Every Man in His Humour

EVERY MAN IN HIS HUMOUR AS A COMEDY OF HUMOURS

Ben Jonson is considered by many critics to be the equal of Shakespeare. The value of Ben Jonson’s plays is that they give us vivid pictures of Elizabethan society, its speech, fashions, and amusements.  Shakespeare pictures men and women as they might be in any age but Jonson is content to picture the men and women of London as they appeared in the 16th century. He wrote his plays more like a rebel and reformer than a representative of his age. In temperament he was inclined towards comedy.  But the comedies he wrote were different from the romances of the Elizabethan dramatists.  His aim was to expose in his plays the follies and foibles of people clothing them in comic patterns.

In pursuing his cherished aim ‘to sport with human follies and not with crimes’, Ben Jonson was guided by a popular medical theory of the time.  It was believed that a man’s temperament was determined by four fluids or humours present in his body.  These four humours were classified as the sanguine, the choleric, the phlegmatic and the melancholic.  A man of sound character was known to contain the four humours in a balanced proportion.  Too much any one of them made him eccentric or humorous. Ben Jonson’s comedies were directly linked with this theory and therefore came to be known as the comedies of humour.

Every Man in His Humour is one of Jonson’s best-known comedies and the most influential plays. Considered as the comedy of humours, the play describes the efforts of a young, well-born man to wed his true love though his father tries to stop the wedding.

The play opens with the miss delivery of a letter addressed to Edward Knowell. It is written by Wellbred, a friend of Edward inviting the latter to visit the Windmill Tavern.  The letter reaches the hands of Old Knowell.  The letter rouses the suspicion of the father about the nobility of his son. He sets out to investigate the matter. The father always believes that his son Edward has become wasteful and derailed. Edward actually visits the city both to visit his friend, Wellbred, and to seek the hand of Bridget who is from a lower economic and social class. But realizing that his father is following him and intent on damaging his attempts to wed Bridget, Edward begs the help of his father’s clever servant Brainworm who assumes several masks to trick Old Knowell and foil his pursuit.

Kitely, the brother of Bridget, is one of Jonson’s most striking ‘humours’. He is presented as a fool who doubts the fidelity of his wife. He is jealous and colours all his thoughts and behaviour accordingly. Then there is a very thin love intrigue between Bridget and Edward Knowell. All the twists are finally resolved at Justice Clement’s house.  Kitely’s jealousy and his wife’s suspicion are found baseless.  Brainworm unmasks his disguise. Old Knowell realizes that his son Edward is true and honest.  He realizes his folly and gives his consent for the marriage of Edward with Bridget.  The wedding of Edward and Bridget takes place.

Every Man in His Humour introduces a group of eccentric characters.  Each of the character has a particular humour.  Knowell’s humour is that he is excessively anxious and suspicious of the attitude of his son.  Kitely’s humour is his jealousy which is humorous.  Justice Clement is a crazy magistrate and his fond of liquor.  Stephen humour is his melancholy mood.  Edward and Wellbred’s humours are their sense of intellectual superiority.  Humour as the trait of absurdity, eccentricity or abnormality is perfectly portrayed in the play.