Ben Jonson in the Romantic Age [Hardcover]

Tom Lockwood's study is the first examination of Jonson's place in the texts and culture of the Romantic age. Part one of the book explores theatrical, critical, and editorial responses to Jonson, including his place in the post-Garrick theatre, critical estimations of his life and work, and the politically charged making and reception of William Gifford's 1816 edition of Jonson'sWorks. Part two explores allusive and imitative responses to Jonson's poetry and plays in the writings of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and explores how Jonson serves variously as a model by which to measure the poet laureate, Robert Southey, and Coleridge's eldest son, Hartley. The introduction and conclusion locate this Romantic Jonson against his eighteenth-century and Victorian re-creations.Ben Jonson in the Romantic Ageshows us a varied, mobile, and contested Jonson and offers a fresh perspective on the Romantic age.

1. Introduction: Romantic Jonson, Marginal Jonson
2. Francis Godolphin Waldron andThe Sad Shepherd: Theatre, Criticism, Editing
3. Theatrical Jonson
4. Critical Jonson
5. Editorial Jonson
6. Francis Godolphin Waldron andThe Sad Shepherd: Allusion and Imitation
7. Allusive Jonson (I): Coleridge
8. Allusive Jonson (II): Coleridge, Southey, and Hartley Coleridge
9. Conclusion

A careful and serious discussion of Jonson's presence between 1776 and 1850. --Elizabeth Helsinger,Studies in English Literature

Dr Tom Lockwood is a Tom Lockwood is a Lecturer in English at the University of Birmingham. He was the 2003 winner of theReview of English StudiesEssay Prize.