Ben Jonson: A Life

ISBN-13: 9780198129769 / Angielski / Twarda / 2012 / 512 str.

Ian Donaldson

Opis

Ben Jonson was the greatest of Shakespeare's contemporaries. His fame rests not only on the numerous plays he had written, but on his achievements over three decades as principal masque-writer to the early Stuart court, where he had worked in creative, if at times stormy, collaboration with Inigo Jones. One of the most accomplished poets of the age, he was--in fact if not in title--the first Poet Laureate in England.
Ian Donaldson's new biography draws on freshly discovered writings by and about Ben Jonson, and locates his work within the social and intellectual contexts of his time. Donaldson depicts a life full of drama. Jonson's early satirical play, The Isle of Dogs, landed him in prison, and brought all theatrical activity in London to a temporary--and very nearly permanent--standstill. He was "almost at the gallows" for killing a fellow actor after a quarrel, and converted to Catholicism while awaiting execution. He supped with the Gunpowder conspirators on the eve of their planned coup at Westminster. After satirizing the Scots in Eastward Ho he was imprisoned again, and throughout his career was repeatedly interrogated about plays and poems thought to contain seditious or slanderous material. Throughout this lively biography, Donaldson provides the fullest picture available of Jonson's personal, political, spiritual, and intellectual interests, and he insightfully discusses all of Jonson's major poetry and drama, plus some newly discovered works.
Jonson emerges from this study as a more complex and volatile character than previously depicted, and as a writer whose work strikingly foresees the modern age.

Recenzje

...one of the best literary biographies written in any era.

O autorze

Ian Donaldson is a General Editor, with David Bevington and Martin Butler, of The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson (Print Edition, 7 volumes, 2011; Electronic Edition, 2012). His previous OUP books include The World Upside-Down: Comedy From Jonson to Fielding (1970), Ben Jonson: Selected Works (Oxford Authors, 1985), Jonson's Magic Houses: Essays in Interpretation (OUP, 1997). He has taught at the Universities of Oxford (tutorial Fellow in English at Wadham College, 1962-9), Edinburgh (Regius Professor of English, 1991-5), and Cambridge (Fellow of King's College, 1995-2005, and Grace 1 Professor of English, 1995-2001), and at the Australian National University, Canberra (Professor of English, 1969-91). He was founding Director of the ANU's Humanities Research Centre (1974-90, 2004-7) and of Cambridge University's Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities (CRASSH, 2001-3).