ABSTRACT
In many ways, Epicoene, or The Silent Woman works with the most familiar of comic raw materials. The topicality of Epicoene is, paradoxically, as much a result of its classicism as of its devotion to contemporary detail. As the notes to the text make clear, Jonson, as was his custom, drew on and adapted the work of a wide range of classical authors-here, in particular the Greek rhetorician Libanius, the Roman poet Ovid and the satirist Juvena. Epicoene was first staged in December 1609 or January 1610, by one of the boys’ acting companies, at the Whitefriars, a private theatre. It was Jonson’s first play for the public stage since Volpone, as he had concentrated on writing court masques in the intervening years. The play was later revived at court in 1636 and, significantly, was the first play to be staged on the reopening of the theatres in 1660, after the accession of Charles II to the throne.
