This book offers a critical assessment of the career of Ben Jonson.

Preface; Introduction: The 1616 folio and its place in Jonson's career; 1. The early plays; 2. Sejanus and Volpone: the defence of virtue; 3. Rare poems and rare friends: Jonson's Epigrams; 4. The masques and Epicoene; 5. The Forest, the Alchemist, Catiline: 'manners, arms and arts': a Renaissance ideal; 6. Covert allusions: state decipherers and politic picklocks; 7. Bartholomew Fair; Notes; Reading list; Index.