Ben Johnson: A Literary Life.

These are boom times for biographies of Jonson; the past ten years have seen the appearance of a helpful survey by Rosalind Miles, a substantive reassessment by David Riggs, and now this "literary life" by W. David Kay, a widely respected Jonsonian. Meanwhile, lan Donaldson is preparing a massive new study, and much recent Jonson criticism (e.g., by Martin Butler) has had a decidedly biographical emphasis. All this interest attests to a renewed fascination with Jonson's life and art and to a renewed realization that, in his case at least, the two are tightly tied.

This is a book that Kay seemed destined to write; his early dissertation on Jonson was one of the best and fullest ever done (and is still very much worth consulting), and his various articles (such as the one on Jonson's early career) have become standard and enduring sources. The present book does everything it needs to do, and more. It provides a sane, sensible overview of the most important facts; it assesses and contextualizes the works; it reviews the major theoretical and biographical problems; it surveys previous scholarship; and it presents its findings in a style that is absolutely clear. This would be the first book to recommend to an intelligent student interested in Jonson's life.

If Kay had merely accomplished the feats just mentioned, his book would be worth reading. Characteristically, though, he has gone beyond the call of duty and produced a study that makes new and substantive contributions. He demonstrates, for instance, an extremely thorough familiarity with both primary and secondary sources; he seems to have scoured farflung books and journals for new information, providing (for example) new evidence that Jonson's Epigrams were first printed in 1612. He corrects errors in previous accounts and sometimes indicates his disagreements with alternative interpretations, but his tone is always good-natured, demonstrating by example that scholarship can be a cooperative enterprise. He sees new aspects of much-studied works (his comments on Catiline and Bartholomew Fair, for instance, will stimulate anyone interested in those plays), and his comments on such issues as Jonson's "anti-theatricalism" and his literary legacy deserve attention. Fortunately, his book is equipped with an unusually thorough index - a feature that will give the volume permanent value. Kay's scholarship is meticulous and right up to date, and the appended "Suggestions for Further Reading" are extremely thorough. The book is very fully annotated (Miles's volume, unfortunately, was not), and everyone working on any aspect of Jonson will first need to check what Kay has said.

Because Kay emphasizes the importance of rivalries in Jonson's career, his book is especially valuable for its discussion of literary sources; here he often breaks new ground, and indeed some of his insights would be worth exploring more fully in later studies. He does not shy away from (but rather emphasizes) the contradictions and tensions in Jonson's life and writings. This is a wise and mature book - one that tries to do Jonson the justice of taking him whole. One of its final judgments is typically intelligent: Jonson's "egotism" (Kay suggests) reflects his lofty aspirations, which help explain his achievements. This book is not the product of a few months' research (or of the latest critical fad) but of decades of considered thought. Kay has lived with Jonson, and it shows.

ROBERT C. EVANS Auburn University, Montgomery