ABSTRACT
His collaborative experience on Eastward Ho aside, Jonson did not write a play pointedly set in London until Epicoene, or, The Silent Woman in 1609.1 As we have seen, his earliest city comedy, Every Man in His Humor, was originally set in Florence. The setting of its sequel, Every Man Out of His Humor-notwithstanding references to Pict-Hatch and almost an entire act set in the middle aisle of St. Paul’s-alternates between a generalized, vaguely Italianate urban space and the rarefied metatheatrical mindscape inhabited by Asper and the Grex. Eastward Ho seems to have whetted his appetite for the London setting, however. In the Folio texts of both Epicoene and Jonson’s next comedy, The Alchemist (1610), the setting is specified on the dramatis personae page (“THE SCENE LONDON”), and the dramatic action depends on a consistent, intricate play of references to specific London topography. These plays mark an important further transition in Jonson’s career with regard both to the playwright’s representation of London and to his exploration of the potential of theatrical space.
