The Alchemist as a Comedy

he Alchemistis a comedy by English playwrightBen Jonson. First performed in 1610 by theKing's Men, it is generally considered Jonson's best and most characteristic comedy;Samuel Taylor Coleridgeclaimed that it had one of the three most perfect plots in literature. The play's clever fulfilment of theclassical unitiesand vivid depiction of human folly have made it one of the few Renaissance plays (except the works ofShakespeare) with a continuing life on stage (except for a period of neglect during the Victorian era).BackgroundThe Alchemistpremiered 34 years after thefirst permanent public theatre (The Theatre) opened in London; it is, then, a product of the early maturity of commercial drama in London. Only one of theUniversity witswho had transformed drama in the Elizabethan period remained alive (this wasThomas Lodge); in the other direction, the last great playwright to flourish before theInterregnum,James Shirley, was already a teenager. The theatres had survived the challenge mounted by the city and religious authorities; plays were a regular feature of life at court and for a great number of Londoners.The venue for which Jonson apparently wrote his play reflects this newly solid acceptance of theatre as a fact of city life. In 1597, theLord Chamberlain's Men(a.k.a.the King's Men) had been denied permission to use the theatre inBlackfriarsas a winter playhouse because of objections from the neighbourhood's influential residents. Some time between 1608 and 1610, the company, now theKing's Men, reassumed control of the playhouse, this time without objections. Their delayed premiere on this stage within the city walls, along with royal patronage, marks the ascendance of this company in the London play-world (Gurr, 171).The Alchemistwas among the first plays chosen for performance at the theatre.Jonson's play reflects this new confidence. In it, he applies his classical conception of drama to a setting in contemporary London for the first time, with invigorating...