SOURCE: Gottwald, Maria. “Every Man in His Humour: Classical and Native Elements in the First Comedy of Humours.” In Satirical Elements in Ben Jonson's Comedy, pp. 25-33. Wroclaw, Poland: Zaklad Narodowy im Ossoli'nskich, 1969.

In the essay below, Gottwald underscores the satirical content in the 1616 Folio version of Every Man in His Humour.

The 1616 Folio of Jonson's works is headed by the two so-called humour comedies, Every Man in his Humour (1598) and Every Man out of his Humour (1599). Though the titles sound very much alike the two plays differ so much that they cannot be placed in one row¹. The significant subtitle of the latter, “a comicall satyre” suggests that Every Man out of his Humour is rather related to the two subsequent works, Cynthia's Revels and Poetaster. It would, therefore, be more expedient to treat Every Man in his Humour as a category by itself.

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