Ben Jonson Folios

Ben Jonson Folios

The folio collections of Ben Jonson's works published in the seventeenth century were crucial developments in the publication of English literature and English Renaissance drama. The first folio collection, issued in 1616, treated stage plays as serious works of literature instead of popular ephemera—at the time, a controversial position. The 1616 folio stood as a precedent for other play collections that followed—most notably the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays in 1623, but also the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647, and other collections that were important in preserving the dramatic literature of the age for subsequent generations.

Read more about Ben Jonson Folios:  The First Folio, 1616, The Abortive 1631 Addition, The Second Folio, 1640/1, The Third Folio, 1692

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    We are persons of quality, I assure you, and women of fashion, and come to see and to be seen.
    Ben Jonson (c. 1572–1637)

    Ye knowe eek, that in forme of speche is chaunge
    Withinne a thousand yeer, and wordes tho
    That hadden prys, now wonder nyce and straunge
    Us thinketh hem; and yet they spake hem so,
    And spedde as wel in love as men now do;
    Eek for to winne love in sondry ages,
    In sondry londes, sondry ben usages.
    Geoffrey Chaucer (1340–1400)

    Language most shews a man: Speak, that I may see thee.
    —Ben Jonson (c. 1572–1637)