ABSTRACT
My title refers, of course, to L. C. Knights's book, first published in 1937.1 It is hardly possible to diverge from Knights's views without acknowledging the extent to which one depends on them. His book remains one of a small handful of significant works in English concerned with the sociology of literature. It is regarded, rightfully, as a classic, and its approach to the social aspects of Jacobean drama has become canonical. But this approach must also be recognized as the product of an earlier moment in the history of thought dealing with the relationship between culture and society. Given recent developments in social theory, in the study of ideology, and in the sociology of knowledge, we need to revaluate the central thesis of Knights's book and the kind of criticism
practiced there. The essay that follows is partly concerned with such a reassessment. In the main, however, it is an attempt to redefine the relationship between Jonsonian drama and its sociohistorical context.
