Volpone: A critical guide: Continuum Renaissance 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

'Volpone: A Critical Guide 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.'