Of Jonson's works, the satires are some of his most well-known. Every Man in His Humour was written in 1598 and was the first of his many "humour plays." Following Every Man in His Humour was a sequel, Every Man Out of His Humour. Though the first of the two plays was received well by audiences, the sequel was not such a success.
The idea of humour plays was not original to Jonson. His contemporary, George Chapman, wrote a play centered around the bodily humours at that time as well. Black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood were the four "humours" believed to control a person's temperament and health. Since the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans, those basic fluids were a basis for medicine and many other ideas. Ben Jonson utilized this theory in his play by making each character dominated by a certain humour. References to that theme are made throughout the play such as when Bobadill confesses to having a "filthy humour of quarrelling", or when Cash blames "thy humour" for Cob's distress.
The play was first performed by Lord Chamberlain’s Men in 1598 at the Curtain Theatre. It was acted at Court on February 2nd, 1605. Shakespeare himself may have played Knowell in these early stagings, and other notable actors such as Will Kemp and Will Slye played parts.
The play was very popular and was published almost immediately. It remained in the King’s Men repertory until the closing of the theaters in 1642. Every Man was revived in 1675, then in 1725. In 1751 David Garrick revived it again and made notable alterations to the text. Kitely was Garrick’s signature role, and the play became associated with him to the extent that it eventually fell out of favor as a mere “Garrick vehicle.” In 1845, Dickens mounted a production of the play and played Bobadil.
Though the humours are an essential theme to the play, Jonson's deeper love of parodying his own culture is also shown in Every Man in His Humour. Originally it was set in Florence, but Jonson later revised it for the 1616 folio and set it in London. This is significant because it allowed the audience to be familiar with the types of people and places that were being parodied. It brought the social satire close to home, and also used particular fashion trends and manners to engage and mirror the audience.
The audience was also supposed to admire, or understand at the very least, the language of the play. Jonson stayed away from innovative vocabulary, and aimed to mainly capture the world around him, and the language of the lower class. His education and interest in the humanist movement gave him a love for the classics that deeply influenced his writing style. Though he did not strictly follow Neoclassical ideals, he nonetheless appreciated them, and applied them when possible.
Ben Jonson's satires are looked on fondly now, but he was taking a risk by publishing them. Just after Every Man in His Humour was published, there was a band on satire in England. Jonson published the sequel nonetheless, and though it did not get him in too much trouble, some of his later shows did. Eastward Ho! was a satire co-written with George Chapman and John Marston that poked fun at the Scots; this angered the Scottish King James and landed Jonson and Chapman in jail. Despite that and some other legal blunders, Ben Jonson went on to write many other memorable plays like Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair that no doubt were indebted to a degree to his humour plays.
