Bartholomew Fair (Magill Book Reviews)
At a glance:
- Author: Ben Jonson
- First Published: 1631
- Type of Work: Satiric Play
- Genres: Satire, Drama, Comedy
- Subjects: Love or romance, England or English people, Seventeenth century, London, Theft, Puppets or puppet plays, Fairs, Puritans or Puritanism
- Locales: London, England
At Smithfield, horse dealers and cloth manufacturers hold an annual fair--complete with games, sideshows, and entertainments--on St. Bartholomew’s Day. Jonson uses the fair as a microcosm of society. Here men and women pursue pleasures, connive to get ahead, and try to escape life’s limitations. Hardly any of them find what they expect.
Justice Overdo, disguising himself in order to detect criminals, unwittingly befriends a pickpocket and finds himself accused of stealing. By the day’s end he has been beaten, arrested, and locked in the pillory.
Bartholomew Cokes, a...
[The entire page is 535 words long]
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