School Book: Epicoene or the Silent Woman

This is the first play I've ever read by Ben Jonson. I wasn't really sure what to expect. Luckily Epicoene or the Silent Woman was a lot better than The Roaring Girl. It wasn't the best thing I've ever read, but it was highly entertaining and all came together in the end quite nicely.

Epicoene is the story of the gentleman Morose. Morose has decided that his nephew and heir, Dauphine, is good for nothing, so he wants to marry so his nephew will be disinherited. The only problem is that Morose absolutely hates noise, so he needs to find a woman who is relatively silent. He finds what he thinks is the perfect woman and marries her immediately, only to find that things aren't what they first seemed. Epicoene is a hilarious comedy full of all kinds of unpredictable twists. The only problem was that the dramatis personae gave away the biggest twist of all, which really took away from the play as a whole. Other than that it is a great read.