<p>Episode 215:</p><br><p>Last time Ben Jonson regained his stride in the public theatre with his comedy ‘Volpone’, an at moments sparkling satire of greed and avarice.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Just about the only parallel I can draw between this and Shakespeare’s next offering, ‘Timon of Athens’, is that the study of greed appears in both, but they are very different plays in tone, character and intent.&nbsp;&nbsp;Shakespeare not only continued in his recent sombre mood but deepened it significantly with this play.&nbsp;&nbsp;When reading around the play in preparation for this episode on more than one occasion I saw the play cited as Shakespeare’s least popular play, it is certainly one that is rarely performed and there are many questions about the ‘whys and hows’ of its creation, so buckle up, this might well be more than a little challenging.</p><br><p><br></p><p>The early performance and print history of the play</p><p>The source material for the play</p><p>The possible co-authorship of the play</p><p>A brief synopsis of the plot</p><p>The structure of the play</p><p>The character of Timon</p><p>Issues with explaining Timon’s behaviour</p><p>Timon’s railing against Athens and mankind</p><p>Timon’s discovery of buried gold</p><p>Timon’s death</p><p>The character of Alcibiades</p><p>The play as a satire of wealth rather than a tragedy</p><p>The later performance history</p><p>Some of the critical assessments of the play</p><br><p><br></p><p>Support the podcast at:</p><p><a href="http://www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com</a></p><p><a href="http://www.patreon.com/thoetp" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.patreon.com/thoetp</a></p><p><a href="http://www.ko-fi.com/thoetp" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.ko-fi.com/thoetp</a></p><br><p>You can find an advertisement free version of the latest podcast episodes by joining on Patreon at the lowest paid tier level – that’s for just £1 per month.&nbsp;</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>