Ben Jonson was one of the most prolific playwrights and poets in early modern England. Second only to Shakespeare in terms of legacy, Jonson's contributions to early modern drama are many, and numerous critics consider him the most innovative playwright of the era. While he wrote in all genres of drama and published his own collections of poetry, Jonson is best known for his contributions to the genre of comedy in early modern theater. Specifically, Jonson was one of the pioneering players of city comedy.
In general, early modern comedies were recognizable by their reliance on multiple characters, subplots, and a relatively "happy" ending. Usually, this meant that there was a marriage at the end or, at the very least, that none of the characters died over the course of the play. But early modern comedy still tended to focus on the same characters that were present in tragedy: wealthy nobility and royalty from nations other than England, usually with settings that predated the sixteenth century.
City comedy, by contrast, strives to represent the average city-dweller and the intricacies of urban life. City comedies are almost always set in London, the heart of early modern theater itself, and feature characters across a range of socioeconomic classes with a notable absence of any royalty. Jonson in particular frequently lent subplots to working-class characters, usually with a hint of irony as audiences were encouraged to both love and mock the experience of these commoners. Epicene is an example of city comedy, focusing specifically on a group of London-dwelling characters who, despite being of the idle upper class, still engage in the antics, deceptions, and foolery most associated with the lower classes and genre of comedy more generally.
Jonson's contributions to city comedy are often lauded because of the ambivalence with which they appear: throughout these plays, audiences might question whether they are intended to pity, detest, or love certain characters. This ambiguity is precisely Jonson's own legacy, as he is known for both biting sarcasm and a fondness for irreverence and whimsicality.
