Early modern London in new editions of early modern plays

Early modern London in new editions of early modern plays

There are eleven commendatory and dedicatory poems at the start of Ben Jonson’s comedy Volpone, or, The Fox, both as it first appeared in print in 1607 and in the new Arden edition edited by John Jowett. That’s a lot of praise. As Jowett tells us, the effect is to produce “a network of association between notable people”. Jonson asserts that he belongs in an elite sphere of early-modern writers (his learned cheerleaders include John Donne and Ge…