The Staple of News

Benjamin Jonson (1572-1637) was a Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor, known best for his satirical plays and lyric poems. His career began in 1597 when he held a fixed engagement in "The Admiral's Men", and although he was unsuccessful as an actor, his literary talent was apparent and he began writing original plays for the troupe. Although Jonson attained a long and thriving career, the majority of his major works for which he is revered were produced between 1605 and 1620. Part of his late comedies, dubbed by Dryden as his "dotages," "The Staple of News" is a satire on the newspaper and news agency business that was quickly developing at the time. The plot draws on at least five plays by Aristophanes, and tells the story of the plutocratic Lady Pecunia, an array of wooers and jeerers, and a group of women who represent "females out of control," a common theme of Jonson's work.