Epicoene: Or, The Silent Woman

Ben Jonson

Mar 2017 · The Floating Press

About this ebook

In this Renaissance comedy, a marriage that was entered into for all the wrong reasons goes hilariously astray. The grumpy curmudgeon Morose chooses his wife solely on the basis of how quiet he perceives her to be, as he detests brashness, loud noise, and revelry of all kinds. But soon after the nuptials take place, the union begins to falter.

About the author

Born in 1572, Ben Jonson rejected his father's bricklaying trade and ran away from his apprenticeship to join the army. He returned to England in 1592, working as an actor and playwright. In 1598, he was tried for murder after killing another actor in a duel, and was briefly imprisoned. One of his first plays, Every Man Out of His Humor (1599) had fellow playwright William Shakespeare as a cast member. His success grew with such works as Volpone (1605) and The Alchemist (1610) and he was popular at court, frequently writing the Christmas masque. He is considered a very fine Elizabethan poet. In some anti-Stratfordian circles he is proposed as the true author of Shakespeare's plays, though this view is not widely accepted. Jonson was appointed London historian in 1628, but that same year, his life took a downward turn. He suffered a paralyzing stroke and lost favor at court after an argument with architect Inigo Jones and the death of King James I. Ben Jonson died on August 6, 1637.