"In this new collection of essays, Richard Dutton examines the literary and cultural climate of Jonson's age, the concept of authorship itself, and its place in the transition from a largely oral culture to one predominantly of print, the workings of patronage, and the nature of a literary marketplace situated between the royal court and the expanding City of London. In Jonson's career we can detect the beginnings of the modern world. The essays here, selected with that in mind, offer detailed readings of all the major plays, Sejanus, Volpone, Epicene, The Alchemist and Bartholomew Fair as well as the poems and later plays only recently recovered as genuinely engaging pieces for the stage. Collectively they demonstrate why interest in Jonson is higher today than at any time since his death."--Jacket.