The Alchemist: ‘No Country’s Mirth is Better Than Our Own’
Episode 234:
In 1610 Ben Jonson was penning what is often considered to be his most comic of comedies. Johnson was well into his middle age, being thirty-eight years old in 1610 and had several years of producing masques for the court behind him, but with the initial failure of ‘Epicene’ the previous year on the public stage still, no doubt, ringing in his ears. How much that failure influenced Jonson to turn to high comedy in ‘The Alchemist’ is difficult to say but the play is still one packed with satire, classical allusion, and comment on current fads and fashions, so still a very Jonsonian play.
The early performance history of the play
The source material for the play
The early print history of the play
The Acrostic summary of the play
A not very brief but necessary summary of the play
The play as a farce
The vices as drivers for the plot
The prologue
The role of Alchemy in the play
Models for Subtle, the alchemist
The character of the main protagonists through their names:
Face, Subtle, Sir Epicure Mammon, Drugger, Dapper, Kastril, and Dame Pliant
The later performance history of the play
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