The “Cambridge Jonson” volumes are available online, and the site is a bibliographical joy to behold, Ben Jonson’s plays, poems, masques, and prose arranged in chronological order and in a searchable format.
Ian Donaldson
Theater/Book Interview: Ben, We Hardly Know Ye — Donaldson on Jonson
Ben Jonson is one of the great unknown geniuses of the English theater and of western literature. Ian Donaldson’s new biography of the playwright/poet successfully makes the case that he deserves to be better known.
Arts Commentary: Not Just Shakespeare — “Anonymous” Wrongs Ben Jonson As Well
Theater Commentary: Happy 400th Birthday to Ben Jonson’s “Catiline: His Conspiracy”
Multiple Google searches suggest that no one is celebrating the 400th anniversary of the second of Ben Jonson’s tragedies. I don’t think I will live to see a production of CATILINE, but attention should be paid to this awkward but powerful script. Filled with moral strength, perceptive realpolitik, and rich poetry, it proffers a brilliant serio-comic meditation on political gangsterism.