SOURCE: Cohen, Ralph Alan. “The Importance of Setting in the Revision of Every Man in his Humour.” English Literary Renaissance 8, no. 2 (spring 1978): 183-96.

In the essay below, Cohen contends that “the most striking difference” between the Quarto and Folio versions of Every Man in His Humour is the setting.

In the version of Every Man in his Humour that Ben Jonson rewrote for inclusion in his carefully prepared Workes (1616), he changed the scene from Florence to London and added the dimension of a well-executed setting to his play. Other changes have been made—some speeches have been lengthened and some shortened, profane oaths have been eliminated,¹ and the Italian names have been Anglicized—but by far the most striking difference between the plays is in the setting. In the Quarto (1598) version of the play, Jonson names twenty places, but none except the name of the city itself is...