Abstract: This book provides the first examination of Ben Jonson's place in the texts and culture of the Romantic Age. Part I of the book explores theatrical, critical, and editorial responses to, and refashionings of, Jonson, including his place in the post-Garrick theatre, critical estimations of his life and work, and the politically-charged making and reception of William Gifford's 1816 edition of Jonson's Works. Part II explores allusive and imitative responses to Jonson's poetry and plays in the writings of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and explores how Jonson serves variously as a model by which to measure the poet laureate, Robert Southey, and Coleridge's eldest son, Hartley Coleridge. The introduction and conclusion locate this ‘Romantic Jonson’ against his 18th-century and Victorian re-creations. This book shows us a varied, mobile, and contested Jonson and offers a fresh perspective on the Romantic Age.

Keywords: theatre, criticism, editing, allusion, imitation, Coleridge, Southey