Beaurline, L. A. Jonson and Elizabethan Comedy: Essays in Dramatic Rhetoric. San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library, 1978. Analyzes the rhetorical devices Jonson uses to satirize literary pretensions. The intent of Every Man out of His Humour is more “corrective” than its predecessor’s, Every Man in His Humour, and its occasional roughness derives from its being an experiment.

Brock, D. Heyward. A Ben Jonson Companion. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983. A guide to Jonson’s life and works and to the literary milieu in which Jonson flourished. Plays are summarized; identifies characters in the works and people in Jonson’s life. Defines literary terms and includes bibliography.

Dessen, Alan C. Jonson’s Moral Comedy. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1971. Sees Jonson as converting the materials of nondramatic verse satire to the stage in Every Man out of His Humour. The characters Macilente and Carlo Buffone replace the satirist of the nondramatic tradition. Every Man out of His Humour reveals much about Jonson’s aims as a satirist.

Enck, John J. Jonson and the Comic Truth. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1957. Useful discussion of the background to the theory of humors and an analysis of Jonson’s adaptation of it. Identifies Desiderius Erasmus’ The Praise of Folly (1509) as a source of inspiration.

Watson, Robert N. Ben Jonson’s Parodic Strategy: Literary Imperialism in the Comedies. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987. Stresses three features of Every Man out of His Humour: the indifference to unity in plot and tone; the treatment of literary characters; and the attention to audience attitudes.