This collection features three of Jonson's masterpieces: Volpone , Epicoene , and The Alchemist . Also included are three masques: Mercury Vindicated from the Alchemist at Court , Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue , andnew to the Second Edition The Masque of Blackness , Jonson's first masque and one that deals with issues of interest to contemporary culture. Each text includes expanded annotations. Jonson on His Work collects statements by the author on plays and on poetry taken from some of the plays, from Discoveries , and from Conversations with William Drummond of Hawthornden . Contemporary Readers on Jonson includes tributes and poems about the author and his work. A new section Backgrounds and Sources "includes selections from texts that helped shaped the dramatist's vision. Criticism includes twelve essaysnine of them new to the Second Editionby Jonas A. Barish, Robert C. Evans, Anne Barton, John Dryden, Robert Watson, Edward B. Partridge, Ian Donaldson, Richard Harp, D. J. Gordon, Stephen Orgel, John Mulryan, and Leah S. Marcus. About the Series : No other series of classic texts equals the caliber of the Norton Critical Editions . Each volume combines the most authoritative text available with the comprehensive pedagogical apparatus necessary to appreciate the work fully. Careful editing, first-rate translation, and thorough explanatory annotations allow each text to meet the highest literary standards while remaining accessible to students. Each edition is printed on acid-free paper and every text in the series remains in print. Norton Critical Editions are the choice for excellence in scholarship for students at more than 2,000 universities worldwide.