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Description: Bartholomew Fair is the climactic play of Ben Jonson's great comic period. Using the fair as a symbolic representation of religious, social, and political conflicts in Jacobean England, Jonson satirizes Puritans, fortune hunters, country bumpkins, and inept representatives of the justice system, along with sharpsters and con men who inhabit the fair. This edition is the first to use the findings of feminist scholarship in examining the play's concern with forced marriage, pregnancy, sexual commerce, and widowhood.
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Review Summary: Good Footnotes Can Save the Day, or the Play |
Date: 2002-11-25 |
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Details: Ben Jonson requires effort. His allusions to topical events tend to be obscure today, his penchant for having some characters quote Latin phrases can be a barrier (some characters misquote Latin, and we, the alert audience, are supposed to chuckle), and his use of unfamiliar colloquialisms and bawdy comments is yet another challenge.
Despite these difficulties, Jonson's humor has weathered four centuries and most readers - with a little persistence - will enjoy Jonson's better known plays like Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair.
In some ways I found Bartholomew Fair to be more difficult than either Volpone or The Alchemist. Even with a second reading, I still needed to refer to the cast listing to keep track of the multitude of characters (thirty-five or so) that come and go. To make matters worse some characters insist on wearing disguises and changing their names.
The dialogue, as I alluded earlier, nearly overwhelmed me at times, but I was rescued by the excellent footnotes by G. R. Hibbard in the New Mermaid edition to unravel obscure comments. Thanks in part to Hibbard's footnotes, not only did I survive, I have actually developed a liking for Bartholomew Fair's fortune hunters, country bumpkins, foolish gentry, zealous Puritans, bawdy lower class elements, a pompous judge, purse snatchers and con men.
Bartholomew Fair has a rather unusual introduction in which Ben Jonson cautions his audience that the author is sensitive to criticism and it would be best that they behave. Jonson had not forgotten the acrimonious reception for his most recent play, a tragedy titled Catiline, and he had no intention of having this play suffer likewise. Incredibly, Jonson had stagehands read a contractual agreement between the playwright and the audience defining rules for a proper and appropriate method of criticism. Fortunately for all, Bartholomew Fair proved to be popular. It remained so for many years.
I have also used the inexpensive Oxford World Classics edition titled The Alchemist and Other Plays and its footnotes are quite helpful. My preference is the New Mermaids edition published by A & C Black/W W Norton. The introduction is more extensive, the font larger, and the paper quality better, but it is a little more expensive. |
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Review Summary: a wonderful satire of justice |
Date: 2000-03-25 |
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Details: Jonson was a wonderfully satirical dramatist of the Renaissance. Bartholomew Fair is a satire of religious justice and legal justice. He uses humorous, over-the-top characters to drive his point home. You will laugh with (not at) Ursula as the snobby, looking-down-their-noses characters realize that they are truly no better than she is. Jonson keeps asking us if his play is fair or foul. Who can judge what is fair or foul? Everyone or only the elite few? The central thing to remember while reading this play is: Fair and foul are near of kin. |
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out of 2 Reviews
