A selection of full-cast dramatisations of Ben Jonson’s finest comedies


Ben Jonson was one of the most influential playwrights of the Jacobean era, renowned for his sharp, satirical comedies and considered one of Shakespeare’s great contemporaries.

This collection brings together six full-cast BBC Radio productions of Jonson’s comedies, recorded between 1968 and 2004. It includes Volpone, in which a wealthy Venetian feigns illness to expose the greed of those hoping to inherit his fortune; The Devil is an Ass, following a lesser devil who discovers that the scheming inhabitants of London can outdo anything hell has to offer; The Magnetic Lady, a comedy of competing suitors, deception and unexpected revelations; alongside Bartholomew Fayre and The Silent Woman. The collection concludes with Eastward Ho!, Jonson’s collaborative comedy of Jacobean London, written with George Chapman and John Marston and adapted for radio by Peter Barnes.