The New Inn, or The Light Heart is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy by English playwright and poet Ben Jonson. The New Inn is set in an inn-house in Barnett called the "Light Heart," whose host is Goodstock. Lady Frances Frampul invites some lords and gentlemen to wait on her at the inn. A melancholy gentlemen, Lord Lovel, has been lodged there some days before. In the third act, he is demanded by Lady Frampul what love is and describes so vividly the effects of love that she becomes enamoured of him. Lady Frampul's chambermaid, Prudence, dresses up as queen for the day and presides over a mock "court of love." As part of their theatrical project, Prudence and Lady Frampul decide to dress up the Host's adopted son Franck in a cross-gender attire as Laetitia, a waiting-woman. Lord Beaufort, guest to Lady Frampul, falls in love with Laetitia and marries her in secret, only to be denounced for marrying a boy.
- ISBN10 0719015308
- ISBN13 9780719015304
- Publish Date 25 April 1986
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 22 May 1996
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Manchester University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 256
- Language English