Richard Dutton is Humanities Distinguished Professor of English at Ohio State University.

'Professor Dutton's reconstruction of what most engaged Jonson intellectually, emotionally and politically at the watershed moment in his career as a dramatist is never less than fascinating. It is always most persuasive. Ben Jonson, 'Volpone' and the Gunpowder Plot is yet more proof that Jonson's great plays were neither the self-conscious slumming de haut en bas of an anti-theatricalist, nor aloof exercises in the 'timeless' classical style. They were deliberately executed events designed to have an impact in the real political world, and written by a master-craftsman in the living, political art form of the theatre.' Journal of the Northern Renaissance

• Introduction; 1. Jonson's life and the Epistle to Volpone; 2. Commendatory verses and 'metempsychosis'; 3. 'Sir Pol': dating, identification and satiric method; 4. Volpone and beast fable; 5. Volpone's Venice; 6. Patronage, plotting, and diabolic possession in the 'main-' and 'bye-plots'; Conclusions and aftermath.

Richard Dutton is Humanities Distinguished Professor of English at Ohio State University.

'Professor Dutton's reconstruction of what most engaged Jonson intellectually, emotionally and politically at the watershed moment in his career as a dramatist is never less than fascinating. It is always most persuasive. Ben Jonson, 'Volpone' and the Gunpowder Plot is yet more proof that Jonson's great plays were neither the self-conscious slumming de haut en bas of an anti-theatricalist, nor aloof exercises in the 'timeless' classical style. They were deliberately executed events designed to have an impact in the real political world, and written by a master-craftsman in the living, political art form of the theatre.' Journal of the Northern Renaissance

• Introduction; 1. Jonson's life and the Epistle to Volpone; 2. Commendatory verses and 'metempsychosis'; 3. 'Sir Pol': dating, identification and satiric method; 4. Volpone and beast fable; 5. Volpone's Venice; 6. Patronage, plotting, and diabolic possession in the 'main-' and 'bye-plots'; Conclusions and aftermath.

Richard Dutton is Humanities Distinguished Professor of English at Ohio State University.

'Professor Dutton's reconstruction of what most engaged Jonson intellectually, emotionally and politically at the watershed moment in his career as a dramatist is never less than fascinating. It is always most persuasive. Ben Jonson, 'Volpone' and the Gunpowder Plot is yet more proof that Jonson's great plays were neither the self-conscious slumming de haut en bas of an anti-theatricalist, nor aloof exercises in the 'timeless' classical style. They were deliberately executed events designed to have an impact in the real political world, and written by a master-craftsman in the living, political art form of the theatre.' Journal of the Northern Renaissance

• Introduction; 1. Jonson's life and the Epistle to Volpone; 2. Commendatory verses and 'metempsychosis'; 3. 'Sir Pol': dating, identification and satiric method; 4. Volpone and beast fable; 5. Volpone's Venice; 6. Patronage, plotting, and diabolic possession in the 'main-' and 'bye-plots'; Conclusions and aftermath.