G1. Besides the readings in HTL or PDLT relevant to drama listed in my Notes and Questions on Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, you should read the following for Jonson's drama: (a) antimasque, buskin, classical tragedy, classicism, comedy, comedy of humours, comedy of situation, examen, jacobean age, masque, miles gloriosus, pastoral drama, realistic comedy, satire, war of the theaters; (b) comedy of intrigue, comedy of manners, commedia dell'arte, court comedy, farce, farce-comedy, genteel comedy, high comedy, intrigue comedy, low comedy, parody, romantic comedy, sentimental comedy, sock; (c) plot, subplot, Freytag's pyramid

G2. Jonson finished seventeen extant plays (the eighteenth was incomplete; the nineteenth, barely started; the text of one, a collaboration, has, unfortunately, been lost), ten "entertainments" (drama sketches presented at some aristocratic celebration), and twenty-seven masques (one of these is included in NAEL, and the introduction to it, as well as the HTL or PDLT article on "masque," should be read). (Jonson finished fewer full-length plays than Shakespeare, but left a much larger bulk, appropriate to his physique, of masques and poetry.) In some instances, Jonson revised extensively when including the text in one of his collected editions of his works: A Tale of a Tub (1596-97), The Case Is Altered (1597-98), Every Man In His Humour (1598; 1601; 2nd ed., 1616), Every Man Out of His Humour (1599-1600), The Fountain of Self-Love; or Cynthia's Revels (1600), Poetaster (1601; 1602), Sejanus His Fall (1603; 1605; rev. 1616); Eastward Hoe [with Chapman and Marston] (1604); Volpone: or the Foxe (1605; 1607); Epicoene: or the Silent Woman (1609; 1616); The Alchemist (1610; 1616); Catiline His Conspiracy (1611); Bartholomew Fair (1614; 1631 and 1640); The Devil Is An Ass (1616; 1631 & 1640); The Staple of News (1625; 1631 & 1640); The New Inn (1629; 1631); The Magnetic Lady: or the Humors Reconciled (1632; 1640); The Sad Shepherd: or a Tale of Robin Hood (1641; 50 pages, unfinished); The Fall of Mortimer (1641; 5 pages, unfinished).

(G2a.) The reception of which of the above plays spurred Jonson's bitter poem "Ode to Himself" (in NAEL), as well as Thomas Carew's mild reproval in "To Ben Jonson" (in NAEL)? (G2b.) From your reading in NAEL, which masque by Jonson is included in the book? (G2c.) From your reading in the explanatory material in PDLT/HTL or NAEL, which two plays (one of them unfortunately lost), on which Jonson was a coauthor, landed Jonson in jail? From your reading of the explanatory material in NAEL, for what offense was Jonson jailed a third time, besides for his coauthorship on the two plays? How might Jonson's own prison experience give any added resonance to Volpone, particularly the end of the play? (G2d.) From your reading in the explanatory material in HTL/PDLT or NAEL, which of Jonson's plays on his own did the eminent Restoration poet, playwright, and critic John Dryden greatly esteem? In which prose work of literary criticsm by John Dryden, an excerpt from which is in fact included in NAEL, did Dryden voice his opinion of Jonson's play? (G2e.) From your reading in the explanatory material in PDLT/HTL or NAEL, which of Jonson's plays was or were involved in the "war of the theaters"? And in which play or plays by a rival dramatist was Jonson himself satirized? (G2f.) From your reading in the explanatory material in PDLT/HTL or NAEL, in which two of Jonson's plays was Shakespeare known to have acted a leading role, since Jonson in the published version of the plays himself listed Shakespeare in the original cast, along with the listing of the dramatis personae?

G3. (a) How does Jonson's attitude toward Italy, as suggested by his setting the play there, as well as comments on the country within the play, concur with Lyly's in the opening six paragraphs of Euphues, Nashe's in the excerpt from Nashe's The Unfortunate Traveller in NAEL, and Roger Ascham's in the excerpt from The Schoolmaster that the NAEL editors entitle "The Italianate Englishman"? (The excerpts from Ascham's work, an early practical and theoretical book on education, should prove interesting to Education majors or minors.) (b) What is Shakespeare's attitude toward Italy, to judge from references and settings in Shakespeare's plays?

G4. How do any of the following motifs recur in Volpone with thematic or characterizational effects, both locally in the passage, as well as globally (perhaps Globe-ally?): (a) animal imagery; (b) religious imagery or vocabulary; inversions of these; recurrent reference to St. Mark; (c) light versus dark; (d) the language or trappings of dramaturgy (e.g., plays within the play, costume changes explicitly referred to by various characters)

G5. (a) How does Jonson make vivid, thematic, and characterizational use of the "languages" of action, props, and setting in the play? (b) How does Jonson make expressive or thematic use of (b1) the curtained alcove or inner stage on the first or ground floor, (b2) the gallery or second floor, and particularly the window or windows located on it, and (b3) one of the doors (or both of them) on the first floor? Refer to the drawing of the English Renaissance stage at the back of NAEL or reproduced with the Prinsky N&Q on Marlowe's Doctor Faustus.

G6. (a) How does the subplot in the play reflect and comment on the play's main plot? (b) How do the subplot and main plot intersect, and with what suggestion? (Hint: compare the feature film Pulp Fiction for such intersections, along with ideas suggested.) (c1) How does the main plot seem to come to a repose, complete with the components of reversal and denouement at the end of Act 4? (c2) How does Jonson's use of the structure referred to in G6-c1 help express ideas about human nature, psychology, behavior, or interaction, particularly with regard to Volpone and Mosca, and what they represent, both individually and in interaction? (d) How does Jonson use the difference between prose and poetry thematically and characterizationally in Volpone? How is the difference used comparably in Marlowe's Doctor Faustus? (e) How does the structure or sequence or visual diagram of the targets of Faustus's magic in Marlowe's Doctor Faustus compare or contrast with the structure or sequence or visual diagram of the various costumes and roles adopted by Volpone, from the beginning to the end of the play?

G7. Among the adaptations of Jonson's Volpone are the feature film The Honey Pot (1967) and the play Sly Fox (1976); who wrote and directed the film, and what well-known comedy writer, known for his scripting of the television series M*A*S*H, wrote the play (which starred George C. Scott, Hector Elizondo, Jeffrey Tambor, and a host of other prominent American actors)? What changes were made in the adaptations?

"The Argument"

1. How does this brief plot summary exemplify acrostic* verse? Because the acrostic makes the poem something more than it seems (not only a plot summary, but a hidden spelling out of something), the ideas of artifice, deception, and mask are suggested; how might these bear on the play, generally?

2. What ideas may be suggested through the acrostic, metapoetically, about the power of providence or the dramatist?

"Prologue"

1. (a) In what ways is the Prologue metapoetic, comparable to Marlowe's in Dr. Faustus? (b) How do Jonson's attacks on other dramatists and defenses of himself relate to the War of the Theaters? (c) How does Jonson's assertion of his ease or facility or ingenuity in composing the play connect with Volpone and Mosca as dramatists within the play? How does the pun on "quick" (line 29), as "witty" and "alive," connect with Jonson's reference to the play as "this his creature" (13), and in turn to Mosca's comments to Corvino (1.5) about Volpone's illicit progeny? What parallels or contrasts are implied between Jonson and Volpone or Jonson and Mosca?