Ben Jonson

RSC Gunpowder Season – explosive Elizabethan and Jacobean dramas of dissent, staged by the RSC in 2005. The Emperor Tiberius raises a statue to honour his right-hand man Sejanus, unaware that the man he's honouring is ruthlessly working his way to the top, destroying everyone in his path. Ben Jonson's Sejanus: His Fall is a gripping tragedy from a writer better known for his comedies, first performed in 1603 with Burbage and Shakespeare in the cast (the latter's last recorded appearance as an actor).

Not as well known today as Volpne and The Alchemist, this comedy of London’s lower classes was a great favorite of Ben Jonson’s contemporaries. The richness of its comic invention and the complexity of its plot and satirical view have returned it to its former high repute, and Professor Waith’s skillful and illuminating critical Introduction vividly demonstrates its artistic excellence. The high standards for textual accuracy and critical apparatus set for Volpone, the first volume of the Yale edition of Ben Jonson, are maintained here, and the format is identical. In addition, the editor has supplied an appendix and the original staging of the play that assists the reader greatly and is in itself a valuable contribution to studies of Elizabethan and Jacobean stagecraft. Eugene M. Waith is professor of English at Yale University. The Yale Ben Jonson, 2.