Catiline His Conspiracy
Catiline His Conspiracy is a
Background
Jonson was not the first playwright of his era to dramatize the story of Catiline.
Publishing
Story
As its title indicates, the play recounts the story of
Reception
That the play was not a popular success is indicated by Jonson's reproachful preface to the published edition. Thomas Rymer praised the play's subject matter but condemned Jonson's violations of decorum. The Guardian states that: "Although booed off stage at its 1611 premiere, it became a great favourite in its day, but has not been staged since the 17th century".[3]
John Dryden introduced the traditional prescriptive rule against preposition stranding in English in criticising a phrase from this play: "The maws, and dens of beasts could not receive / the bodies that those souls were frighted from."[4]
In 2011, the play was edited and translated for the first time in Italian.[5]
Notes
- ^ Chambers, Vol. 1, p. 222 n. 2; Vol. 2, pp. 163, 170, 394; Vol. 3, p. 372.
- ^ Heyward Brock, Maria Palacas; The Ben Jonson Encyclopedia – 68
- ^ Twenty-year global project is the last word on Ben Jonson, Guardian
- ^ Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum, 2002, The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge (UK): Cambridge University Press, p. 627f.
- ^ B. Jonson. La congiura di Catilina, ed. and trans. Domenico Lovascio. Genova, ECIG, 2011.
References
- Chambers, E. K.The Elizabethan Stage. 4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923.
- Halliday, F. E. A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964. Baltimore, Penguin, 1964.