Ben Jonson and Posterity

Explores the construction of Jonson's multifaceted reputation and shifting legacy from his own time to the present.

Bringing together leading scholars and multiple critical perspectives, this collection provides new insights into Jonson's reception and legacy over four centuries, benefitting students and scholars of Jonson and early modern literary studies, as well as all those interested in intertextuality and reception from the Renaissance to the present.Bringing together leading Jonson scholars, Ben Jonson and Posterity provides new insights into this remarkable writer's reception and legacy over four centuries. Jonson was recognised as the outstanding English writer of his day and has had a powerful influence on later generations, yet his reputation is one of the most multifaceted and conflicted for any writer of the early modern period. The volume brings together multiple critical perspectives, addressing book history, the practice of reading, theatrical influence and adaptation, the history of performance, cultural representation in portraiture, film, fiction, and anecdotes to interrogate Jonson's 'myth'. The collection will be of great interest to all Jonson scholars, as well as having a wider appeal among early modern literary scholars, theatre historians, and scholars interested in intertextuality and reception from the Renaissance to the present day.