In
1616, Ben Jonson, along with publisher William Stansby, produced the first
folio of English plays, embarking on a bold act of self-promotion,
establishing Jonson as a kind of authority figure over all his work—a status
previously reserved in the Renaissance for classical and sacred authors. The folio
format itself, a medium for works meant to endure such as bibles, is just one
of many ways in which Jonson claims authority. It is not difficult to see why
Jonson ventured down this daring path: Jonson was himself daring. In his early
life, he apprenticed as a bricklayer, was eventually educated at Westminster School
by the great classical scholar William Camden, served in the military in what
is today Belgium, defeated a Spanish shoulder in mortal combat, killed a fellow
actor in a duel, pleaded the clergy to escape execution, and was involved in
numerous public disputes with fellow actors, writers, and censors. Jonson,
indeed, had a ferocious temperament and weighty convictions. And it was these
two characteristics, coupled with his fervent respect and admiration for
classics such as Horace, Ovid, and Virgil, that manifested within Jonson the
need to prove that all his work was just that, work, in line with the classical
authors he admired so much. Framing plays in this way, as works, was a new, even radical, way of understanding English drama and those who
created it.
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William Camden: Jonson's teacher
(Engraving taken from the Center's collection)
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| This dedication to Camden serves the dual purpose of thanking Jonson's teacher while also advertising the author's learnedness |
Jonson was deeply implicated in the commercial theater of London, but was also uncomfortable with the ramifications of his involvement.This separation and connection to the theater of the English Renaissance, as well as
Jonson’s claim that he is a poet of worth, is highlighted immediately in the magnificent,
dignified, and elaborate portrait of Jonson in the frontispiece of all three
folios. Looking at even the last
posthumous edition of Jonson’s works (1692), a clear link exists between Jonson
and the classics he venerates. Surrounding his portrait, written in Latin, are
the printed words, “Vera Effigies
Doctissimi Poetarvm Anglorvm Ben: Iohnsoni,” translating to, “The True
Image of the Learned English Poet Ben Jonson.” The addition of the learned
language Latin, as well as the prestigious claim to be a “learned English poet,”
illustrates Jonson’s own understanding of himself as an artist, more than a
mere playwright, worthy of the same respect and admiration Renaissance culture
gave to authors like Virgil. In the portrait, Jonson is resplendent in outstanding,
expensive clothes, and crowned with a laurel, which in ancient Greece was
awarded to the winner of weighty poetry competitions, a vibrant sign of status.
The laurel and its link to classical authors, the magnificent clothes, and the
Latin are by no means accidental additions, but rather judiciously planned
elements creating within the engraving an image of importance, a
perception Jonson hopes his readers will also accept. Jonson and his publishers present the author as a historical
presence, attaining a status high above his bricklaying background, a figure
transcending the culturally accepted characteristics of the early modern
literary world.
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| Frontispiece of 1692 folio |
The
1616 folio’s title page specifically excludes the theaters of contemporary
London while aligning the author with the concept of theater itself. To the
left of the book’s title is the word “PLAVSTRM”- carved with an image of Thepis
driving a pageant wagon, and on the right, labeled “VISORIVM,” a Greek chorus
in a round auditorium is depicted. Directly above the page is a Roman theater,
marked ‘THEATRVM.” London’s contemporary theaters of the Blackfrairs, Globe, or
Fortune are not to be seen. Contemporary theaters do, however, show up later
within the Folio. At the end of selected plays, Jonson lists the acting groups who first performed the plays in question. Listing the theaters of London was an
unusual technique in the Renaissance, especially for Jonson, and particularly
in aolio,
but it illustrates a very important point: by listing these groups Jonson
subscribes to no single theater group; instead, Jonson is an employer of actors
as opposed to an employee.
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| A play quarto compared to a folio |
The
folios are much more than a random collection of material; rather, they are entities
unto themselves. Jonson, in the editing process, was diligent and judicious in
his actions, including within his plays’ dedications, arguments, character
lists, and extensive scene breaks. Alongside Stansby, Jonson edited and
corrected the majority of proofs in the printing house, constantly making minor
changes to spelling and punctuation, elements printers of the period often
ignored. This was of extraordinary importance to Jonson and Stansby; they were assiduous
even in their use of italics and capitalization to achieve the highest degree
of consistency possible. For instance, headers are capitalized and character
names in plays are italicized. During the lengthy printing process, over 2,500
changes were made to the folio. Jonson’s interest in these changes went far
beyond simple grammatical correction; rather, for Jonson, the spelling and
preciseness of his words were essential for the overall meaning of his plays,
the aspect Jonson considered most important in his work.
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| From the second edition of Jonson's folio |
After
over a year of toil, Jonson’s folio, containing an extensive 1,015 pages, 9 plays, 2 works of non-dramatic poetry, 13 masques, and 6
entertainments, was
published in 1616. Posthumous editions followed the example Jonson established,
as Richard Bishop and Richard Meighan, the printers of the 1640-1 texts, and
Thomas Hodgkin, the printer of the 1692 folio, attempt to stay as close both
conceptually and aesthetically as possible to his 1616 folio. This is evident
in not only the style of the folios, the careful preciseness of words, headers,
italics, and capitalization, but also in the inclusion of dedications for Bartholomew Fair, The Devil is an Ass, and The
Staple of News, that Jonson wrote before he died. Jonson’s involvement in
the editing process of this lengthy folio further illustrates his belief in the substantial
merit of his work.
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| The table of contents of the 1692 folio |
The
folios were a success, selling well, and establishing what Jonson wanted most,
a historical legacy. In the same year his first folio was published, Jonson
became Poet Laureate, receiving a royal pension. The success of the Jonson
folio also established a market for folio texts of English dramas, paving the way
for Shakespeare’s 1623 posthumous first folio. Because of this success, Jonson’s
fate is irrevocably involved with the consumerism he despised; however, by
using print, he gained the patronage he desired. It is in his folio, and
authorial possession of his plays, that he also takes possession of all his
work, molding it from ephemera to intellectual property. As Joseph Lowenstein
describes in his book Ben Jonson and
Possessive Authorship, “Jonson imagines (constructs, yearns toward) nothing
less than what modern law recognizes (constructs, imagines) as the moral right
of authorship.” Jonson’s folios clearly contribute to how he and his society constructed
authorship, and possibly more importantly, the way in which Jonson constructed
authorship plays a noteworthy historical role in our contemporary construction
of the concept of authorial authority.
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| The title page of the Center's 1692 folio |
