Every Man out of His Humour

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Title page of 1600 printing of Every Man out of His Humour.

Every Man out of His Humour (also spelled Humor in some early editions) is a satirical

comedy play written by English playwright Ben Jonson, acted in 1599 by the Lord Chamberlain's Men
.

The play

The play is a conceptual sequel to his 1598 comedy Every Man in His Humour. It was much less successful on stage than its predecessor, though it was published in quarto three times in 1600 alone; it was also performed at Court on 8 January 1605.

The play was entered into the

W. W. Greg characterized Ling's Q3 as "A careless and ignorant reprint" of Q1.[1]

Every Man Out contains an allusion to

Thomas Dekker.[2] The character Sogliardo, who Jonson includes in his general mockery of socially ambitious fools, is a country bumpkin, new to the city, who boasts of the coat of arms he has recently purchased, which, when he describes its colours, resembles a fool’s motley. Another character suggests Sogliardo should use the motto, "Not Without Mustard". This has been construed by some critics as a reference to William Shakespeare’s recently acquired coat of arms with its gold colour, and its motto, Non Sans Droit, which translates as "Not Without Right".[3][4]

When the play was reprinted in Jonson's folio collection of 1616, a cast list of the original 1599 production was included. From this, it is known that the leading players were

Thomas Pope, and William Sly
. Shakespeare was not part of the production, though he had played in Every Man in His Humour the year before.

Every Man Out of His Humour includes several references to Shakespeare and his contemporaneous works: a mention of Justice Silence from Henry IV, Part 2—"this is a kinsman to Justice Silence" (V,ii) and two allusions to Julius Caesar, which help to date that play to 1599. "Et tu, Brute" occurs in V,iv of Every Man Out; in III,i appears "reason long since is fled to animals," a paraphrase of Shakespeare's line "O judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts" in Julius Caesar, III,ii,104.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Chambers, Elizabethan Stage, Vol. 3, p. 361.
  2. ^ Chambers, Vol. 3, p. 363.
  3. ^ "Shakespeare Coat of Arms". shakespeare.org.uk. Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  4. ISBN 978-1-61147-675-0

References

External links

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