‘Sprinkled Among your Ears’: Ben Jonson, John Marston and the Cultivation of the Listening Connoisseur
This chapter argues that Ben Jonson, John Marston, and others positioned city comedy as a sophisticated sonic alternative to the booming (in every sense) revenge plays of the 1580s and 90s. To hear and appreciate city comedy was said to require a more selective ear, being able to tune out unwanted noises while making sense of the sounds that matter. Listening well becomes in these plays one of the social skills that must be mastered in order to participate fully in city life -- in short, it becomes the stuff, or the subject matter, of city comedy. Ultimately, city comedies train men and women to hear in the very ways they suggest only the privileged few could, introducing playgoers to new auditory practices that could fundamentally transform their experience of London’s soundscapes.