Hot Anger Soon Cold
Henry Porter, Henry Chettle and Ben Jonson (1598)
Historical Records
Payments to Playwrights (Henslowe’s Diary)
Fol. 49 (Greg I.94)
lent vnto the company the 18 of aguste 1598 to } bye a Boocke called hoote anger sone cowld of } mr porter mr cheattell & bengemen Johnson in } vjli fulle payment the some of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . }
Theatrical Provenance
Presumably performed by the Admiral's Men at the Rose in the summer or autumn of 1598.
Probable Genre(s)
Comedy (Harbage).
Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues
Wiggins, Catalogue #1139 opines that play might have been about humours; he bases this on the "hot anger" of the title that, in its turn to "cold," predicts an ending in melancholy.
References to the Play
None known.
Critical Commentary
Carson speculates that the play was "almost certainly completed" (49) and that Jonson may have been "brought in as 'coadjutor' in a relatively subordinate role" to help Wilson and Chettle, who had recently collaborated on "Black Bateman of the North, Part 2" (62).
Donaldson points out that "[a]nger was a subject of some interest to Jonson, whose surviving commedies often depict wrathful eruptions of the kind indicated by this title...; and also to Porter" (1:110).
For What It's Worth
The title looks like a pun on the two common proverbial expressions "Hot love is soon cold" and "Soon hot, soon cold".
Works Cited
Site created and maintained by Domenico Lovascio, University of Genoa; updated 05 March 2015.