SOURCE: Kerr, Mina. “The Character of Jonson's Comedy,” “The Influence of Jonson's Comedy on That of His Immediate Contemporaries,” and “Nathaniel Field and Richard Brome in Relation to Jonson.” In Influence of Ben Jonson on English Comedy, 1598-1642, pp. 1-75. New York: Phaeton Press, 1967.

In the following excerpts from a work originally published in 1912, Kerr outlines the distinguishing features of Jonson's comedy of humors and discusses his influence on other playwrights.

The Character of Jonson's Comedy

The purpose in the present study is to follow but one of the lines along which the work of Ben Jonson affected English literature, to determine where, how, and to what extent, his influence was felt in comedy as written by contemporaries and later “Sons” between 1598, when Every Man in His Humor was first acted, and the closing of the theaters in 1642. It is helpful, first of all, to consider what in...