Digesting Aristophanes: the Assimilation of Attic Old Comedy in Jonson’s The Alchemist

This article re-examines the complex relationship between Ben Jonson and Aristophanes, with particular focus on The Alchemist. Traditional scholarship often assumed Jonson to be a direct imitator of Aristophanic comedy, but this study argues for a more nuanced understanding of their connection. Drawing on Genette’s categories of transtextuality, the article demonstrates how Jonson progressively moved from explicit and conspicuous references to Aristophanes toward a deeper, silent assimilation of his dramaturgical code. In The Alchemist, Aristophanic influence emerges not as obvious reference but as structural and thematic appropriation — especially in the depiction of deceit, the ambiguous morality of deceivers and victims, and the atypical comic resolution of Act 5. By identifying previously unrecognised similarities with Knights and Birds, the study shows how Aristophanic theatregrams informed Jonson’s dramaturgy, contributing to his break from Hellenistic-Roman models and the development of a distinctive comic code. KEYWORDS: Ben Jonson; Aristophanes; The Alchemist; Old Comedy; intertextuality; architextuality; transtextuality