BEN JONSON was perhaps the most ' Italianate' of Elizabethan dramatists. With the infamously treated heroine of Volpone in mind, JOHN HALE reviews the attitude to women revealed in the comedy of the Italian Renaissance.
J. R. Hale , Professor of Italian at University College. London, is a historian with a particular interest in the social history of the Renaissance.
(Volpone can be heard on Radio 3 next Sunday)