Jonson's late plays

The SAD Shepherd Revisited

“…Reporting Jonson, but suppressing direct reference to the male member, drummond records that "Beaumont wrot that elegie on the death of the Countess of Rutland, and in effect her husband wanted the half of his * in his travels". 26 in epigram 50 of The Underwood, Jonson describes the countess as living as "a widowed wife, / [.…] to conquer rumour, and triumph on spite" (2,4). Although this observation seems to allude to a temporary separation, not sexual dysfunction, the earl and his wife, like the "billing pair" of The Sad Shepherd, are identified as common victims of "spite".…”

“…3 Richard Harp applauds the "excellence of the play's poetry […] and the freshness of the story", identifying it as "Jonson's final dramatic work […] written at the end of his life and left uncompleted at his death". 4 Julie sanders also takes it to be "very much a play rooted in the 1630s", in common with the The King's entertainment at Welbeck and Love's Welcome, although "unlike the 1633 and 1634 entertainments […] not written expressly for Cavendish". 5 But, if not for William Cavendish, earl of Newcastle, then for whom?…”