DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks

1607 Jonson, Ben Volpone, or The Fox

Reference Information

DEEP #: 504
Greg #: 259a(i)
STC/Wing #: 14783
Record Type: Single-Play Playbook
Play Type: Adult Professional
Genre (Annals): Comedy
 
Book Edition: 1
Play Edition: 1
Format: Quarto
Leaves: 60
Date of First Publication: 1607
Date of First Production: 1606 [1605-1606]
Company of First Production: King's Men
Company Attribution: n/a
 
Total Editions: 1 quarto, 2 folios in collection
 
Variants: The preliminaries exist in two states: Greg 259a(i) is in the original state, while in Greg 259a(ii), a leaf was inserted, probably after A3, containing additional commendatory verses by "N. F." See also Greg 259a(ii)

Title-Page Features

Title: VOLPONE Or THE FOXE.
Author: BEN: IONSON his
Performance:
Latin Motto: — Simul & iucunda, & idonea dicere vitæ.
Imprint: Printed for Thomas Thorppe. 1607.

Paratextual Material

Dedication: Dedication to: Cambridge University; and the University of Oxford; from: Ben Jonson [¶1r]. "The Epistle" to: the University of Oxford; and Cambridge University; from: Ben Jonson [¶1v].
Commendatory Verses: 10: by "E. B."; "I. D."; "T. R." (2); "F. B."; "D. D."; "I. C."; "G. C."; "E. S."; "I. F." [¶4v]
Argument: "The Argument" (verses) [A4r, sometimes mis-signed A2]
Character List: "The Persons of the Comoedye" [A4r, sometimes mis-signed A2]

Stationer Information

Printer: Eld, George
Publisher: Thorpe, Thomas
Entries in Stationers' Register: Oct 3, 1610: Transferred from Thomas Thorpe to Walter Burre: "2 bookes, ... thother, Vulpone or the ffoxe".
Jul 4, 1635: Transferred from Walter Burre decd. to William Stansby: "by vertue of a noate vnder the hand" of Walter Burre and Matthew Lownes, Warden, "bearing date the 10th of Iune 1621 ... The ffox".