Epicene, or the Silent Woman
By Ben Jonson
Manchester University Press · Print & ebook · September 1, 2008
Epicene is now one of the most widely-studied of Johnson’s plays.
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- Who it’s for
- A crisp guide to Jonson’s play, with enough texture for both the page and the stage.
- Genres
- British & Irish Plays, British & Irish Literary Criticism, Renaissance Literary Criticism
- Published
- Manchester University Press, September 1, 2008
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For younger readers: Shakespeare's First Folio: All the Plays: a Children's Edition, Lit for Little Hands: a Midsummer Night's Dream, Entrances and Exits
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Start with this bookAbout this book
Epicene is now one of the most widely-studied of Johnson’s plays. Brilliantly exploiting the Jacobean convention whereby boys played female roles, it satirises the newly fashionable and sexually ambiguous world of the West End of London, where courtly wit rubs shoulders with commercial values. This authoritative new edition, now in paperback, is based on a thorough re-examination of the earliest texts.
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The introduction analyses the play as originally written for the newly formed Children of the Queen’s Revels, and performed at the little-known Whitefriars Theatre. Dutton discusses the composition of the play, which took place during a critical period in Jonson’s life and career, when he was established as the principal writer of entertainments at the court. His relationships at this time, with ambitious wits such as John Donne, Sir Edward Herbert and the actor Nathan Field, are examined as models for the principal characters. This challengingly historicised text of Epicene will be essential reading for all serious students of early modern drama.
Stage-Ready Reading
A crisp guide to Jonson’s play, with enough texture for both the page and the stage.
Come here for
- Ben Jonson in close reading
- stagecraft, style, and the social machinery of comedy
Expect
- Layered critical reading
- Plenty to talk over afterward
Where it sits
| British & Irish Plays | 79% |
|---|---|
| Renaissance Literary Criticism | 36% |
| British & Irish Literary Criticism | 27% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- 16th-Century Literary Criticism
- Theater History & Criticism
- Authors
- Richard Dutton
- Publisher
- Manchester University Press
- Published
- September 1, 2008
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Reading lane
- 16th-Century Literary Criticism