ABSTRACT
Ben Jonson explored and exploited the system of textual patronage probably better than any other dramatist of the Tudor-Stuart period. This chapter argues that Jonson's various dedications and addresses to readers sketch a sometimes uneasy path of negotiation, one that attempts to situate him with regard to the theater and to publication. Douglas A. Brooks suggests that by 1616 Jonson "replaces the playhouse with the printing house as the chief mode of authorial self-expression. The chapter suggests that it makes a collective statement that differs from that made in 1631 in The New Inn. A response to theatrical performance governs Jonson's extensive dedication of Volpone to Cambridge and Oxford universities, a unique dedication in playtexts, prompted by productions of the play at these universities in 1606. In the formal dedication Jonson writes: "To the most noble and most equal sisters for their love and acceptance shown to his poem in the presentation, the grateful acknowledger dedicates both it and himself.".
