Article: Jonson's 'Bartholomew Fair.'

Many critics of Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair have commented on the anti-Semitic remarks of Zeal-of-the-Land Busy(1) at the end of act 1, but the concomitant allusive remarks made by Proctor Littlewit ("I could never away with that stiff-necked generation" [1.6.99-100]) have generally been overlooked, even in the commentaries of editions of the play (including Herford and Simpson's). Littlewit's utterance of "stiff-necked people" alludes to the Old Testament,(2) which includes this singular phrase eight times,(3) especially in the hook of Exodus (in which the phrase occurs four times). In the parallel contexts of scene and allusion, the allusion elevates the incidental ...

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