Brown leather with gilt title and decoration on the spine. Gilt “Cambridge panel” design on both boards. Presented in a black protective box.

F.B.A. provides an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feel and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available.

A very clean example inclusive of First Edition parts

An early rebound compilation of Jonson’s work.

Any serious buyer should request further information along with photographs.

Cosmetic blemishes aside, a very good and well margined copy in a contemporary binding. “This book. is a handsome specimen of typography. It reflects great credit upon its printer, Stansby, who was an apprentice and then successor to John Windet, and himself a master printer. Such work entitles him to a front rank among the printers of the reign of James I. Jonson is said to have prepared the plays for the press, himself, and one or two matters of editing, certainly, appear to show the author’s hand. At the end of each play, for instance, is a statement telling when it was first acted, and by whom, whether the king’s or the queen’s servants. The names of the actors are also given. All of the works, however, did not appear until after Jonson’s death.

Benjamin Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson’s artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularized the comedy of humours; he is best known for the satirical plays Every Man in His Humour (1598), Volpone, or The Fox (c. 1606), The Alchemist (1610) and Bartholomew Fair (1614) and for his lyric and epigrammatic poetry. “He is generally regarded as the second most important English dramatist, after William Shakespeare, during the reign of James I.”

Jonson was a classically educated, well-read and cultured man of the English Renaissance with an appetite for controversy (personal and political, artistic and intellectual) whose cultural influence was of unparalleled breadth upon the playwrights and the poets of the Jacobean era (1603–1625) and of the Caroline era (1625–1642).

His ancestors spelled the family name with a letter “t” (Johstone or Johnstoun). While the spelling had eventually changed to the more common “Johnson”, the playwright’s own particular preference became “Jonson”.