competitors, Deb. That says a lot.
I’ve read VOLPONE (in college) but have not seen it performed.
I plan to read VOLPONE as soon as I’m off the pain meds, Rick.
Jonson is obscure. I can’t remember ever hearing about one of his works being staged in any place I’ve lived in. He was touched upon in one of my college courses, but just briefly. My professor, a thoughtful woman of advanced years, was much more interested in John Donne. (She also told us youngsters to spend more time pondering about death and our own eventual fate. Which now has me thinking about Jonson’s corpse…)
According tO Edmund Wilson’s essay on Ben Jonson you need a heavily annotated version of Jonson’s plays to make any sense of them, Drongo. What was clear in 1600 is obscure today.
I’ve always ben anazed that Johnson managed to write all those plays, then take up an acting career, first in John Ford’s stock company, then as an Oscar-winning character actor.