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Article [Review of:] The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson / David Bevington, Martin Butler and Ian Donaldson (eds). - Cambridge, 2012; The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson Online / David L. Gants (ed.). - Cambridge, 2014 ERNE, Lukas Christian Reference ERNE, Lukas Christian. [Review of:] The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson / David Bevington, Martin Butler and Ian Donaldson (eds). - Cambridge, 2012; The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson Online / David L. Gants (ed.). - Cambridge, 2014. Shakespeare Jahrbuch, 2015, vol. 151, p. 241-45 DOI : 10.3366/bjj.2013.0086 Available at: http://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:73177 Disclaimer: layout of this document may differ from the published version. 1 / 1 240 Bettina Boecker und Silvie Baldauf The Winter's Tale BÜCHERSCHAU München, Volkstheater: 9. 3. 2014, Das Wintermiirchen. Ü.: Frank Günther, R.: Christian Stückl, B. und K.: Stefan Hageneier. Weitere Stücke Ben Jonson in the Twenty-First Century Augsburg, Brechtbühne: 2. 5. 2014, Where 1 end and you begin- Radio and Ju/iet. Chor.: Ed ward Clug, B.: Marko Japelj, K.: Leo Kulas. David Bevington 1 Martin Butler 1 lan Donaldson eds., The Cambridge Edition of the Works Bremen, bremer shakespeare company (Theater am Leibnizplatz): 30. !. 2014, Shakespeares of Ben Jonson, 7 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Vol. 1: ccxxix, 555 Konige . Mord Macht Tod. R.: Johanna Schall , B. und K.: Heike Neugebauer. pp.; vol. 2: vii, 712 pp.; vol. 3: viii, 762 pp.; vol. 4: vii, 728 pp .; vol. 5: ix, 721 pp.; vol. 6: Bremen, bremer shakespeare company (Theater am Leibnizplatz): 23. 4. 2014, Wie es Will viii, 700 pp.; vol. 7: vi, 792 pp.- ISBN 978-0-521-78246-3- f 680.00 (hb.). gefdllt. Von Jessica Swale. Ü.: Patricia Benecke, R.: Raz Shaw, B. und K.: Heike Neugebauer. David L. Gants ed., The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson Online. Cambridge: Dortmund, Schauspiel: 18. 5. 2014, Die Hamletmaschine. R.: Uwe Schmieder, B. und K.: Jen Cambridge University Press, 2014.- f 995.00 (electronic edition). <http://universitypub nifer Schulz. lishingonline.org/cambridge/benjonsonl>. Nordhausen, Theater unterm Dach: 26. 4. 2014, Ham/et stirbt .. und geht danach Spaghetti essen. Von Jürgen Eick, Martin Maier-Bode und Jens Neutag. R.: Dr. Anja Eisner, B. und K.: Many editions of Shakespeare' s works have been published since the seventeenth century, and Ronald Winter. quite a few of them are currently in print, vying for our attention: the Wells and Taylor Oxford, Rbeingan. .Rheingau Musik F tival: 24. 7. 2014, ShakeSpeare: 450. Gebnrtstag. Shakespeare the Greenblatt Norton, the Blakemore Evans Riverside, the Bevington Longman, the Bate and in Opera. Arien und Ouvenüren aus Charles Gounods Roméo et Juliene, Giuseppe Verdis Rasmussen RSC, as weil as the Arden, Oxford and New Cambridge series, to mention only a Falstaff. Otto Nicolais Die lrmigen Weiber von Windsor u. a .. ML: Kevin John Edusei. few . With Jonson's works, things have al ways been very different. Following the folios of the Rheingau, Rheingau Musik Festival: 7. 8. 2014, Shakespeare: 450. Geburtstag. With Shake seventeenth century (1616, 1640--1641 and 1692), there has essentially been one edition of his speare in Love. Sonette fur "The Dark Lady". Musik von Shakespeare-Zeitgenossen wie John works per century, Peter Whalley's seven-volume octavo edition of 1756, William Gifford's Dowland, Robert Johnson, John Danyel, Thomas Morley u.a. ML: Wolfgang Katschner. nine-volume edition of 1816 (revised and expanded by Francis Cunningham in 1871) and C. H. Salzburg, Landestheater: 22. 5. 2014, Shakespeare im Park: Verliebte und Verrückte. ML: Herford and Percy and Evelyn Simpson's Oxford edition, published in eleven volumes from Wolfgang Gotz, R.: Carl Philip von Maldeghem. 1925 to 1952. The new Cambridge Jonson, whose seven beautifully produced volumes ap Wiesbaden, Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden (Studio): 30. 4. 2014, MenschMacht- Mac peared in 2012 and whose electronic edition went live in the spring of 2014, is a worthy sucees beth. R.: Isabel Ostheus, B.: Isabel Ostheus und Stefan Schletter, K.: Heike Ruppmann. sor to these Iandmark editions and gives us what is set to be the standard edition of Jonson's works for much or ali of the twenty-first century. General editors David Bevington, Martin Butler and lan Donaldson have assembled a team of about sixty scholars who have edited ali of Jonson's known writings: seventeen plays, two dramatic fragments, more than thirty masques and entertainments (among them The Enter tainment at Britain's Burse, found by James Knowles in 1996), the translation of Horace's Art of Poetry, three poetry collections (Epigrams, The Forest and The Underwood), miscella neous poems (including the recently identified elegy on Thomas Nashe) and severa! prose works , the commonplace book Discoveries, The English Grammar, the Informations to William Drummond of Hathwhornden (titled "Conversations with Drummond" in earlier editions) and nineteen letters. As is weil known, Jonson was a keen reviser of his own work, which is why the Cambridge edition provides two versions of sorne works, including Every Man in His Humour and The Gypsies Metamorphosed. On the other hand, of a number of pla ys and en tertainments to which Jonson is known to have contributed, not a single text is extant. For each of these, the edition provides a short account. Ali earlier editions of Jonson's works had adopted a structure that conforms to the generic division of the original folio of 1616 into plays, poems, and entertainments and masques. The Cambridge edition breaks new ground in presenting the works in an order reflecting the chronology of Jonson's writing (with A Tale of 242 Bücherschau Bücherschau 243 a Tub now dated 1634, his last completed play, not the first, as Herford and Simpson thought), Bevington, Butler and Donaldson have served as general editors of the Cambridge Jonson providing a better sense than we have ever had of the shape, variety and progression of his while also bearing primary responsibility for severa! contributions of their own. The final result career. bears their marks in a number of ways. Bevington, perhaps the most prolific editor of early One of the edition's major achievements is its combination of scholarly thoroughness and modem drama alive, has contributed the two versions of Every Man ln His Humour, Epicene readability. Spelling and punctuation are consistently modemized, making for a reading ex and an introductory essay about "Actors, Companies, and Playhouses", and the edition's stage perience thal is as uninhibited as it was for Jonson's early modem readers. The dramatic texts centred approach to editing mentioned above reflects his practice elsewhere. Butler, who is clearly signal added or expanded stage directions thal help the reader understand the implied ac among the world's leading experts on the court masque, has contributed not only editions of tion. Each text is preceded by a concise introduction (about ten to twenty pages per play, five to about a dozen of Jonson's masques and entertainments but also an introductory essay about seven per poetry collection, and three to five per masque or entertainment), covering essentials "The Court Masque", a long list identifying ail known "Masquers and Tilters" and, in the elec about date, source, copy text and interpretation (with longer textual essays and, for the plays, tronic edition, a "Stage History of the Court Masques" and a comprehensive "Masque stage histories, available in the electronic edition). Contrary to, say, the Norton and Riverside Archive". Donaldson, author of an acclaimed OUP biography of Jonson (2011), has edited the Shakespeares (provided with marginal glosses) or the Oxford Shakespeare (which only has tex letters and Informations to Drummond, contributed a "Life of Ben Jonson" and, for the elec tuai notes, in a companion volume), the Cambridge Jonson also provides on-page commentary tronic edition, compiled a detailed "Chronology of Jonson's Life and Work". and collation throughout, the leve! of annotation corresponding roughly to that of the Revels or While Jonson's plays, masques, and biographical records thus receive privileged treatment Arden Early Modem Drama series. What the edition notably does not have, and many will thanks to the general editors, an important part of his works is given Jess visibility: the poetry. regret this , is an index, though the electronic edition allows searches within the entire edition or Jonson's poetic output was considerable, its achievement formidable and its historical impor parts of it. tance undeniable, yet it is notable that no introductory essay is devoted to iL to Cavalier poetry An important difference to the Herford and Simpson edition is the relative authority the orto Jonson's place in early modern poetry , and the place the poetry occupies in the "General Cambridge Jonson attributes to the early quarto and folio texts. Simpson's study of the 1616 Introduction" is marginal. The poems have been entrusted to the editorial care of Colin Burrow, folio led him to be!ieve that Jonson's direct involvement in its production was far-reaching, arguably the unsung hero of the Cambridge Jonson . The mere "Index of Titles and First Lines which is why the Oxford editors usually privileged the folio, arguing that its readings generally of the Poems" occupies twenty-eight pages (vol. 1, pp. xxviii-xlv), and with the exception of a represent Jonson's final intentions. In the meantime, important bibliographie work by Mark single poem, "A Panegyre on the Happy Entrance of James ... to his First High Session of Bland and David Gants has cast doubt on many of Simpson's conclusions. Accordingly, the Parliament" (edited by Butler), ail of them have been richly annotated and expertly edited by Cambridge editors grant Jess authority to the folio than the Oxford editors did, and more to the Burrow.