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: Zaklad Narodowy im. Ossolinskich Wydawinctwo, 1969.

In the following essay, Gottwald analyzes the structural content of Jonson's Every Man in His Humour, traces its classical and English roots, and explores its own distinctive features.

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 row.¹ The significant subtitle of the later, “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 bore expedient to treat Every Man in his...