The Workes of Benjamin Jonson (Ben Jonson)
Background
In comparison with Sidney, Ben Jonson uses his works to offer a more biting critique of the popular concept of humoural science. Jonson was not the first playwright to produce a "comedy of humours" - a dramatic genre gaining popularity at the time, wherein characters were governed by one or two defining traits or passions.[1] Still, his 1598 comedy Every Man In His Humour - the first text in this comprehensive Workes - undoubtedly popularized the genre.
Jonson himself identified humour “in the strictly psychological sense”, suggesting that a person only truly has a Humour when “some one peculiar quality / Doth so possesse [him], that it doth draw / All his affects, his spirits, and his powers, / In their confluctions, all to run one way.”[2] Scholars like Henry L. Snuggs have questioned the degree to which Jonson followed his own mantra, especially since his comic figures are often defined by eccentricity or social affectation rather than any of the four traditional humours.
A Look Inside
This copy of the book is particularly notable for the pasted-in leaf in the front matter (see image above and image to the far left, below). The portrait (to the left) brings to mind Shakespeare's folio, with the writer appearing to actively watch the reader examine the book.
To the right, the opposite page in the spread is also visible. The figures on either side of the wording "The Workes of Benjamin Jonson" are visual representations of the genres Comedy and Tragedy. At the top of the page is an image of the theatre. To either side, the figure of Satire (a satyr) and the figure of the Pastoral (a figure holding a shepherd's hook) stand looking at the central figure - the Tragicomic.
Below are also the title pages for "Every Man in His Humour" and "Every Man Out of His Humour", and the decorated and ornamented prologue page for "Every Man in His Humour."
Bibliographical Information
FULL TITLE: THE WORKES OF Benjamin Jonson.
DATE: 1640
PLACE: London
PUBLISHER: Printed by Richard Bishop, and are to be sold by Andrew Crooke in St. Paules Church-yard. An. D. 1640.
ITEM TYPE: Book
CALL NUMBER: VIC CRRS PR 2600 1640 Large
NOTE: STC records 10+ copies. ESTC records 40 copies. "Mostly in verse. The title page is engraved and signed 'Guliel[mus] Hole fecit.' The subsidiary plays each have separate dated title pages. That to 'Poetaster' has imprint 'London, printed by Robert Young. M. DC. XL.' 'Epigrammes' begins new pagination and register; otherwise pagination and register are continuous. The portrait is signed: Ro: Vaughan fecit" (EEBO). "Entered to R. Bishop 4 March 1639" (ESTC).
COLLATION:
A6-3K6 3L4 A6-T6 [$3 (-A1, A2, 2L1, 3L3)]. A1 repaired. [12] 1-668, 1-228. Unnumbered pages: 1, 2, 63, 64, 153-154, 236-238, 311-312, 385-386, 457, 458, 524, 592-594, 2nd 1, 2, 66-68, 91, 92, 111, 112. Boards measure 30.3 x 18.1 cm. Leaves measure 29.3 x 18.2 cm. Pastedown has note "Tall copy"--11 5/8 x 7 3/8 in pencil.
TYPE: Roman; Italic
LANGUAGES: English; Latin; Greek
DEDICATIONS: Various: individual dedications precede each play or set of poems; various dedicatory sonnets at the opening
TABLES AND INDEXES: Catalogue of volume contents on A3.
ILLUSTRATIONS:
Ornamented and historiated initials, head and tail pieces. Printer's devices: Every Man in His Humour, Every Man Out of His Humour, Cynthia's Revels, Sejanus His Fall, Volpone, Epicoene, The Alchemist, Cateline: his Conspiracy: McKerrow #379 (without initials; see note in Additions to McKerrow's Devices, Lavin). Every Man Out of His Humour: McKerrow #379.