This edition of Ben Jonson's four middle comedies places these works in the popular history and culture of the times, 1605-1614, and surveys the influences, classical and contemporary, on Jonson as a playwright. Its purpose is to revise attitudes towards Jonson's plays, once considered densely intellectual and verbal, by demonstrating their stage-worthiness and physical immediacy.

The annotations attempt to recreate the audience's perception of the plays as performances by commenting on the stage-directions, the self-conscious theatricality of characters and scenes, and the vivid colloquialisms of early modern London that give the dialogue a heightened dimension of reality. Brief introductions to each play discuss the local settings, sources, theatre history and further readings. The full general introduction includes a biography of Jonson, a full chronology of the plays and masques, and separate essays on each play, dealing particularly with Jonson's satirical treatments of trends and shams of the day, whether political, social, commercial, or spiritual. The changing roles of women in the period come under particular scrutiny.

This text is intended to help students, graduate and undergraduate, see Jonson as he was seen by his contemporaries, the most influential and controversial playwright of the seventeenth century.