{"product_id":"bartholmew-fair-9780713674279","title":"Bartholmew Fair","description":"Early modern London - too foggy and Protestant to have a carnival -\u003cbr\u003eoffered its inhabitants commercial events during which to indulge their\u003cbr\u003eneed for bodily delights and festival exuberance. The fair of St\u003cbr\u003eBartholmew, held anually in Smithfield on 24 August, served Jonson as\u003cbr\u003ean opportunity to dissect a wide cross-section of Londoners and their\u003cbr\u003evarious reasons for spending a day out among the booths, stalls, smells\u003cbr\u003eand noises of the fair. Unusually magnanimous for a Jonsonian city\u003cbr\u003ecomedy, the main thrust of the satire is not against fools, madmen, \u003cbr\u003efortune-hunters, cuckolds or prostitutes, but against hypocrisy and\u003cbr\u003ebigotry. This edition shows that the play can be read as a\u003cbr\u003ecomprehensive refutation of puritanism and the London magistracy, both\u003cbr\u003eof whom were attacking the theatre (and the festive culture of which it\u003cbr\u003ewas still part) as idolatrous, seditious and disorderly.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlexander Leggatt is Professor of English at University College, \u003cbr\u003eUniversity of Toronto. He studied at the University of Toronto and at\u003cbr\u003ethe Shakespeare Institute, and has taught at the University of Toronto\u003cbr\u003esince 1965. G. R. Hibbard was Emeritus Professor of English, University\u003cbr\u003eof Waterloo, Ontario.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Methuen Drama","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51589799772434,"sku":"9780713674279","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_d704f29f-2215-4e58-9116-657bd3f2fc8a.jpg?v=1756807063","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/bartholmew-fair-9780713674279","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}