BEN JONSON'S THEATRICAL REPUBLICS

Also by Julie Sanders

REFASHIONING BEN JONSON: Gender, Politics and the Jonsonian Canon (editor with Kate Chedgzoy and Susan Wiseman)

Ben Jonson's Theatrical Republics

Julie Sanders Lecturer in English

Keele University

First published in Great Britain 1998 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndrnills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

First published in the United States of America 1998 by ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sanders, Julie. Ben Jonson's theatrical republics I Julie Sanders. p. em. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.

I. Jonson, Ben, I 573?- I 637-Political and social views. 2. Politics and literature-Great Britain-History-17th century. 3. Literature and society-Great Britain-History-I 7th century. 4. Political plays, English-History and criticism. 5. Jonson, Ben, 1573?-1637-Dramatic works. 6. Social problems in literature. 7. Republicanism in literature. I. Title. PR2642.P64S26 I 998 822'.3-dc21 98-15378

CIP

© Julie Sanders 1998

Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1998 978-0-333-67662-2

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.

No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act I 988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WIP 9HE.

Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act I 988.

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 07 06 OS 04 03 02 01

3 2 I 00 99 98

ISBN 978-1-349-39951-2 ISBN 978-0-230-38944-1 (eBook)DOI 10.1057/9780230389441

ISBN 978-0-312-21498-2

ISBN 978-0-312-21498-2

To John Higham with all my love

Contents

Acknowledgements

Note on Editions Used

1 Introduction

Part I Republics - Fake and Genuine

2 Roman Frames of Mind

3 'Saying Something About Venice'

Part II Theatrical Republics

4 The Alternative Commonwealth of Women

5 Republicanism and Theatre

6 The Republic in the Fair

Part III Theatrical Commonwealths and Communities

7 The Commonwealth of Hell: The Devil is an Ass

8 The Commonwealth of Paper: Print, News and The Staple of News

ix

xi

1

11

34

49

68

89

107

123

9 Alternative Societies: The New Inn and the Late Plays 144

10 Local Government and Personal Rule in A Tale of a Tub 164

11 Conclusion: 'The End of [T]his Commonwealth Does Not Forget the Beginning' 180

Notes 188

Bibliography 223

Index 253

Acknowledgements

As ever, and perhaps especially so with a first book, there are many people without whom it would not have been possible. I hope the book itself is some thanks, if not necessarily thanks enough. Firstly there was, and is, my family- thanks for all the loans to buy books, all the love, and all the encouragement- to my mother Kay, my father Mike, and my brother Neil. Thanks too to my extended family, especially Anne and Geoffrey Higham who helped me buy a laptop computer at the vital moment, and Lynn Sanders for endless generosity and hospitality. I cannot thank Carol Harpster enough for those fondly remembered Californian days. I hope that my adopted family in Cambridge will forgive me for embarrassing them here, but love and thanks also to Susan James, Quentin Skinner, Olivia Skinner and Marcus Skinner.

Those who inspired me as an undergraduate were many, but especial thanks to my exemplary tutors at Girton College -Jonathan Bate, Juliet Dusinberre, Gillian Beer and Jill Mann. University, though, would have been a very different experience without the initial and ongoing guidance of the very finest teacher of them all, once of Girton herself, then of Chingford Senior High, now of St Felix's in Suffolk- to Sue Roberts, my love, thanks, and admiration always.

In academic life the list of acknowledgements is inevitably endless, but special mention must go to those who have been and I hope will long continue to be colleagues, role models, and the very best of friends - Kate Chedgzoy, Sue Wiseman, Bridget Bennett, Helen Stoddart and Ann Hughes. Both Sue and Ann have spent far more time than friendship should demand reading and comment­ing on drafts of this book. Their wisdom has been much appreciated and any remaining errors are solely mine.

Sections of this book have appeared in earlier (and occasionally extended) versions in the following journals. I am grateful to the institutions concerned for the permission to reproduce that mater­ial here: Chapter 9 previously appeared as "'The Day's Sports

ix

X Acknowledgements

Devised in the Inn": Jonson's The New Inn and Theatrical Politics', Modern Language Review 91 (1996), 545-60; Chapter 10 previously appeared as ' "The Collective Contract is a Fragile Structure": Local Government and Personal Rule in Jonson's A Tale of a Tub', English Literary Renaissance, 27 (1997), 443-67 and a small section of Chapter 7 appeared as 'A Parody of Lord Chief Justice Popham in The Devil is an Ass' in Notes and Queries 44 (1997) 528-30. Sections of Chapter 8 appear in 'Print, Popular Culture, Consumption, and Commodification in The Staple of News', in Julie Sanders, with Kate Chedgzoy and Susan Wiseman (eds), Refashioning Ben Jonson: Gender, Politics, and the ]onsonian Canon (Macmillan, 1998).

Others who have contributed to this book in very tangible ways include my colleagues in the Department of English at Keele (special thanks to the best of mentors Jim McLaverty for the advice and the biscuits) and those with whom I worked previously at the University of Warwick. Grateful thanks to the support staff and librarians at both institutions, as well as at the University Library, Cambridge and the British Library in London. Thanks too to Richard Burt, Martin Butler, Rowland Cotterill, Stephen Greenblatt, Peter Holland, Arthur Kinney, Gaynor Macfarlane, Jeremy Maule, Kate McLuskie, Christopher Pye and Blair Worden. Thanks, too, to my wonderful editor at Macmillan, Charmian Hearne. I cannot thank enough, personally or intellectually, my now-fellow Jonsonian (if he will forgive the presumption) Richard Dutton: I only hope this work does his influence and guidance justice.

Finally though there is the person to whom this book is dedicated. 'All that I am in arts and all I know'? Well, maybe not, but thank you for being there through it all. This one is for John, if he wants it.

Note on Editions Used

The availability of Jonson's canon in print is the subject matter for a book in itself. Unlike the situation of Shakespeare, there are no modern complete editions of Jonson to employ for easy reference. There is of course the monumental C.H. Herford and Percy and Evelyn Simpson (eds), Complete Works published by Oxford University Press in 11 volumes (1925-52) (henceforth Herford and Simpson) but this is largely present only in libraries, in old spelling, and now somewhat out of date in a critical sense. Until Oxford University Press's newly commissioned Complete Works to be edited by Martin Butler and Ian Donaldson emerges, Jonson scholars must resign themselves to an expensive lifestyle of multi­ple single copies and the odd selective but not comprehensive collection.

I have, with accessibility in mind, elected to use modern spelling in the quotations from Jonson found throughout this book and have therefore favoured recent editions of the plays, poems, prose and masques, where these are available. Where possible, therefore, I have used the two-volume Cambridge University Press edition of Selected Plays of Ben Jonson, ed. Martin Butler and Johanna Proctor (1989). For those plays not included in that selection I have, again where possible, used single Revels editions (Manchester University Press) and only as a last resort- in the case of The Magnetic Lady, Every Man Out of His Humour, Cynthia's Revels, and The Sad Shepherd - turned to Herford and the Simpsons. I should add that Every Man Out of His Humour and The Magnetic Lady are forthcoming with Revels. To assist the reader, the following is an outline of all editions used:

Plays

Every Man In His Humour (Quarto)- Herford and Simpson, Volume III

Every Man In His Humour (Folio) - Martin Seymour-Smith (ed.),

xi

xii Notes on Editions Used

Every Man In His Humour (London: A & C Black (New Mermaids), 1966; repr. 1988)

Every Man Out of His Humour- Herford and Simpson, Volume III Cynthia's Revels- Herford and Simpson, Volume IV Poetaster - Tom Cain (ed.), Poetaster (Manchester: Manchester

University Press (Revels), 1995) Sejanus, His Fall- Selected Plays of Ben Jonson, Volume I Eastward Ho (by Jonson, with George Chapman and John Marston)

- R.W. Van Fossen (ed.), Eastward Ho (Manchester: Manchester University Press (Revels), 1979)

Volpone, the Fox- Selected Plays of Ben Jonson, Volume I Epicoene, or The Silent Woman- Selected Plays of Ben Jonson, Volume I The Alchemist- Selected Plays of Ben Jonson, Volume II Catiline, His Conspiracy - W.F. Bolton and Jane F. Gardner (eds),

Catiline, His Conspiracy (London: Arnold, 1973) Bartholomew Fair - Selected Plays of Ben Jonson, Volume II The Devil is an Ass - Peter Happe (ed.), The Devil is an Ass

(Manchester: Manchester University Press (Revels), 1994) The Staple of News - Anthony Parr (ed.), The Staple of News

(Manchester: Manchester University Press (Revels), 1988) The New Inn- Selected Plays of Ben Jonson, Volume II The Magnetic Lady- Herford and Simpson, Volume VI A Tale of a Tub- Selected Plays of Ben Jonson, Volume II The Sad Shepherd- Herford and Simpson, Volume VII

Masques

All masque quotations are taken from Stephen Orgel, The Complete Masques (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1969; repr. 1975)

Poems and Prose

All quotations from poems or from Timber, or Discoveries and the Conversations with Drummond of Hawthornden are taken from Ian Donaldson (ed.), The Oxford Ben Jonson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985)