Matthew Steggle's collection of critical essays deals perspicaciously with many of the painful questions that linger about Ben Jonson's most popular play … Steggle's collection confirms the power and wit of Jonson's most enduring stage comedy.

The Sixteenth Century Journal

Offers the most wide-ranging and thought-provoking overview of Jonson's comedy ever assembled. It considers the play both as a literary text and as a performance piece, covering its history on the stage and in critical commentary, and so illuminating the current state of scholarship on this most provocative and ambiguous of plays. The well-balanced essays are not afraid to disagree with each other and repeatedly point us towards exciting new questions about a play which is all too often castrated by being labelled a 'classic'. It will be of value to scholars, teachers and students alike. Future study of Volpone starts here.

Richard Dutton, Ohio State University, USA