The Alchemist by Ben Jonson - The Original Classic Edition Finally available, a high quality book of the original classic edition. This is a new and freshly published edition of this culturally important work, which is now, at last, again available to you. Enjoy this classic work today. These selected paragraphs distill the contents and give you a quick look inside: From entries in Henslowes Diary, a species of theatrical account book which has been handed down to us, we know that Jonson was connected with the Admirals men; for he borrowed 4 pounds of Henslowe, July 28, 1597, paying back 3s. 9d. on the same day on account of his share (in what is not altogether clear); while later, on December 3, of the same year, Henslowe advanced 20s. to him upon a book which he showed the plot unto the company which he promised to deliver unto the company at Christmas next. ...Francis Meres—well known for his Comparative Discourse of our English Poets with the Greek, Latin, and Italian Poets, printed in 1598, and for his mention therein of a dozen plays of Shakespeare by title—accords to Ben Jonson a place as one of our best in tragedy, a matter of some surprise, as no known tragedy of Jonson from so early a date has come down to us. ...Whether this story is true or not, certain it is that Every Man in His Humour was accepted by Shakespeares company and acted for the first time in 1598, with Shakespeare taking a part. ...This play as a fabric of plot is a very slight affair; but as a satirical picture of the manners of the time, proceeding by means of vivid caricature, couched in witty and brilliant dialogue and sustained by that righteous indignation which must lie at the heart of all true satire—as a realisation, in short, of the classical ideal of comedy—there had been nothing like Jonsons comedy since the days of Aristophanes. ...In Hymenaei, The Masque of Queens, Love Freed from Ignorance, Lovers made Men, Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue, and many more will be found Jonsons aptitude, his taste, his poetry and inventiveness in these by-forms of the drama; while in The Masque of Christmas, and The Gipsies Metamorphosed especially, is discoverable that power of broad comedy which, at court as well as in the city, was not the least element of Jonsons contemporary popularity.