Bonner Cutting - Hiding in Plain Sight: Ben Jonson and the Editors of Shakespeare’s First Folio
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- Опубліковано 6 лют 2025
- Bonner Miller Cutting explores the role of Ben Jonson as the editor of Shakespeare's First Folio, bringing new information to the discussion.. When the Folger Shakespeare Library took an exhibit of Shakespeare's First Folios on tour in 2016, there was not a single mention of Ben Jonson as its editor, or any notice taken of Jonson in the Folger display. Orthodox Stratfordians often state that the 1623 First Folio was edited by two actors, John Heminges and Henry Condell, who had been in the King’s Men acting company (formerly the Lord Chamberlain's Men). This assertion is based on the Introduction to the First Folio in which the actors’ names appear beneath some of the printed matter. It escapes Stratfordian notice that, as early as the 18th century, the eminent Shakespearean editor George Steevens showed that the actors’ supposed tributes to Shakespeare were taken from Ben Jonson’s own writing and from the ancients Horace and Pliny, both of whom exerted much influence on Jonson (Riggs, 73-78, 313).
Bio: Bonner Miller Cutting graduated from Tulane University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts
degree, and has a Master of Music degree from McNeese State University in Lake Charles,
Louisiana, where she also served as an adjunct faculty member. She lectures frequently on the
Shakespeare authorship question at conferences, book clubs, and community groups. In her
book Necessary Mischief: Exploring the Shakespeare Authorship Question (2018), she revealed
new information on ten authorship-related subjects, including the Last Will and Testament of
William Shakspere of Stratford-upon-Avon and the £1,000 annuity that Queen Elizabeth I gave
to Edward de Vere (17th Earl of Oxford).
Excellent presentation, Bonner. You have avoided 'the curse of knowledge', that is, you took a complicated chain of events and made them understandable to non-specialists. A very nice Christmas present for Oxfordians (and maybe a lump of coal for Stratfordians).
Btw, those with a background in economics will recognize the man for whom Gresham's Law (bad commodity money drives out good) is named; Thomas Gresham. Though Nicolaus Copernicus beat Gresham to it by a century or so.
Bonner: Your research and elucidation of all things Oxfordian are some of the most convincing I've read.
WOW Bonner, just a brilliant tracing of the evidence, eviscerating the Folger librarian's nonsense: Ben Jonson at Gresham College working on the First Folio--makes total sense, as a former U of Chicago Press manuscript editor while earning my first MA. 2 actors compiled the Folio without the requisite skill set--of the works of Shakespeare??? Brilliant sleuthing, Bonner!
John Florio is left out as usual. He had a personal library of 340 books. 260 were in Italian and most of those were plays and theater related, for an upstart crow a treasure trove of plot lines. And then we have the Lord Cranfield letter in 1623 where John Florio requested funds to finish "my great and laborious work". Jonson and Florio were collaborators and friends so the two working on Florio's First Folio of William Shakespeare is too obvious to ignore. 1611 is the single most important date in SAQ inquiry because that is the earliest date that the full vocabulary of words used in the First Folio were first published in the English language, Queen Anne's New World of Words. The nearly two thousand new words translated from Italian into the English language were from John Florio's personal library. The plays were a hodge podge collaboration until John Florio did extensive revisions and editing to create a more unified voice of Shakespeare. No doubt with help from Ben Jonson. So you are correct that Ben Jonson played a role.
Bonner Cutting always delivers!
💓 Congratulations Bonner!
This begs the question, after all the extensive editorial work by Jonson, should we consider the second folio (1632) the truest & best version?
From my strange life, what you suggest is far from unreasonable. The way the upper caste worked(s) in England can be highly sophisticated. Thank you.
A wonderful contribution to the store of evidence...delightfully delivered...thank you
It is clear the writer of the document wrote the date and "first four words." In addition, Ben Jonson's signature is in a different hand (style). I say this as a handwriting analysist, being one who hand-writes in mutiple ways and styles, having observed and studied many hands from virtually every handwritten text (at least to some extent even trivial writings) I've read since my youth, where physical or digital. The first four words are the exact same as the rest of the document, so unless Johnson wrote the whole document, and signed it in Signature form being different, then he did not write the four words. Furthermore, the spelling of the name is different. Though spelling was not Standardized at the time, names were (with few possible exceptions) written the same, or at least by the person who it belonged.
On the other hand, we see Jonson and others getting in trouble for some works. He seems to know everyone in the upper circles, including Bacon. I would call him a Trusted Servant of many of them. Why spend all this money and effort on what many call plays for the common folk? Kings, religion and republics are being argued and fought over in Europe and will soon come to England. The backers and executive producers had a say for whatever reasons.