Literary Criticism (1400-1800)

Every Man in His Humour, Ben Jonson | James A. Riddell (essay date 1997)

James A. Riddell (essay date 1997)

SOURCE: Riddell, James A. “Jonson and Stansby and the Revisions of Every Man in His Humour.Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England 9 (1997): 81-91.

[In this essay, Riddell investigates the printing history of the 1616 Folio revision of Every Man in His Humour, focusing on the reasons for the extensive cuts made to that version of the play.]

The first play in the Jonson Folio of 1616, Every Man in His Humour, was not the first one printed. Indeed, the largest portion of it, everything after act 1, scene 3, line 104,1 was not printed until all of the other plays were through the press and the printer was at work on the next section of the volume, Epigrammes.2 That is to say, William Stansby set aside six full quires, A through F, to accommodate Every Man In and started his work at the beginning of quire G with Every Man out of His...

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