11 - Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour : a Case Study

Summary

The use of the term, case study , in the sciences yields some interesting ambivalences. In the physical sciences it tends to be applied to a study which determines the representative qualities of a system, process or type; and similarly in the natural sciences the intention is generally to define through a close observation of the individual example the nature of the species or genus (genre) to which the sample belongs. The impetus here is to generalise from the particular. In the psychological sciences and psychoanalysis, a different intention is usually to be observed in operation: the case history investigates that which subtly distinguishes the particular individual undergoing study from the norm, defines his/her exceptional or unique qualities of being that determine selfhood. What is presented to our understanding is a specific psyche and sensibility; and the focus of study is directed towards those qualities that make for originality.

But why begin this essay by determining different applications of the term, case study? Jonson's Every Man in His Humour is unusual amongst extant texts of Renaissance plays in that it exists in two distinct versions. So, of course, do Hamlet and King Lear and several other major works of the period; but the revised texts in these instances were effected relatively close in time to the original compositions, even if one of the versions chanced not to be printed until some two decades later. Every Man in His Humour was first printed as a quarto in 1601, three years after it was successfully staged by the Lord Chamberlain's Men.