ABSTRACT
Attempting to determine degrees and kinds of influence is not an easy matter, particularly in the present critical climate where postmodernism and intertextuality have considerably extended the sphere of activities which may be defined as ‘influence’. The potential for influence was extensive and extensively varied where Jonson and his contemporaries were concerned; and this must be borne in mind when assessing Jonson’s relations with his playwriting ‘sons’. The two dramatists who best qualify for the denomination of ‘sons’ would appear to be Nathan Field (1587–1619) and Richard Brome (d.c.1652). A remarkable fact is that Jonson’s Epicœne in which Field acted and Field’s A Woman Is A Weathercock were first played within weeks or even days of each other at the start of the 1609–10 season. Brome is more overtly a Jonsonian than Field; he regularly signals his creative allegiances, since his characters often mention figures from Jonson’s comedies in their dialogue.
