Award Date

1-1-2004

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

English

First Committee Member

Richard Harp

Number of Pages

532

Abstract

Ben Jonson's Volpone: A Critical Variorum provides modern scholars with a comprehensive bibliographic reference work devoted to Jonson's early seventeenth-century dramatic comedy and its four hundred years of critical commentary. By joining together Jonson's Volpone and the work's full complement of editorial information and critical material, this Variorum edition illuminates the play's entire history of critical reception and literary interpretation within a format that allows readers and researchers to follow the evolving lines of influence peculiar to the work's critical tradition and to locate new areas of investigation. Based upon an authoritative copy of the 1607 quarto, the Variorum reprints Jonson's primary text above a continuous subset of line-by-line annotations that reflects the history of glosses and notes produced by the play's legion of editors and commentators. At a glance, readers may review each footnote's chronological survey of the editorial insights and critical remarks related to either the elucidation of the text's dramatic language or the identification of Jonson's historical and literary allusions. Those early observations that have since developed into larger critical debates receive fuller treatments within the variorum's extensive collection of appendices. Drawing upon printed materials ranging from the earliest contemporary allusions to established critical works to the latest journal articles, each subsection of the Appendix provides a chronological distillation of the most significant contributions made to the play's long history of textual scholarship, literary interpretation, or theatrical evaluation. Among its expansive range of topics, the Variorum's appendices compile and organize the critical material and textual information related to the play's printing and editorial histories; Jonson's source materials and literary influences; and literary studies of the play's genre, themes, language, and characters. In addition to its footnoted annotations and fully developed appendices, this variorum edition also provides a complete bibliographic catalogue of critical materials and resources pertinent to the study of the text.

Keywords

Critical; Critical Variorum Edition; Jonson, Ben Variorum; Volpone

Controlled Subject

British literature; English literature--Irish authors; Irish literature; Theater

File Format

pdf

File Size

46776.32 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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