SOURCE: Levin, Lawrence L. “Clement Justice in Every Man in his Humour.” SEL 12, no. 2 (spring 1972): 291-307.

In the essay that follows, Levin explores the function of the character of Doctor Clement in Every Man in His Humour and contends that the magistrate is a prototype for characters in Jonson's later plays.

In both his comedies and tragedies, Ben Jonson reveals an almost obsessive concern with law and order and the various and insidious threats to the social fabric. In his comedies he demonstrates the relationship between satire and law as social instruments intended for the improvement of society through the correction of debilitating abuses. He condemns the false satirist, the selfish poet, and the delinquent justice for perverting their professions through covetousness, ignorance, or stupidity and for thwarting virtue. Of his many justice figures only those in his earlier plays seem able to reason effectively and to counter...