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Summary
Every Man in His Humour is a comedy (1598) by Ben Jonson performed at the curtain theatre (with Shakespeare in the cast) in 1598. It is the first successful comedy by Ben Jonson in which he seeks to produce his comedy of humor.
Kitely, a merchant is the husband of a pretty, young wife. His humor is jealousy. His young brother takes shelter in his house with a crowd of riotous but harmless gallants, and these he suspects as designs on his wife. One of these young men is Edward Knowell, whose father's 'humor' is excessive solicitude for his son's morals. Dame Kitely, though not suspicious by nature becomes highly credulous when his suspicions are aroused. Bridget Kitely's sister is merely a young woman easily wooed and won. Bobadil, one of Jonson's greatest creations is a boasting, cowardly soldier who associates with the young gallants. Out of these elements, by the aid of the devices and disguises of the mischievous Brainworm, Knowell's servant, a complication is created in which Kitely and his wife are brought face to face at a house to which, each thinks, the other has gone for an improper purpose. Bobadil is exposed and beaten; young Knowell is married to Kitely's sister, and poetasters and gulls are held up to ridicule. The misunderstandings are cleared up by the shrewd and kindly justice Clement.
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| Every Man in His Humour |
Critical Analysis
The title of the drama shows Jonson's aim at characterization. He tries to combine a medieval medical conceit with the method employed in the Latin theatre. He makes use of the 'humors' in depicting the dominant peculiarity of his characters. Thus he deals with a type, not with a personality. This is precisely what Terence did in his dramas. He takes some salient features of a class of men and produces his characters into patterns. His comedy is not merely farcical; it is written with a purpose. In the prologue, he says that he sports with human follies, not with crimes. The follies of a braggart, of a tyrannous father, of a jealous husband all, are put before us. Bobadil, Kitely and Brainworm all have their prototypes in the dramatic works of Terence. The play centers on its characters of contemporary life. It provides a broad picture of the Elizabethan age - its manners, its degenerate values, its affections through the characters of Mathew, Stephen, Bobadil, Kitely and old Knowell. Characters are humorous characters, but they are vital and vivid. Jonson's Comedy of Humour influenced the later Comedy of Manners, and his method of characterization influenced the later dramatists and novelists like Fielding, Dickens etc.