Ben Jonson's Own "Comedy of Errors" "That Witty Play," The Case is Altered

Ben Jonson Journal

Volumn 4, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 47-63

  Mack, Robert L ^a  

^a VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 84879516973     PISSN: 10793453     EISSN: 1755165X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3366/bjj.1997.4.1.5     Document Type: Article

References (22)

1. Samuel Taylor Col eri dge, Lectures and Notes on Shakespeare and Other Dramatists (Oxford: Oxford Uni versi t y Press, 1931), 120.
2. In "The Interpretation of Shakespeare's Comedi es: 1 9 0 0-5 3, " Shakespeare Survey 8 ( 195 5): 7, John Russel l Brown had observed: "by far the mos t c o mmo n wa y of s t udyi ng Shakespeare's comedi es is to s t udy the characters i n t h e m… . Thi s stress on character has had s ome i mportant cons equences . The Comedy of Errors, The Shrew, and The Merry Wives are negl ect ed as mere farces." Leo Salinger, i n Shakespeare and the Traditions of Comedy (Cambri dge: Cambri dge Uni versi t y Press, 1974), 5 9, l i kewi se not es that "The Comedy of Errors is usual l y, and, i n the mai n, ri ghtl y descri bed as a farce."
3. See, for exampl e, Anne Barton's i ntroducti on to The Comedy of Errors i n the popul ar Riverside Shakespeare, ed. G. Bl akemore Evans et al. (Boston: Ho ug ht o n Mifflin, 1 9 7 4 ), 7 9-8 2 . All subsequent references to Shakespeare' s drama are to thi s edi t i on. A conveni ent recapitulation of the critical argument s that s ee the early c ome dy as transcendi ng farce is f ound i n R. A. Foakes's Critical Introducti on to the pl ay (see The Comedy of Errors [Lon-don: Met huen, 1 9 6 2 ], xxxi x-l i ) . Shakespeare's modi fi cati ons to hi s sources, Foakes not es, "are us ed to devel op a seri ous concern for the personal i den-ti ty of each of the mai n characters, and for the relations bet ween t hem. "
4. Nort hrop Frye, "The Argument of Comedy, " i n English Institute Essays 4 8, ed. D. A. Robertson ( Ne w York: 1949), 5 9 ~ 7 3-
5. Northrop Frye, "The Argument of Comedy," in English Institute Essays 4 8, ed. D. A. Robertson (New York: 1949), 67.
6. Anne Barton, Ben Jonson, Dramatist (Cambridge: Cambri dge Uni versi t y Press, 1 9 8 4 ), 3 1 .
7. Bertrand Evans, Shakespeare's Comedies (Oxford: Cl arendon Press, i 9 6 0 ), 1-9 .
8. "The Case is Altered was wri tten at the equi val ent st age i n its author's devel opment, and onl y a f ew years later i n the decade. It rel i es, as Shake-speare's work cust omari l y does, and Jonson's doe s not, upon coherent and readi l y identifiable sources… . It handl es romanti c l ove, and it e nds wi t h marri age. There the resembl ances wi t h The Comedy of Errors end. Early and essent i al l y experi ment al t hough the t wo pl ays are, and des pi t e their com-mo n de pe nde nc e upon Latin comedy, t hey al ready bear the st amp of their respect i ve authors' di vergent st yl es" (Barton, Ben Jonson, Dramatist, 31) .
9. C. H. Herford, Percy Si mpson, and Evel yn Si mps on, eds., Works, by Ben Jonson (Oxford: Cl arendon Press, 1 9 2 5-5 2 ), Conv, 3 9 3 . Al l quot at i ons from Jonson's work refer to this edi ti on, and wi l l be ci t ed i n the text. I have al so consul t ed Wilkes's more recent, moderni zed edi t i on of Herford and Si mps ons ' text. See The Complete Plays of Ben Jonson, ed. G. A. Wi l kes, 4 vol s. (Oxford: Oxf ord Uni versi t y Press, 1 9 8 1-8 2 ) .
10. For factual i nformati on regardi ng the date, publ i cat i on, and authors hi p of The Case is Altered, I am i ndebt ed to E. K. Chambers, The Elizabethan Stage (Oxford: Oxford Uni versi t y Press, 1945), 3: 3 5 7-5 8; John Jacob Enck, "The Case is Altered: Initial Come dy of Humours, " Studies in Philology 5 0 ( 19 53 ): 1 9 8-2 0 0; Jonson, Works, 1: 3 0 6-2 7 and 3: 9 4-1 0 2; Frank L. Hunt l ey, "Ben Jonson and Ant hony Munday, or, The Case is Altered, Al t ered Agai n, " Philological Quarterly 4 1 ( 1962): 2 0 5-2 0 7; Wi l l i am Edward Seli n, ed., The Case is Altered, by Ben Jonson ( Ne w Haven: Yale Uni versi t y Press, 1 9 1 7 ), vi i-xxxi v.
11. 1 . "A statement in The Case is Altered (Li) that Ant oni o Bal l adi no is 'in pri nt al ready for the best plotter' furni shes the mos t perpl exi ng el ement i n ass i gni ng the pl ay a date before that of Every Man in Humour. Ant hony Mun-day is of course sati ri zed as Ant oni o Bal l adi no, and the reference is quite clearly to the pas s age i n Palladis Tamia (entered i n the Stationer's Regi ster Sept ember 7, 1 5 9 8, and publ i shed the same year), in whi c h Munday is cal l ed 'our best plotter'. Yet in Lenten Stuffe (entered on the Stationer's Regi ster January 1 1, 1 5 9 8-9 9, and publ i shed in 1599) Nas he asks, 'Is it not ri ght of the merry cobbl ers cut in that wi t t y pl ay the Case is Altered?' (Works, ed. McKerrow, III, 2 2 0 ) —a clear reference to Jonson's pl ay and the character of Juniper. Lenten Stuffe wa s in all probabil ity compl et ed wh e n it wa s ent ered on the Stationer's Register, and it hardl y s e e ms possi bl e that i n the four mont hs from September 7 to January 1 1, Mere's work wa s publ i s hed, Jonson's pl ay wri t t en and probabl y acted, and Nashe' s work prepared, wi t h t i me for Jonson to make a reference to Meres and Nas he to Jonson. The hy-pot hes i s that the pas s age satirizing Munday wa s adde d after the first pro-duct i on of The Case is Altered s eems mos t reasonabl e" (Charles Reed Basker-vi l e, English Elements in Jonson's Early Comedy [ Ne w York: Gordi an Press, 1 9 6 7 ], 9 0-9 1 ) .
12. Herford and Si mpson, Works, 1:326.
13. 3 . Enck, "The Case is Altered: Initial Come dy of Humour s, " 197.
14. T. S. Eliot, "Ben Jonson, " i n Selected Essays (London: Faber & Faber, 1932), 155.
15. Herford and Si mpson, Works, 1:32.7.
16. John Jacob Enck, Jonson and the Comic Truth (Madi son: Uni versi t y of Wi s ons on Press, 1 9 6 6 ), 2 1-3 4 .
17. Barton, Ben Jonson, Dramatist, 44.
18. Davi d Ri ggs, Ben Jonson: A Life (Cambri dge, Mass.: Harvard Uni versi t y Press, 1 9 8 9 ), 2 9 .
19. David Riggs, Ben Jonson: A Life (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1989), 31 .
20. Al vi n Kernan, The Cankered Muse ( Ne w Haven: Yale Uni versi t y Press, 1 9 5 9 ), 2 4-2 5 .
21. 1 . Jonas Barish, "Jonson and the Loathed Stage, " i n A Celebration of Ben Jonson, ed. Blisset, Patrick, and Van Fossen (Toronto: Uni versi t y of Toronto Press, 1 9 7 3 ), 3 8-4 9 .
22. 2 . Barton, Ben Jonson, Dramatist, 39.