The Moral Stage?

In the course of this essay, I shall focus upon the English playwright Ben Jonson's (1572 - 1637) complex relation to questions of theatricality, aesthetic judgment and the ethical value of dramatic production as expressed in his later prose-comedy "Bartholomew Fair" (1614). By way of a close reading of the most relevant passages of the play, I will try to provide a detailed investigation into his moral criticism of contemporary society, his conception of theatricality as a vehicle for moral education, and the role of distanced intellectual judgment as a crucial factor in this process.