ABSTRACT
This device provided the perfect framework for Jonson to develop his own satirical, even Machiavellian, brand of comedy. It offered what Jonson had long been seeking, a viable alternative to his bugbear, Shakespearean romantic comedy. Shakespeare, commanding as he does the middle ground of human hopes and fears, convictions and aspirations, is the paradigm of the consensus dramatist ; Jonson needed a dramatic method with which he could lead, instruct and influence the audience not from within, but from outside its circle. Where Shakespeare was content to irradiate the great cliches of life , to rediscover the eternal platitudes, Jonson 's compulsion was to provoke, not to console; to stimulate thought and a critical response; and to pierce the complacency that inhibits improvement.
