| This project challenges the notion that Ben Jonson remained a traditional moralist throughout his career. I argue that a more progressive system of ethics emerges over the course of Jonson's three late plays, The Alchemist, Bartholomew Fair, and The Devil is an Ass. The introduction contextualizes the argument by examining the volatility of religious and legal thought as England moved toward a reception of natural law. This section also situates the three plays within the genre of city comedy and surveys scholarly perceptions of Jonson and his work. The first chapter presents my methodological approach, particularly drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's Logic of Practice and Mikhail Bakhtin's understanding of folk culture. The second chapter identifies the folk culture traits of the plays and how they demonstrate a marked departure from Jonson's classical satiric works such as Volpone. The third and fourth chapters argue how this carnivalesque focus on folk culture suggests social and ethical shifts, not only in Jonson's career but also in the historical context of nascent natural law. The chapters also emphasize the significance of Bartholomew Fair pardoning the general community by confronting the religious and legal authorities' hypocritical and ineffective management. Chapter four contends that the criticism of the authority figures in the plays confronts larger issues of shifting morality during the period and that the end of Bartholomew Fair describes a progressive, more flexible system of ethics founded on shared humanity. The fifth chapter demonstrates how The Devil is an Ass provides an example of this sympathetic and compassionate morality which extends the highest level of individual liberty balanced with the need for orderly society. |
