Bartholomew Fair

Ben Jonson · 1614 CE · Play · English · Renaissance

A magistrate goes to Smithfield in disguise to catch the fair at its worst, a Puritan preacher goes to denounce the pig-booth and eats there instead, and a rich simpleton walks in with a purse the cutpurses can hear from across the ground. Ballad-sellers, a horse-courser, a pig-woman and a puppet show carry a crowd of Londoners through one afternoon of appetite and loss. Jonson's largest and least tidy comedy is built like a fair: everyone talking at once and nobody in charge.

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