Volpone: A critical guide: Arden Early Modern Drama Guides

Series Introduction
Volpone Timeline
Introduction
The Critical Backstory Sam Thompson
Performance History, Rebecca Yearling
The State of the Art: Robert C. Evans
New Directions: Jonson's Literary Theater: Volpone in Performance and Print (1606-1607) James P. Bednarz
New Directions: "Live Free, . . . Rob Churches, . . . Lend me your Dwarf": What's Funny about Volpone? Rick Bowers
New Directions: Ben Jonson and Imprisonment Frances Teague
New Directions: Age and Ageing in Volpone Stella Achilleos
Resources for teaching and studying Volpone Matthew C. Hansen
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index

Matthew Steggle's collection of critical essays deals perspicaciously with many of the painful questions that linger about Ben Jonson's most popular play . Steggle's collection confirms the power and wit of Jonson's most enduring stage comedy.
Offers the most wide-ranging and thought-provoking overview of Jonson's comedy ever assembled. It considers the play both as a literary text and as a performance piece, covering its history on the stage and in critical commentary, and so illuminating the current state of scholarship on this most provocative and ambiguous of plays. The well-balanced essays are not afraid to disagree with each other and repeatedly point us towards exciting new questions about a play which is all too often castrated by being labelled a 'classic'. It will be of value to scholars, teachers and students alike. Future study of Volpone starts here.