Epicœne, or The Silent Woman, also known as Epicene, is a comedy by Renaissance playwright Ben Jonson. The play is about a man named Dauphine who creates a scheme to get his inheritance from his uncle Morose. The plan involves setting Morose up to marry Epicoene, a boy disguised as a woman. It was originally performed by the Blackfriars Children, or Children of the Queen"s Revels, a group of boy players, in 1609. Excluding its two prologues, the play is written entirely in prose.
The first performance of Epicœne was, by Jonson"s admission, a failure. Years later, however, John Dryden and others championed it, and after the Res...
