YES, 38.i & 2, 2008 275 thecourtiers' own lives' (p. 93). The final section, devoted toLodge, makes some telling points about the textual status of culturally displaced females in his prose fictions,and the abilities of such characters to author theirown destinies. Here, Wilson is eager to differentiate the authorial ambitions of Lodge from other figures considered in the volume, and her brief account of the influence upon Lodge of Senecan tragedy and Marguerite de Navarre's Heptame'ron, forexample, indicates furtheravenues for fruitful enquiry. UNIVERSITY OFWALES, BANGOR ANDREw HISCOCK BenJonson inthe RomanticAge. ByTOMLOCKWOOD. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2005. Xii + 257 PP. ?5I. ISBN: 978-0-I9-928078-0. According to the standard accounts, theRomantic age seems to have been both friend and foe tojonson: it managed to see Jonson anew and, most would agree, better; but it also, and rather ironically, managed to lose sight of him. As often, Shakespeare was Jonson's problem. Having previously been forced to play the role of dull foil in argu ments on behalf of Shakespeare's bright genius, once Shakespeare's greatness was agreed,Jonson was allowed tobe himself again. Yet, asJonson had largelybeen seen to be of interestjust because of his role as Shakespeare's envious antithesis, a friendly Jonson was lefttowander quietly in the culturalmargins. As Ben Jonsonin the RomanticAge shows, the standard accounts need revision.Jonson's influence, while not growing, continues tobe significantthroughout theyears from I776 to i850. Lockwood characterizes that influencewith an understated theoretical sophis ticationas he examines, in successive chapters,Jonson's theatrical,critical, editorial, and literaryafterlives.These chapters offera wealth of new information and correctives to previous accounts. The retrievalof thedetail of Jonson's afterlives is,however, only half of Lockwood's story;he isequally interested in seeing howJonson's presence can enrich our understanding of the Romantic age. Following D. E McKenzie and Jerome J. McGann, Lockwood considers the cultural networkswithin which theperiod's engage ments withJonson occurred and which gave those engagements theirhistorically specific meaning. The point made repeatedly and well is thatwho Jonson was seen tobe and what his works were seen to representwere questions both contestable and contested; Jonson was, inotherwords, a livelycultural presence. How important, then,was Jonson to theRomantic age? Taking Coleridge as his key figure,Lockwood argues thatJonson iscentral to the age's understanding of thenature of imitationand allusion. In a deftand historically nuanced analysis,Coleridge's under standing of literaryrelationships is seen tobe a product both of his thinkingabout the nature of Milton's relationship with Jonson and also of his thinkingabout the then topical 'bullion debate', which concerned thenature of the relationship between paper money and gold and silver. Lockwood suggests thatColeridge saw his and others' poems as theequivalent of a paper currency,as thepromissory notes that might substitute for, or replace entirely, Jonsonian and other literarybullion. Jonson's creative influence, then,was clearly significant,but Lockwood does not try to suggest that itwas anywhere near the equal of Shakespeare's orMilton's influence. 276 Reviews Francis Waldron's edition and continuation of Jonson's The Sad Shepherd(I783) seems exemplary here. Lockwood makes good use of thisplay to show thevariety and inter related nature of the audiences towhomJonson was of interest. What one might also note is theway inwhich Waldron's able and sensible continuation gradually loses its Jonsonian voice. Acts Iand iishowJonson, unusually, engaging on a large scale and posi tively with Spenser, and particularly with The Faerie Queene.However, in the following three acts,which were written byWaldron, Jonson's presence fades as the influence of Spenser recedes, tobe replaced by thatof Shakespeare and, inparticular, The Tempest. Even forJonson's greatest admirers, it seems itwas impossible to imagine his plays in any but Shakespearean terms. UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL JOHN LEE TheOxford Shakespeare: Othello. Ed. by MICHAEL NEILL. Oxford: ClarendonPress.2006. X + 491 pp. C6i. ISBN: 978-o-i9-8I2920-2. Michael Neill's Othello is an impressive edition that presents and illuminates Shakespeare's play in a manner that isboth accessible and informative.He provides a rigorouslyannotated version of theplay and extensive accompanying scholarly appara tus, such as appendices on the play's dating, Bruno Ferraro's translation of Gli Hecatommithi, and an essay...