Volpone
Ben Jonson (Author), Robert N. Watson (Editor)
Volpone is part of the New Mermaid series of modern spelling, fully-annotated editions of English plays. Each volume includes a critical introduction, biography of the author, discussions of dates and sources, textual details, a bibliography and information about the staging of the play.
Print Book, English, 2008
Second edition, Student sedition View all formats and editions
Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, London, UK, 2008
xxxv, 171 pages : illustrations, facsimile ; 20 cm
9780713654332, 0713654333
1019158960
The Author
The Play, and the Plays Within It: Jonson and Genre. Mosca and Volpone ; Celia and Bonario ; The Would-Be Plot ; The Ending
Stage History
The Text
Volpone
The Persons of the Comedy
The Argument
Prologue
The Play
The Epistle
First New Mermaid edition 1968; originally published by Ernest Benn Limited, 1968
"Second edition 2003 ©2003 A & C Black Publishers Limited"--Title page verso
Date of this publication from Bloomsbury web site
"This student edition contains a lengthy Introduction with background on the author, date and sources, critical interpretation and stage history."--Page 4 of cover
"Ben Jonson's comedy depicts selfishness thinly veiled by sanctimonious speeches, lust and possessiveness poorly disguised as love and marriage, and cynical legalism passing itself off as pure justice, alongside snobbery, class warfare and greed. The wily protagonists keep a dozen conventional plots spinning in the minds of their dupes, and when their amazing juggling act finally unravels, there are yet more twists -- and an even deeper cynicism -- to the story. The play is partly a beast-fable: the wily fox, Volpone, plays dead to lure flesh-eating birds that he can then consume. But the beasts are the human race, and polite society the biggest, greediest scam of them all."--Page 4 of cover