Bartholomew Fair

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Bartholomew Fair

play by Jonson

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June 22, 2026

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Bartholomew Fair is a play by Ben Jonson, first performed in 1614. It is considered a prime example of citizen comedy, a genre that emerged in early 17th-century England and was set in London, focusing on the lives of the middle classes.

The play offers a vibrant and detailed panorama of city life, centered around the annual Bartholomew Fair held at Smithfield. Jonson uses this setting to satirize the follies and excesses of society, presenting a rich cast of characters and their various pursuits. The play is known for its exuberant comic invention, intricate plot construction, and masterful use of language to capture the details of London's diverse ephemera.12

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Ben Jonson
His plays and achievement
…favour: Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair especially have been staged with striking success.
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…favour: Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair especially have been staged with striking success.
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comedy
Rise of realistic comedy in 17th-century England
…widow for his wife in Bartholomew Fair. In Volpone and The Alchemist, the schemes eventually fail, but this is the fault of the manipulators, who will never stop when they are ahead, and not at all due to any insight on the part of the victims. The victims are almost…
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…widow for his wife in Bartholomew Fair. In Volpone and The Alchemist, the schemes eventually fail, but this is the fault of the manipulators, who will never stop when they are ahead, and not at all due to any insight on the part of the victims. The victims are almost…
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English literature
Jonson
…of clever London rogues; and Bartholomew Fair (1614) draws a rich portrait of city life parading through the annual fair at Smithfield, a vast panorama of a society given over to folly. In these plays, fools and rogues are indulged to the very height of their daring, forcing upon the…
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…of clever London rogues; and Bartholomew Fair (1614) draws a rich portrait of city life parading through the annual fair at Smithfield, a vast panorama of a society given over to folly. In these plays, fools and rogues are indulged to the very height of their daring, forcing upon the…
Read More

puppetry
Styles of puppet theatre
…well illustrated in Ben Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair, in which one of the puppets leans out of the booth (they were hand puppets) and hits the interpreter on the head because it does not like the way he is telling the story. The same technique of the reciter is found in…
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…well illustrated in Ben Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair, in which one of the puppets leans out of the booth (they were hand puppets) and hits the interpreter on the head because it does not like the way he is telling the story. The same technique of the reciter is found in…
Read More