Parodying Shakespeare’s Euripides in Bartholomew Fair

Chapter 6, “Parodying Shakespeare’s Euripides in Bartholomew Fair,” argues that Shakespeare’s fascination with Greek tragedy’s female icons led his contemporaries to identify him with the dramatic tradition they represented. In particular, Ben Jonson adopts an Aristophanic strategy to parody Shakespeare’s versions of Euripidean heroines in Bartholomew Fair. The play simultaneously imitates, mocks, and pays homage to Shakespeare’s tragicomic restorations, through parodic versions of the Greek female figures who shape their miraculous reversals. Allusions to Ceres, Furies, and Hero and Leander highlight Greek tragic patterns including suffering mothers and daughters, reunions with veiled wives returning from a mock-underworld, and a suffering virgin escaping the sacrifice of an unwanted marriage. Tracing these Euripidean underpinnings illuminates Jonson’s responses not only to Shakespeare, but also to Greek plays. In his tongue-in-cheek recreations of Shakespeare’s Euripidean plots, Jonson recreates their pleasurable redemptions while maintaining his wry skepticism toward their miraculous resolutions.