6 - The major comedies

Summary

Ben Jonson wrote Volpone for the King's Men in 1605-6. This premier acting company had been given the accolade of that title, the King's Men, when James I came to the English throne in 1603. Its roster included Richard Burbage and William Shakespeare, both of whom, along with Augustine Phillips, Henry Condell, Will Sly, Will Kemp, John Heminges, Thomas Pope, Christopher Beeston, and John Duke, are listed in the Jonson Folio of 1616 as having acted in Jonson's Every Man in his Humour in 1598. They then constituted the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and for some years had been the premier acting company of England (in fierce competition with the Admiral's Men, headed by Edward Alleyn). In 1599, the Lord Chamberlain's Men had moved into their new theatre, the Globe, on the south side of the Thames across from London in Southwark. Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour was one of their new plays in this location, along with Shakespeare's Julius Ccesar and Henry V. Jonson's Sejanus was acted here in 1603, Volpone in 1605-6 (featuring Burbage, Condell, Heminges, Sly, and two newcomers, John Lowin and Alexander Cooke), The Alchemist in 1610, and Catiline in 1611. The King's Men presented Jonson's The Staple of News in 1626 at their second Globe Theatre, the first having burned down in 1613.