Ben Jonson was an influential English playwright, poet, and actor. Some of his most famous plays include Volpone, The Alchemist, and Epicoene or The Silent Woman. Volpone, set in Venice, is about a rich man who pretends to be dying in order to inherit money from others. The Alchemist is considered Jonson's best comedy, depicting human folly. Epicoene was originally performed in 1609 but was unsuccessful, though it gained popularity after the English Restoration.

1. Paper Name: THE RENAISSANCE LITARATURE
Assignment Topic :Ben jonson`s chief plays
Name: solanki pintu v
Sem : 1
Roll No : 35
Enrollment No: PG15101037
Email: solankipintu1991@gmail.com
Submitted to :
M.K. BHAVNAGAR UNIVERSITY
Department Of English

2. BEN JONSON
• Name : Benjamin Jonson
• Birth Date : June 11th, 1572
• Place of Birth : London, England
• Occupation : Playwright, Actor and Poet
• Famous Works : Every Man in His Humor, Volpone,
The Alchemist, The Coronation Triumph, To Celia
• Death Date : August 6th, 1637
• Place of Death : London, England

3. His most famous plays
• Volpone
• The Alchemist
• Epicoene or The silent woman
• A tale of a tub
• The devil is an ass

4. INTRODUCTION
• Volpone was first performed at the
Globe Theater in the spring of 1606.
• Its audiences include some
aristocrats, prosperous citizens,
lower-class groundlings and some
learned people at Oxford and
Cambridge, to whom Jonson
dedicated the printed edition of
Volpone.
• The play, set in Venice is about
Volpone (which means fox in
Italian), a rich man, who makes his
money by pretending to be a
dying man with no family with a
large inheritance.

5. The Alchemist
• The Alchemist a comedy by English
playwright Ben Jonson. First performed in
1610 by the King's Men, it is generally
considered Jonson's best and most
characteristic comedy;
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge claimed that it
had one of the three most perfect plots in
literature. The play's clever fulfillment of the
classical unities and vivid depiction of
human folly have made it one of the few
Renaissance plays (except the works of
Shakespeare) with a continuing life on
stage (except for a period of neglect
during the Victorian era).

6. Epicoene or The silent woman
• Epicœne, or The silent woman, also
known as Epicene, is a comedy by
Renaissance playwright Ben Jonson.
• It was originally performed by the Black
friars Children or Children of the Queen's
Revels, a group of boy players, in1609.
• It was, by Jonson's admission, a failure
on its first presentation; however, John
Dryden and other championed it, and
after the Restoration it was frequently
revived—indeed, a reference by Samuel
Pepys to a performance on 6 July 1660
places it among the first plays legally
performed after Charles II's ascension.

7. A tale of a tub
• A Tale of a Tub is a Caroline
era stage play, a comedy
written by Ben Jonson.
• The last of his plays to be
staged during his lifetime, A
Tale of a Tub was performed
in 1633 and published in 1640
in the second folio of
Jonson's works.

8. The devil is an ass
• The Devil Is an Ass is a Jacobean
comedy by Ben Jonson, first
performed in 1616 and first published
in 1631.[1]The Devil Is an Ass followed
Bartholomew Fair(1614),
• one of the author's greatest works,
and marks the start of the final phase
of his dramatic career.
• However just or unjust may be the
characterization of Jonson's later
plays as his "dotages," there would be
no more great works after
Bartholomew Fair, and a full decade
would elapse between The Devil Is an
Ass and Jonson's next play, The
Staple of News.

9. Every man out of his Humour
• Every Man out of His Humour is a
satirical comedy written by English
playwright Ben Jonson, acted in 1599
by the Lord Chamberlain's Men.
• It is a conceptual sequel to his 1598
comedy Every Man in His Humour.
• It was much less successful on stage
than its predecessor, though it was
published in quarto three times in
1600 alone; it was also performed at
Court on 8 January 1605.