480 Reviews The principal reservation one might have about the volume as a whole involves the nascent subject's need for a more sharply defined discourse. Ivic and Williams express in their useful introduction how the essays aim 'to challenge and expand the present critical vocabulary with which we understand early Modern English culture and its literature' (p. 14). But while the contributors all acknowledge distinctions between many forms of 'forgetting' (oblivion, denial, suppression, distraction, and so forth), the subtle discriminations do not always conspicuously obtain within the individual papers. As the problem compounds across subdivisions, the topic comes to seem somewhat nebulous and difficultto engage. We may question, for instance, the precise applicability of Elizabeth Mazzola's work on slavery in Spenser's legend of courtesy?though stimulating in its own right?to the subject under consideration. While a greater internal discipline is perhaps most wanted at this preliminary turn, the freshness and intelligence of these readings surely confirm the vitality of 'forget? ting' in Elizabethan and Jacobean culture, and the critical energy evident throughout the performances recommends the edition highly. Boston University Christopher Martin Jonsonians: Living Traditions. Ed. by Brian Woolland. (Studies in Performance and Early Modern Drama) Aldershot: Ashgate. 2003. xv + 246pp. ?45; $79.95. ISBN 0-7546-0610-4. The reputation of Ben Jonson has been sufferingfrom comparison with Shakespeare ever since Milton opposed the latter,'Fancy's child, | Warbl[ing] his native woodnotes wild', to the former and his 'learned sock'. In more recent times, we have constructed an opposition between a literary Jonson, writing dramatic texts for readers rather than just spectators, to a theatrical Shakespeare who allegedly wrote only for the stage, a view that does not bear close scrutiny. The diametrical opposition has benefited neither Shakespeare nor Jonson, so the attempt ofJonsonians: Living Traditions to refineour image of Jonson's legacy and to query our perception of what and who is 'Jonsonian' is to be welcomed. The collection consists of thirteen essays plus an introduction, written by a total of nine contributors, two of whom have produced half the volume: there are three essays (plus the introduction) by Brian Woolland and three by Richard A. Cave (who, I assume, is identical with 'Richard Allen Cave', as the author of one of these three is called). The introduction provides a useful guide to the collection, but unnecessarily evaluates the various contributions: one essay 'energetically proposes' (p. 3), another one offers'a particularly fruitfuldiscussion', and others are 'wide-ranging' and 'witty and informative' (p. 5), judgements which are best leftto the readers. The thirteen essays are divided into three parts, Part 1 on 'Jonsonian Theatre', Part 11on 'Sons and Daughters of Ben', and Part 111on 'Jonsonians in the Modern Period'. The four essays in Part 1 explore in a variety of ways how certain Jonson plays, Poetaster, Sejanus his Fall, Bartholomew Fair, The New Inn, and The Magnetic Lady, 'might themselves be considered Jonsonian' (p. 3). Julie Sanders's essay constitutes one of the collection's highlights, notable not only for its endeavour 'to establish what is particular about Jonson's Caroline dramatic canon' (p. 51) but also for its attention to how modern performance and modern dramatists can produce meaning in instructive ways. Other essays in this part seem rather too anxious to make Jonson 'relevant' to our modern day and age, however: Sejanus is 'relevant to? day' as its 'central concern [. . .] is how we, an audience, respond to the contingency of corruption' (p. 40); as for Bartholomew Fair, 'Fairs haven't changed very much during the intervening centuries so it is still relevant' (p. 43). MLRy 100.2, 2005 481 The three essays in Part 11investigate the relationship of Jonson's plays to those of a number of his seventeenth-century successors: Nathan Field and Richard Brome, 'The Play writing Sons of Ben' (p. 69), according to the title of Cave's essay, Aphra Behn, 'an honorary Son [sie] of Ben' (p. 93), in the words of Carolyn D. Williams; and a number ofother Restoration'Daughters of Ben' (p. 107)?Elizabeth Polwhele, Mar? garet Cavendish, Mary Pix, and Susanna Centlivre?as explored by Alison Findlay. Part iii 'explores the relationship of Jonson...