Every Man in His Humor, not Jonson's greatest but probably his most influential play, first acted

by the Lord Chamberlain's Men in

1598, was entered in the Stationers' Register August 4, 1600, and was printed the following year. This version, with its scene laid in
Florence and its chief characters bearing Italian names, was later carefully revised by Jonson for publication in the 1616 folio. The
scene was shifted to London, the characters were given English names and were more individualized, and the expression in general
was much altered, the most notable change being the excision of Lorenzo's (Knowell's) defense of poetry at the end of the play, a
passage which delayed the action and to Jonson's mind probably violated the principle of decorum because it was unsuited to such a
gathering. The plot is of Jonson's own invention, but from Chapman's An Humorous Day's Mirth (1599) he drew hints for the gull,
and from Plautine comedy he derived the suggestion of a pair of elderly persons deceived and outwitted by a pair of clever, young
men, is well as the shrewd serving-man and the braggart soldier. In its preservation of unity of tone, its observance of the unities of
time, place, and action, and its truth to what is typical or normal in action and character, the play shows a definite adherence to the
requirements of classical comedy as formulated by Renaissance criticism, notably by Sidney in his Defense of Poesy, published in
1595. The prologue to the later version of the play presents Jonson's essential dramatic theory for all his comedies. He here expresses
condemnation of the wildly romantic tendencies in the drama and declares his purpose to "show the image of the times" by employing
"deeds and language such as men do use," and to make follies, not crimes, his chief consideration.

Table of the four humours in Renaissance and Elizabethan time

Humour Body Produced Element Qualities Complexion and Personality

substance by body type

Sanguine blood liver air Hot and moist Red-cheeked, Amourous,

corpulent happy, generous,
optimistic,
irresponsible

Choleric Yellow bile spleen fire Hot and dry Red-haired, thin Violent,
vengeful, short-
tempered,
ambitious

Phlegmatic phlegm lungs water Cold and corpulent Sluggish, pallid,

moist cowardly

Melancholic Black bile Gall earth Cold and dry Introspective,

bladder sentimental,
Sallow, thin gluttonous

Theory of Humours

Ben Jonson modelled himself on classical authors and his characters were types like those of Theophrastus, or were intended to
illustrate the theory of Humours. In early Western physiological theory, a Humour is one of the four fluids of the body that were
thought to determine a person's temperament and features. In the ancient physiological theory still current in the European Middle
Ages and later, the four cardinal humours were blood, phlegm, choler (yellow bile), and melancholy (black bile); the variant mixtures
of these humours in different persons determined their complexions, or temperaments, their physical and mental qualities, and
their dispositions. The ideal person had the ideally proportioned mixture of the four; a predominance of one produced a person who
was sanguine (Latin sanguis, blood), phlegmatic, choleric, or melancholic.