Citizendia
Your Ad Here

For other persons of the same name, see Ben Johnson (disambiguation). Ben Johnson or Benjamin Johnson may be Ben Johnson (sprinter (born 1961 Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson (politician (1858&ndash1950
Ben Jonson

Ben Jonson by Abraham Blyenberch, c. 1617.
Born c. 11 June 1572
Westminster, London, England
Died 6 August 1637
Westminster, London, England
Occupation Dramatist, poet and actor

Benjamin Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – 6 August 1637) was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. Events 1184 BC - Trojan War: Troy is sacked and burned according to the calculations of Eratosthenes. Westminster is an area of Central London, within the City of Westminster. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Events 1538 - Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada. Westminster is an area of Central London, within the City of Westminster. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Employment is a Contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or Drama. A poet is a person who writes Poetry. Etymology From the Ancient greek: ποιέω, poieō: "I make or compose" An actor, actress, player or thespian (see terminology) is a person who Acts in a Dramatic production and who works Events 1184 BC - Trojan War: Troy is sacked and burned according to the calculations of Eratosthenes. Events 1538 - Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland The English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England dating from the early 16th century to the early 17th century A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or Drama. A poet is a person who writes Poetry. Etymology From the Ancient greek: ποιέω, poieō: "I make or compose" An actor, actress, player or thespian (see terminology) is a person who Acts in a Dramatic production and who works A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair which are considered his best, and his lyric poems. William Shakespeare ( baptised Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and Performing arts In satire human Volpone, or The Fox (in Italian: "Big Fox" is a Comedy by Ben Jonson first produced in 1606 drawing on elements The Alchemist is a Comedy by English playwright Ben Jonson. First performed in 1610 by the King's Men, it is generally Bartholomew Fair is a Comedy in five acts by Ben Jonson, the last written of his four great comedies Lyric poetry refers to a usually short poem that expresses personal feelings which may or may not be set to music A man of vast reading and a seemingly insatiable appetite for controversy, Jonson had an unparalleled breadth of influence on Jacobean and Caroline playwrights and poets. The term English literature refers to Literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by Writers not necessarily from The term English literature refers to Literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by Writers not necessarily from A house in Dulwich College is named after him. Dulwich College is an independent selective fee-paying public school for boys in Dulwich, a suburb of south-east London United Kingdom

Contents

Early life

Although he was born in Westminster, London, Jonson claimed his family was of Scottish Border country descent, and this claim may have been supported by the fact that his coat of arms bears three spindles or rhombi, a device shared by a Borders family, the Johnstones of Annandale. Westminster is an area of Central London, within the City of Westminster. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. The border country is the area either side of the Anglo-Scottish border including parts of the modern Council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and the A coat of arms or armorial bearings (often just arms for short in European tradition is a design belonging to a particular person (or group of people In Geometry, a rhombus (from Ancient Greek ῥόμβος - rrhombos “rhombus spinning top” (plural rhombi or rhombuses For other places called Annandale see Annandale (disambiguation. His father died a month before Ben's birth, and his mother remarried two years later, to a master bricklayer. A bricklayer or mason is a Tradesman who lays bricks to construct Brickwork. Jonson attended school in St. Martin's Lane, and was later sent to Westminster School, where one of his teachers was William Camden. St Martin's Lane is a street in Central London, which runs from the church of St The Royal College of St Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain 's leading boys' Independent schools with William Camden ( 2 May 1551 &ndash 9 November 1623) was an English Antiquarian and historian Jonson remained friendly with Camden, whose broad scholarship evidently influenced his own style, until the latter's death in 1623. On leaving, Jonson was once thought to have gone on to the University of Cambridge; Jonson himself said that he did not go to university, but was put to a trade immediately: a legend recorded by Fuller indicates that he worked on a garden wall in Lincoln's Inn. The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University) located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the Thomas Fuller (1608 &ndash August 16, 1661) was an English churchman and historian The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which Barristers of England and Wales belong and where He soon had enough of the trade, probably bricklaying, and spent some time in the Low Countries as a volunteer with the regiments of Francis Vere. The Low Countries, the historical region of de Nederlanden, are the countries on low-lying land around the delta of the Rhine, Scheldt Francis Vere (1560-1609 English soldier was the son of Geoffrey Vere of Crepping Hall Essex, and nephew of John de Vere 16th Earl of Oxford Jonson reports that while in the Netherlands, he killed an opponent in single combat and stripped him of his weapons. . [1]

Ben Jonson married, some time before 1594, a woman he described to Drummond as "a shrew, yet honest. " His wife has not been definitively identified, but she is sometimes identified as the Ann Lewis who married a Benjamin Jonson at St Magnus-the-Martyr, near London Bridge. St Magnus-the-Martyr is an Anglican church in Bridge ward of the City of London, located on Lower Thames Street near the modern London London Bridge is a Bridge between the City of London and Southwark in London, England, over the River Thames. The registers of St. Martin's Church state that his eldest daughter Mary died in November, 1593, when she was only six months old. His eldest son Benjamin died of the plague ten years later (Jonson's epitaph to him On My First Sonne was written shortly after), and a second Benjamin died in 1635. On My First Sonne, a poem by Ben Jonson, was written after the 1603 death of Jonson's first son Benjamin at age seven For five years somewhere in this period, Jonson lived separate from his wife, enjoying instead the hospitality of Lord Aubigny. Esmé Stewart 3rd Duke of Lennox KG (1579 &ndash July 30 1624) was the son of Esmé Stewart 1st Duke of Lennox.

By the summer of 1597, Jonson had a fixed engagement in the Admiral's Men, then performing under Philip Henslowe's management at The Rose. The Admiral's Men (also called the Admiral's company, more strictly the Earl of Nottingham's Men; after 1603, Prince Henry's Men; after The Rose was an Elizabethan theatre. It was the fourth of the public theatres to be built after The Theatre ( 1576) the Curtain John Aubrey reports, on uncertain authority, that Jonson was not successful as an actor; whatever his skills as an actor, he was evidently more valuable to the company as a writer. "How these curiosities would be quite forgott did not such idle fellowes as I am putt them down

By this time, Jonson had begun to write original plays for the Lord Admiral's Men; in 1598, he was mentioned by Francis Meres in his Palladis Tamia as one of "the best for tragedy. Francis Meres (1565 &ndash January 29, 1647) was an English churchman and Author. " None of his early tragedies survive, however. An undated comedy, The Case is Altered, may be his earliest surviving play. The Case is Altered is an early comedy by Ben Jonson. First published in 1609, the play presents a range of problems for scholars attempting to understand

In 1597, a play co-written with Thomas Nashe entitled The Isle of Dogs was suppressed after supposedly causing great offense, much to the bemusement of modern-day critics and sensibilities. The Isle of Dogs is a play by Thomas Nashe and Ben Jonson which was performed in 1597. Arrest warrants for Jonson and Nashe were subsequently issued by Elizabeth's so-called interrogator, Richard Topcliffe. Richard Topcliffe ( 14 November 1531 – 1604 was a landowner and Member of Parliament during the reign of Elizabeth I of England. Jonson was jailed in Marshalsea Prison and famously charged with "Leude and mutynous behavior", while Nashe managed to escape to Great Yarmouth. The Marshalsea was a notorious prison on the south bank of the River Thames in the London borough of Southwark. Great Yarmouth, often known to locals as Yarmouth, is a Coastal Town in Norfolk, England. A year later, Jonson was again briefly imprisoned, this time in Newgate Prison, for killing another man, an actor Gabriel Spenser, in a duel on 22 September 1598 in Hogsden Fields,[1] (today part of Hoxton). For the prison in East Granby, Connecticut, see Old Newgate Prison. As practiced from the 11th to 20th centuries in Western societies a duel is an engagement in combat between two individuals with matched weapons in accordance with their combat Events 66 - Emperor Nero creates the Legion I Italica. 1236 - The Lithuanians Hoxton is an area in the London Borough of Hackney, immediately north of the financial district of the City of London. While in prison, Jonson was visited by a Roman Catholic priest and converted to Catholicism. Tried on a charge of manslaughter, Jonson pleaded guilty but was subsequently released by benefit of clergy (a legal ploy through which he gained leniency by reciting a brief bible verse in Latin), forfeiting his "goods and chattels" and being branded on his left thumb. Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being in a manner considered by law as less culpable than Murder. In English law the benefit of clergy was originally a provision by which Clergymen could claim that they were outside the jurisdiction of the secular courts and be Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. [2]

In 1598, Jonson produced his first great success, Every Man in his Humour, capitalising on the vogue for humour plays that had been begun by George Chapman with An Humorous Day's Mirth. Every Man in His Humour is a 1598 play by the English Playwright Ben Jonson. George Chapman (c 1559 &ndash May 12 1634) was an English Dramatist, Translator, and Poet. An Humorous Day's Mirth is an Elizabethan era stage play a Comedy by George Chapman, first acted in 1597 and published in 1599 William Shakespeare was among the first cast. William Shakespeare ( baptised This play was followed the next year by Every Man Out of His Humour, a pedantic attempt to imitate Aristophanes. Every Man out of His Humour is a satirical comedy written by English Playwright Ben Jonson, acted in 1599 by the Lord Chamberlain's Men Aristophanes (Ἀριστοφάνης ˌærɪˈstɒfəniːz in English ca It is not known whether this was a success on stage, but when published, it proved popular and went through several editions.

Jonson's other work for the theater in the last years of Elizabeth I's reign was, unsurprisingly, marked by fighting and controversy. Cynthia's Revels was produced by the Children of the Chapel Royal at Blackfriars Theatre in 1600. Cynthia's Revels or The Fountain of Self-Love is a late Elizabethan stage play a Satire written by Ben Jonson, The play was one element in The Children of the Chapel (also known as the Children of Her Majesty's Chapel Royal the Children of the Queen's Revels the Children of the Revels the Blackfriars Theatre was the name of a Theatre in the Blackfriars district of the City of London during the Renaissance. It satirized both John Marston, who Jonson believed had accused him of lustfulness, probably in Histrio-Mastix, and Thomas Dekker, against whom Jonson's animus is not known. John Marston (baptised October 7, 1576 – June 25, 1634) was an English poet playwright and satirist during the late Elizabethan Thomas Dekker is the name of Thomas Dekker (writer (1572&ndash1632 Elizabethan poet and dramatist Thomas Dekker (actor (born 1987 Jonson attacked the same two poets again in 1601's Poetaster. Dekker responded with Satiromastix, subtitled "the untrussing of the humorous poet. " The final scene of this play, while certainly not to be taken at face value as a portrait of Jonson, offers a caricature that is recognizable from Drummond's report: boasting about himself and condemning other poets, criticizing actors' performances of his plays, and calling attention to himself in any available way.

This "War of the Theatres" appears to have been concluded with reconciliation on all sides. The War of the Theatres is the name commonly applied to a controversy from the later Elizabethan theatre; Thomas Dekker termed it the Poetomachia. Jonson collaborated with Dekker on a pageant welcoming James I to England in 1603, although Drummond reports that Jonson called Dekker a rogue. James VI and I (19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625 was King of Scotland as James VI, and King of England and King of Ireland as James Marston dedicated The Malcontent to Jonson, and the two collaborated with Chapman on Eastward Ho, a 1605 play whose anti-Scottish sentiment landed both authors in jail for a brief time.

At the beginning of the reign of James I of England in 1603, Jonson joined other poets and playwrights in welcoming the reign of the new King. James VI and I (19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625 was King of Scotland as James VI, and King of England and King of Ireland as James Jonson quickly adapted himself to the additional demand for masques and entertainments introduced with the new reign and fostered by both the king and his consort,Anne of Denmark. The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in sixteenth and early seventeenth century Europe though it was developed earlier in Italy Anne of Denmark (12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619 was Queen consort of James VI of Scots I of England and Ireland.

Ben Jonson's ascendance

Jonson flourished as a dramatist during the first decade or so of James's reign; by 1616, he had produced all the plays on which his reputation as a dramatist depends. These include the tragedy of Catiline (acted and printed 1611), which achieved only limited success, and the comedies Volpone, (acted 1605 and printed in 1607), Epicoene, or the Silent Woman (1609), The Alchemist (1610), Bartholomew Fair (1614) and The Devil is an Ass (1616). Lucius Sergius Catilina (108 BC–62 BC known in English as Catiline, was a Roman Politician of the 1st century BC who is best known for the Volpone, or The Fox (in Italian: "Big Fox" is a Comedy by Ben Jonson first produced in 1606 drawing on elements Epicoene or the Silent Woman is a Comedy by Renaissance playwright Ben Jonson. The Alchemist is a Comedy by English playwright Ben Jonson. First performed in 1610 by the King's Men, it is generally Bartholomew Fair is a Comedy in five acts by Ben Jonson, the last written of his four great comedies The Devil is an Ass is a Jacobean Comedy by Ben Jonson, first performed in 1616 and first published in 1631. The Alchemist and Volpone appear to have been successful at once. Of Epicoene, Jonson told Drummond of a satirical verse which reported that the play's subtitle was appropriate, since its audience had refused to applaud the play (i. e. , remained silent). Yet Epicoene, along with Bartholomew Fair and (to a lesser extent) The Devil is an Ass have in modern times achieved a certain degree of recognition. While his life during this period was apparently more settled than it had been in the 1590s, his financial security was still not assured. In 1603, Overbury reported that Jonson was living on Aurelian Townsend and "scorning the world. Sir Thomas Overbury (1581 &ndash 15 September 1613) English Poet and essayist and the victim of one of the most sensational crimes in English history Aurelian Townshend (sometimes Townsend (c 1583 - c 1643) was a seventeenth-century English poet and playwright "

His trouble with English authorities continued. In 1603, he was questioned by the Privy Council about Sejanus, a politically-themed play about corruption in the Roman Empire. Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council is a body of advisors to the British Sovereign. Sejanus His Fall, a 1603 play by Ben Jonson, is a Tragedy about Lucius Aelius Seianus, the favorite of the Roman emperor Tiberius. He was again in trouble for topical allusions in a play, now lost, in which he took part. After the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, he appears to have been asked by the Privy Council to attempt to prevail on certain priests connected with the conspirators to cooperate with the government; whatever steps he took in this regard do not appear to have been successful (Teague, 249). The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 or the Powder Treason, as it was known at the time was a failed Assassination attempt by a group of provincial English A privy council is a body that advises the Head of state of a nation on how to exercise their executive authority, typically but not always in the context of a

At the same time, Jonson pursued a more prestigious career as a writer of masques for James' court. The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in sixteenth and early seventeenth century Europe though it was developed earlier in Italy The Satyr (1603) and The Masque of Blackness (1605) are but two of the some two dozen masques Jonson wrote for James or for Queen Anne; the latter was praised by Swinburne as the consummate example of this now-extinct genre, which mingled speech, dancing, and spectacle. The Entertainment at Althorp or The Althorp Entertainment is an early Jacobean era literary work written by Ben Jonson. T he Masque of Blackness was an early Jacobean era Masque, first performed at the Stuart Court in the Banqueting Hall of Whitehall Palace Algernon Charles Swinburne (5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909 was a Victorian era English poet On many of these projects he collaborated, not always peacefully, with designer Inigo Jones. Iñigo Jones ( July 15, 1573 &ndash June 21, 1652) is regarded as the first significant British architect, and the first to bring Perhaps partly as a result of this new career, Jonson gave up writing plays for the public theaters for a decade. Jonson later told Drummond that he had made less than two hundred pounds on all his plays together.

1616 saw a pension of 100 marks (about £60) a year conferred upon him, leading some to identify him as England's first Poet Laureate. A Poet Laureate is a Poet officially appointed by a government and is often expected to compose poems for State occasions and other government events This sign of royal favour may have encouraged him to publish the first volume of the folio collected edition of his works that year. Other volumes followed in 1640-1 and 1692. [See: Ben Jonson folios. The folio collections of Ben Jonson 's works published in the seventeenth century were crucial developments in the publication of English literature and English Renaissance drama ]

In 1618, Ben Jonson set out for his ancestral Scotland on foot. Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. He spent over a year there, and the best-remembered hospitality which he enjoyed was that of the Scottish poet, Drummond of Hawthornden. William Drummond ( December 13, 1585 &ndash December 4, 1649) called "of Hawthornden" was a Scottish Poet. Drummond undertook to record as much of Jonson's conversation as he could in his diary, and thus recorded aspects of Jonson's personality that would otherwise have been less clearly seen. Jonson delivers his opinions, in Drummond's terse reporting, in an expansive and even magisterial mood. In the postscript added by Drummond, he is described as "a great lover and praiser of himself, a contemner and scorner of others".

While in Scotland, he was made an honorary citizen of Edinburgh. Edinburgh ( ˈɛdɪnb(ərə Dùn Èideann) is the Capital of Scotland and is its second largest city after Glasgow. On returning to England, he was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree from Oxford University. An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa ( Latin: 'for the sake of the honour' is an Academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding In the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Dublin, the degree of Master of Arts or Master in Arts ( MA) is awarded to Bachelors A degree is any of a wide range of status levels conferred by institutions of Higher education, such as universities, normally as the result of successfully completing The University of Oxford (informally "Oxford University" or simply "Oxford" located in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England is the

The period between 1605 and 1620 may be viewed as Jonson's heyday. In addition to his popularity on the public stage and in the royal hall, he enjoyed the patronage of aristocrats such as Elizabeth Sidney (daughter of Sir Philip Sidney) and Lady Mary Wroth. Roger Manners 5th Earl of Rutland ( 6 October 1576 &ndash 26 June 1612) was the son of John Manners 4th Earl of Rutland. Sir Philip Sidney ( November 30, 1554 &ndash October 17, 1586) became one of the Elizabethan Age's most prominent figures Lady Mary Wroth ( 1587 &ndash1651/3 was an English Poet of the Renaissance This connection with the Sidney family provided the impetus for one of Jonson's most famous lyrics, the country house poem To Penshurst. A genre popular in early 17th century England in which the poet compliments a wealthy patron or a friend through a description of his country house Penshurst Place is an historic building near Tonbridge in Kent, 32 miles (50 km to the south east of London, England.

Decline and death

The 1620s begin a lengthy and slow decline for Jonson. He was still well-known; from this time dates the prominence of the Sons of Ben or the "Tribe of Ben", those younger poets such as Robert Herrick, Richard Lovelace, and Sir John Suckling who took their bearing in verse from Jonson. Cavalier poets is a broad description of a school of English Poets of the 17th century who came from the classes that supported King Charles I during the English Robert Herrick (baptized August 24 1591 &ndashburied 15 October 1674) was a 17th century English Poet. Richard Lovelace (1618–1657 was an English poet in the seventeenth century Sir John Suckling ( February 10 1609 &ndash June 1 1642) was an English Cavalier poet whose best known poem may be However, a series of setbacks drained his strength and damaged his reputation.

Jonson returned to writing regular plays in the 1620s, but these are not considered among his best. They are of significant interest for the study of the culture of Charles I's England. Charles I, (19 November 1600 &ndash 30 January 1649 was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution. The Staple of News, for example, offers a remarkable look at the earliest stage of English journalism. The Staple of News is an early Caroline era play a Satire by Ben Jonson. Journalism is the profession of writing or communicating formally employed by publications and broadcasters for the benefit of a particular Community of people The lukewarm reception given that play was, however, nothing compared to the dismal failure of The New Inn; the cold reception given this play prompted Jonson to write a poem condemning his audience (the Ode to Myself), which in turn prompted Thomas Carew, one of the "Tribe of Ben," to respond in a poem that asks Jonson to recognize his own decline. The New Inn or The Light Heart is a Caroline era stage play a Comedy by English playwright and poet Ben Jonson. Thomas Carew (pronounced like "Carey" (1595 – March 22, 1640) was an English Poet. [3]


The principal factor in Jonson's partial eclipse was, however, the death of James and the accession of King Charles I in 1625. Charles I, (19 November 1600 &ndash 30 January 1649 was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution. Justly or not, Jonson felt neglected by the new court. A decisive quarrel with Jones harmed his career as a writer of court masques, although he continued to entertain the court on an irregular basis. For his part, Charles displayed a certain degree of care for the great poet of his father's day: he increased Jonson's annual pension to £100 and included a tierce of wine. The tierce is an old English unit of Wine casks holding about 159 litres.

Despite the strokes that he suffered in the 1620s, Jonson continued to write. At his death in 1637 he seems to have been working on another play, The Sad Shepherd. Though only two acts are extant, this represents a remarkable new direction for Jonson: a move into pastoral drama. Pastoral, as an adjective refers to the lifestyle of Shepherds and Pastoralists moving livestock around larger areas of land according to seasons and availability During the early 1630s he also conducted a correspondence with James Howell, who warned him about disfavour at court in the wake of his dispute with Jones. For the US Senator named James Howell see James B Howell James Howell (c

Jonson is buried in Westminster Abbey, with the inscription, "O Rare Ben Johnson," (sic) laid in the slab over his grave. The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, which is almost always referred to by its original name of Westminster Abbey, is a large mainly Gothic church It has been suggested that this could be read "Orare Ben Jonson" (pray for Ben Jonson), which would indicate a deathbed return to Catholicism, but the carving shows a distinct space between "O" and "rare". [4] Researchers suggest that the tribute came from William D’Avenant, Jonson’s successor as Poet Laureate, as the same phrase appears on his gravestone nearby. Sir William Davenant (baptised 3 March, 1606 &ndash April 7, 1668) also spelled D'Avenant, was an English Poet [4] The fact that he was buried in an upright grave is an indication of his reduced circumstances at the time of his death. [5]

His work

Drama

Apart from two tragedies, Sejanus and Catiline, that largely failed to impress Renaissance audiences, Jonson's work for the public theatres was in comedy. Sejanus His Fall, a 1603 play by Ben Jonson, is a Tragedy about Lucius Aelius Seianus, the favorite of the Roman emperor Tiberius. Catiline His Conspiracy is a Jacobean Tragedy written by Ben Jonson. Comedy (from the Greek κωμωδίαkomodia has a popular meaning (any discourse generally intended to amuse especially in Television, Film, and These plays vary in some respects. The minor early plays, particularly those written for the boy players, present somewhat looser plots and less-developed characters than those written later, for adult companies. Boy player is a common term for the adolescent males employed by Medieval and English Renaissance Playing companies. Already in the plays which were his salvos in the Poet's War, he displays the keen eye for absurdity and hypocrisy that marks his best-known plays; in these early efforts, however, plot mostly takes second place to variety of incident and comic set-pieces. They are, also, notably ill-tempered. Thomas Davies called Poetaster "a contemptible mixture of the serio-comic, where the names of Augustus Caesar, Mecaenas, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Tibullus, are all sacrificed upon the altar of private resentment. Thomas Davies (c1712-85 was a Scottish Bookseller and Author. Augustus ( Latin: IMPERATOR·CAESAR·DIVI·FILIVS·AVGVSTVS September 23 63 BC – August 19 AD 14) born Gaius Octavius Thurinus, was Publius Vergilius Maro ( October 15, 70 BCE &ndash September 21, 19 BCE later called Virgilius, and known in English as Virgil or Quintus Horatius Flaccus, ( Venosa, December 8, 65 BC - Rome, November 27, 8 BC known in the English-speaking world as Horace Publius Ovidius Naso ( March 20, 43 BC – 17 AD was a Roman poet known to the English -speaking world as Ovid who wrote on many topics including Albius Tibullus (ca 54-19 BC was a Latin Poet and writer of elegies. " Another early comedy in a different vein, The Case is Altered, is markedly similar to Shakespeare's romantic comedies in its foreign setting, emphasis on genial wit, and love-plot. The Case is Altered is an early comedy by Ben Jonson. First published in 1609, the play presents a range of problems for scholars attempting to understand Henslowe's diary indicates that Jonson had a hand in numerous other plays, including many in genres such as English history with which he is not otherwise associated.

The comedies of his middle career, from Eastward Ho to The Devil is an Ass are for the most part city comedy, with a London setting, themes of trickery and money, and a distinct moral ambiguity, despite Jonson's professed aim in the Prologue to Volpone to "mix profit with your pleasure". Eastward Hoe or Eastward Ho, is an early Jacobean era stage play a Satire and City comedy written by George Chapman, The Devil is an Ass is a Jacobean Comedy by Ben Jonson, first performed in 1616 and first published in 1631. City comedy, also called Citizen Comedy is a common genre of Elizabethan drama. Volpone, or The Fox (in Italian: "Big Fox" is a Comedy by Ben Jonson first produced in 1606 drawing on elements His late plays or "dotages," particularly The Magnetic Lady and The Sad Shepherd, exhibit some signs of an accommodation with the romantic tendencies of Elizabethan comedy. The Magnetic Lady or Humors Reconciled is a Caroline era stage play the final Comedy of Ben Jonson. English Renaissance theatre is English drama written between the Reformation and the closure of the theatres in 1642.

Within this general progression, however, Jonson's comic style remained constant and easily recognizable. He announces his programme in the prologue to the folio version of Every Man in His Humour; he promises to represent "deeds, and language, such as men do use. Every Man in His Humour is a 1598 play by the English Playwright Ben Jonson. " He planned to write comedies that revived the classical premises of Elizabethan dramatic theory—or rather, since all but the loosest English comedies could claim some descent from Plautus and Terence, he intended to apply those premises with rigour. Titus Maccius Plautus (c 254–184 BCE commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman Playwright. Publius Terentius Afer (195/185&ndash159 BC better known as Terence, was a Playwright of the Roman Republic. [6] This commitment entailed negations: after The Case is Altered, Jonson eschewed distant locations, noble characters, romantic plots, and other staples of Elizabethan comedy. The Case is Altered is an early comedy by Ben Jonson. First published in 1609, the play presents a range of problems for scholars attempting to understand Jonson focused instead on the satiric and realistic inheritance of new comedy. Comedy was one of two principal dramatic forms in ancient Greece the other being Tragedy. He sets his plays in contemporary settings, peoples them with recognizable types, and sets them to actions that, if not strictly realistic, involve everyday motives such as greed and jealousy. Greed is the Selfish desire for or pursuit of Money, Wealth, power, Food, or other Possessions, especially when this denies In accordance with the temper of his age, he was often so broad in his characterisation that many of his most famous scenes border on the farcical (as Congreve, for example, judged Epicoene. A farce is a Comedy written for the stage or film which aims to Entertain the audience by means of unlikely extravagant and improbable situations disguise and mistaken William Congreve ( 24 January 1670 &ndash 19 January 1729) was an English Playwright and Poet. ) He was, moreover, more diligent in adhering to the classical unities than many of his peers--although as Margaret Cavendish noted, the unity of action in the major comedies was rather compromised by Jonson's abundance of incident. The classical unities or three unities are rules for Drama derived from a passage in Aristotle 's Poetics. See Margaret Cavendish (1661-1717 for the later Duchess of Newcastle of this name To this classical model Jonson applies the two features of his style which save his classical imitations from mere pedantry: the vividness with which he depicts the lives of his characters, and the intricacy of his plots. Coleridge, for instance, claimed that The Alchemist had one of the three most perfect plots in literature. The Alchemist is a Comedy by English playwright Ben Jonson. First performed in 1610 by the King's Men, it is generally

Poetry

Jonson's poetry, like his drama, is informed by his classical learning. Some of his better-known poems are close translations of Greek or Roman models; all display the careful attention to form and style that often came naturally to those trained in classics in the humanist manner. Renaissance Humanism was a European intellectual movement beginning in Florence in the last decades of the 14th century Jonson, however, largely avoided the debates about rhyme and meter that had consumed Elizabethan classicists such as Campion and Harvey. Thomas Campion, (sometimes Campian) (12 February 1567 &ndash 1 March 1620 was an English Composer, poet and Physician. Gabriel Harvey (c 1545 &ndash 1630 was an English Writer. Harvey was a notable scholar though his reputation suffered from his quarrel with Thomas Nashe Accepting both rhyme and stress, Jonson uses them to mimic the classical qualities of simplicity, restraint, and precision.

“Epigrams” (published in the 1616 folio) is an entry in a genre that was popular among late-Elizabethan and Jacobean audiences. Jonson’s epigrams explore various attitudes, most of them from the satiric stock of the day: complaints against women, courtiers, and spies abound. The condemnatory poems are short and anonymous; Jonson’s epigrams of praise, including a famous poem to Camden and lines to Lucy Harington, are somewhat longer and mostly addressed to specific individuals. The poems of “The Forest” also appeared in the first folio. Most of the fifteen poems are addressed to Jonson’s aristocratic supporters, but the most famous are his country-house poem “To Penshurst” and the poem “To Celia” (“Come, my Celia, let us prove”) that appears also in ‘’Volpone. ’’

‘’Underwoods,’’ published in the expanded folio of 1640, is a larger and more heterogeneous group of poems. Underwoods is a collection of poems by Robert Louis Stevenson published in 1887. It contains ‘’A Celebration of Charis,’’ Jonson’s most extended effort at love poetry; various religious pieces; encomiastic poems including the poem to Shakespeare and a sonnet on Mary Wroth; the ‘’Execration against Vulcan” and others. Lady Mary Wroth ( 1587 &ndash1651/3 was an English Poet of the Renaissance The 1640 volume also contains three elegies which have often been ascribed to Donne (one of them appeared in Donne’s posthumous collected poems).

Relationship with Shakespeare

There are many legends about Jonson's rivalry with Shakespeare, some of which may be true. William Shakespeare ( baptised Drummond reports that during their conversation, Jonson scoffed at two apparent absurdities in Shakespeare's plays: a nonsensical line in Julius Caesar, and the setting of The Winter's Tale on the non-existent seacoast of Bohemia. Julius Caesar is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599 The Winter's Tale is a play by William Shakespeare, first published in the First Folio in 1623 Drummond also reports Jonson saying that Shakespeare "wanted art. " Whether Drummond is viewed as accurate or not, the comments fit well with Jonson's well-known theories about literature.

In Timber, which was published posthumously and reflects his lifetime of practical experience, Jonson offers a fuller and more conciliatory comment. Lumber or timber is Wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural Material for Construction, or He recalls being told by certain actors that Shakespeare never blotted (i. e. , crossed out) a line when he wrote. His own response, "Would he had blotted a thousand," was taken as malicious. However, Jonson explains, "He was, indeed, honest, and of an open and free nature, had an excellent phantasy, brave notions, and gentle expressions, wherein he flowed with that facility that sometimes it was necessary he should be stopped". [2] Jonson concludes that "there was ever more in him to be praised than to be pardoned. " Also when Shakespeare died he said "He was not of an age, but for all time. "

Thomas Fuller relates stories of Jonson and Shakespeare engaging in debates in the Mermaid Tavern; Fuller imagines conversations in which Shakespeare would run rings around the more learned but more ponderous Jonson. Thomas Fuller (1608 &ndash August 16, 1661) was an English churchman and historian The Mermaid Tavern was a Tavern on Cheapside in London during the Elizabethan era, located east of St That the two men knew each other personally is beyond doubt, not only because of the tone of Jonson's references to him but because Shakespeare's company produced a number of Jonson's plays, at least one of which (Every Man in his Humour) Shakespeare certainly acted in. Every Man in His Humour is a 1598 play by the English Playwright Ben Jonson. However, it is now impossible to tell how much personal communication they had, and tales of their friendship cannot be substantiated in the present state of knowledge.

Jonson's most influential and revealing commentary on Shakespeare is the second of the two poems that he contributed to the prefatory verse that opens Shakespeare's First Folio. Mr William Shakespeares Comedies Histories & Tragedies is the first published collection of William Shakespeare 's plays This poem, "To the memory of my beloved, The AUTHOR, Mr. William Shakespeare: And what he hath left us," did a good deal to create the traditional view of Shakespeare as a poet who, despite "small Latine and less Greek," had a natural genius. The poem has traditionally been thought to exemplify the contrast Jonson perceived between himself, the disciplined and erudite classicist, scornful of ignorance and skeptical of the masses, and Shakespeare, represented in the poem as a kind of natural wonder whose genius was not subject to any rules except those of the audiences for which he wrote. But the poem itself qualifies this view: "Yet must I not give Nature all: Thy Art, / My gentle Shakespeare, must enjoy a part. " Some view this elegy as a conventional exercise, but a rising number of critics see it as a heartfelt tribute to the "Sweet Swan Of Avon," the "Soul of the Age!" It has been compellingly argued that Jonson helped to edit the First Folio, and he may have been inspired to write this poem, surely one of his greatest, by reading his fellow playwright's works, a number of which had been previously either unpublished or available in less satisfactory versions, in a relatively complete form. Mr William Shakespeares Comedies Histories & Tragedies is the first published collection of William Shakespeare 's plays

Reception and Influence

During most of the seventeenth century Jonson was a towering literary figure, and his influence was enormous. Before the civil war The Tribe of Ben touted his importance, and during the Restoration Jonson's satirical comedies and his theory and practice of "humour characters" (which are often misunderstood; see William Congreve's letters for clarification) was extremely influential, providing the blueprint for many Restoration comedies. In the eighteenth century Jonson's status began to decline. In the Romantic era, Jonson suffered the fate of being unfairly compared and contrasted to Shakespeare, as the taste for Jonson's type of satirical comedy decreased. Jonson was at times greatly appreciated by the Romantics, but overall he was denigrated for not writing in a Shakespearean vein. In the twentieth century, Jonson's status rose significantly.

Drama

As G. E. Bentley notes in Shakespeare and Jonson: Their Reputations in the Seventeenth Century Compared, Jonson's reputation was in some respects equal to Shakespeare's in the seventeenth century. After the English theatres were reopened on the Restoration of Charles II, Jonson's work, along with Shakespeare's and Fletcher's work, formed the initial core of the Restoration repertory. The English Restoration, or simply The Restoration began in 1660 when the English monarchy, Scottish monarchy and Irish monarchy were restored Charles II (Charles Stuart 29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685 was the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland. John Fletcher (1579 &ndash 1625 was a Jacobean Playwright. Following William Shakespeare as house playwright for the King's Men, he was It was not until after 1710 that Shakespeare's plays (ordinarily in heavily revised forms) were more frequently performed than those of his Renaissance contemporaries. Many critics since the eighteenth century have ranked Jonson below only Shakespeare among English Renaissance dramatists. English Renaissance theatre is English drama written between the Reformation and the closure of the theatres in 1642. Critical judgment has tended to emphasize the very qualities that Jonson himself lauds in his prefaces, in Timber, and in his scattered prefaces and dedications: the realism and propriety of his language, the bite of his satire, and the care with which he plotted his comedies.

For some critics, the temptation to contrast Jonson (representing art or craft) with Shakespeare (representing nature, or untutored genius) has seemed natural; Jonson himself may be said to initiate this interpretation in his poem on Shakespeare. Leonard Digges echoed this line of thought in his verses affixed to the second folio, and Samuel Butler drew the same comparison in his commonplace book later in the century. Leonard Digges (1588 &ndash 7 April, 1635) was a seventeenth-century poet and translator a member of the prominent Digges family of Kent &mdash son of Samuel Butler ( 8 February, 1612 &ndash 25 September, 1680) was a poet and satirist Commonplace books (or commonplaces) emerged in the 15th century with the availability of cheap paper for Writing, mainly in England.

At the Restoration, this sensed difference became a kind of critical dogma. Saint-Évremond, indeed, placed Jonson's comedies above all else in English drama, and Charles Gildon called Jonson the father of English comedy. Charles de Marguetel de Saint-Denis seigneur de Saint-Évremond ( April 1, 1610 - September 29, 1703) was a French soldier Charles Gildon (c 1665–1724 was an English Hack writer who was by turns a translator biographer essayist playwright poet author of fictional letters fabulist John Dryden offered a more common assessment in the Essay of Dramatic Poesie, in which his avatar Neander compares Shakespeare to Homer and Jonson to Virgil: the former represented profound creativity, the latter polished artifice. John Dryden (– was an influential English poet Literary critic, Translator and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England Avatar or Avatara (अवतार IAST Avatāra) is often inaccurately translated into English as incarnation Homer ( Ancient Greek:, Homēros) is a legendary ancient Greek epic Poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the Publius Vergilius Maro ( October 15, 70 BCE &ndash September 21, 19 BCE later called Virgilius, and known in English as Virgil or But "artifice" was in the seventeenth century almost synonymous with "art"; Jonson, for instance, used "artificer" as a synonym for "artist" (Discoveries, 33). For Lewis Theobald, too, Jonson “ow[ed] all his Excellence to his Art,” in contrast to Shakespeare, the natural genius. Lewis Theobald (baptised April 2, 1688 &ndash September 18, 1744) British textual editor and author was a landmark figure both Rowe, to whom may be traced the legend that Jonson owed the production of Every Man in his Humour to Shakespeare's intercession, likewise attributed Jonson's excellence to learning, which did not raise him quite to the level of genius. Nicholas Rowe (1674 &ndash 1718 English Dramatist, poet and miscellaneous writer was appointed Poet Laureate in 1715 A consensus formed: Jonson was the first English poet to understand classical precepts with any accuracy, and he was the first to apply those precepts successfully to contemporary life. But there were also more negative spins on Jonson's learned art; for instance, in the 1750s, Edward Young casually remarked on the way in which Jonson’s learning worked, like Samson’s strength, to his own detriment. Edward Young ( June, 1681(As stated in Rev J Mitford's Biography of Young - April 5, 1765) was an English Poet, best remembered Earlier, Aphra Behn, writing in defence of female playwrights, had pointed to Jonson as a writer whose learning did not make him popular; unsurprisingly, she compares him unfavorably to Shakespeare. Particularly in the tragedies, with their lengthy speeches abstracted from Sallust and Cicero, Augustan critics saw a writer whose learning had swamped his aesthetic judgment. For the philosopher see Sallustius; for other uses see Sallust (disambiguation. Marcus Tullius Cicero ( Classical Latin ˈkikeroː usually ˈsɪsərəʊ in English January 3, 106 BC &ndash December 7, 43 BC was a Roman Augustan literature is a style of English literature produced during the reigns of Queen Anne, King George I, and George II in the Aesthetics or esthetics ( also spelled æsthetics) is commonly known as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values sometimes called

In this period, Alexander Pope is exceptional in that he noted the tendency to exaggeration in these competing critical portraits: "It is ever the nature of Parties to be in extremes; and nothing is so probable, as that because Ben Johnson had much the most learning, it was said on the one hand that Shakespear had none at all; and because Shakespear had much the most wit and fancy, it was retorted on the other, that Johnson wanted both. Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 – 30 May 1744 is generally regarded as the greatest English Poet of the eighteenth century best known for his Satirical "[7] For the most part, the eighteenth century consensus remained committed to the division that Pope doubted; as late as the 1750s, Sarah Fielding could put a brief recapitulation of this analysis in the mouth of a "man of sense" encountered by David Simple. Sarah Fielding ( November 8, 1710 &ndash April 9 1768) was a British author and sister of the novelist Henry Fielding

Though his stature declined during the eighteenth century, Jonson was still read and commented on throughout the century, generally in the kind of comparative and dismissive terms just described. Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg translated parts of Peter Whalley's edition into German in 1765. Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg ( January 3 1737 - November 1 1823) was a German poet and critic He was born at Tondern Shortly before the Romantic revolution, Edward Capell offered an almost unqualified rejection of Jonson as a dramatic poet, who (he writes) "has very poor pretensions to the high place he holds among the English Bards, as there is no original manner to distinguish him, and the tedious sameness visible in his plots indicates a defect of Genius. Edward Capell ( June 11, 1713 &ndash February 24, 1781) English Shakespearian Critic, was born at Troston "[8] The disastrous failures of productions of Volpone and Epicoene in the early 1770s no doubt bolstered a widespread sense that Jonson had at last grown too antiquated for the contemporary public; if Jonson still attracted enthusiasts such as Earl Camden and William Gifford, he all but disappeared from the stage in the last quarter of the century. Charles Pratt 1st Earl Camden ( baptised 21 March 1714 &ndash 18 April 1794) Lord Chancellor of Great Britain This article is on the 18th—19th century literary figure William Gifford

The romantic revolution in criticism brought about an overall decline in the critical estimation of Jonson. Romanticism is a complex artistic literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the Hazlitt refers dismissively to Jonson’s “laborious caution. ” Coleridge, while more respectful, describes Jonson as psychologically superficial: “He was a very accurately observing man; but he cared only to observe what was open to, and likely to impress, the senses. ” Coleridge placed Jonson second only to Shakespeare; other romantic critics were less approving. The early nineteenth century was the great age for recovering Renaissance drama. Jonson, whose reputation had survived, appears to have been less interesting to some readers than writers such as Thomas Middleton or John Heywood, who were in some senses “discoveries” of the nineteenth century. Thomas Middleton (1580 &ndash 1627 was an English Jacobean playwright and Poet. Rome wasn't built in a day redirects here for the Morcheeba song see Rome Wasn't Built in a Day John Heywood (c Moreover, the emphasis the romantic writers placed on imagination, and their concomitant tendency to distrust studied art, lowered Jonson's status, if it also sharpened their awareness of the difference traditionally noted between Jonson and Shakespeare. This trend was by no means universal, however; William Gifford, Jonson's first editor of the nineteenth century, did a great deal to defend Jonson's reputation during this period of general decline. This article is on the 18th—19th century literary figure William Gifford In the next era, Swinburne, who was more interested in Jonson than most Victorians, wrote, “The flowers of his growing have every quality but one which belongs to the rarest and finest among flowers: they have colour, form, variety, fertility, vigour: the one thing they want is fragrance” — by “fragrance,” Swinburne means spontaneity. Culture The Victorian fascination with novelty resulted in a deep interest in the relationship between modernity and cultural continuities

In the twentieth century, Jonson’s body of work has been subject to a more varied set of analyses, broadly consistent with the interests and programmes of modern literary criticism. In an essay printed in The Sacred Wood T. S. Eliot attempts to repudiate the charge that Jonson was an arid classicist by analysing the role of imagination in his dialogue. Eliot was appreciative of Jonson's overall conception and his "surface," a view consonant with the modernist reaction against Romantic criticism, which tended to denigrate playwrights who did not concentrate on representations of psychological depth. Around mid-century, a number of critics and scholars followed Eliot’s lead, producing detailed studies of Jonson’s verbal style. At the same time, study of Elizabethan themes and conventions, such as those by E. E. Stoll and M. C. Bradbrook, provided a more vivid sense of how Jonson’s work was shaped by the expectations of his time. Muriel Clara Bradbrook (1909– June 11, 1993) was a British literary scholar and authority on Shakespeare.

The proliferation of new critical perspectives after mid-century touched on Jonson inconsistently. Jonas Barish was the leading figure in a group of critics that was appreciative of Jonson's artistry. On the other hand, Jonson received less attention from the new critics than did some other playwrights and his work was not of programmatic interest to psychoanalytic critics. But Jonson’s career eventually made him a focal point for the revived sociopolitical criticism. New Historicism developed in the 1980s primarily through the work of the critic Stephen Greenblatt, and gained widespread influence in the 1990s Jonson’s work, particularly his masques and pageants, offers significant information regarding the relations of literary production and political power, as do his contacts with and poems for aristocratic patrons; moreover, his career at the centre of London’s emerging literary world has been seen as exemplifying the development of a fully commodified literary culture. In this respect, Jonson has been seen as a transitional figure, an author whose skills and ambition led him to a leading role both in the declining culture of patronage and in the rising culture of mass consumption. Patronage is the support encouragement privilege and often financial aid given by a person or an organization

Poetry

If Jonson's reputation as a playwright has traditionally been linked to Shakespeare, his reputation as a poet has, since the early twentieth century, been linked to that of John Donne. John Donne (pronounced like done, dʌn 1572 – 31 March 1631 was a Jacobean poet preacher and a major representative of the Metaphysical poets In this comparison, Jonson represents the cavalier strain of poetry, which emphasized grace and clarity of expression; Donne, by contrast, epitomized the metaphysical school of poetry, with its reliance on strained, baroque metaphors and often vague phrasing. Cavalier poets is a broad description of a school of English Poets of the 17th century who came from the classes that supported King Charles I during the English The metaphysical poets were a loose group of British lyric poets of the 17th century who shared an interest in metaphysical concerns and a common way of investigating them Baroque art redirects here Please disambiguate such links to Baroque painting, Baroque sculpture, etc Since the critics who made this comparison (Herbert Grierson for example), were to varying extents rediscovering Donne, this comparison often worked to the detriment of Jonson's reputation. Sir Herbert John Clifford Grierson (1866-1960 often referred to as Herbert J

In his time, though, Jonson was at least as influential as Donne. In 1623, historian Edmund Bolton named him the best and most polished English poet. This is an article about the seventeenth-century poet For the reality TV "star" see Beauty and the Geek (UK TV series Edmund Mary Bolton That this judgment was widely shared is indicated by the admitted influence he had on younger poets. The grounds for describing Jonson as the "father" of cavalier poets are clear: many of the cavalier poets described themselves as his "sons" or his "tribe. " For some of this tribe, the connection was as much social as poetic; Herrick describes meetings at "the Sun, the Dog, the Triple Tunne. " All of them, including those like Herrick whose accomplishments in verse are generally regarded as superior to Jonson's, took inspiration from Jonson's revival of classical forms and themes, his subtle melodies, and his disciplined use of wit. Wit is a form of intellectual Humour. A wit (person is someone skilled in making witty remarks In all of these respects, Jonson may be regarded as among the most important figures in the prehistory of English neoclassicism. Augustan literature is a style of English literature produced during the reigns of Queen Anne, King George I, and George II in the

The best of Jonson's lyrics have remained current since his time; periodically, they experience a brief vogue, as after the publication of Peter Whalley's edition of 1756. Jonson's poetry continues to interest scholars for the light it sheds on English literary history, particularly as regards politics, systems of patronage, and intellectual attitudes. For the general reader, Jonson's reputation rests on a few lyrics that, though brief, are surpassed for grace and precision by very few Renaissance poems: "On My First Sonne"; "To Celia"; "Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes"; the poem on Penshurst; and the epitaph on boy player Solomon Pavy. On My First Sonne, a poem by Ben Jonson, was written after the 1603 death of Jonson's first son Benjamin at age seven To Celia is a poem first published after March 1616 by Ben Jonson. " Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes " was (and still is a popular English song with lyrics from Ben Jonson 's 1616 poem " To Celia. Boy player is a common term for the adolescent males employed by Medieval and English Renaissance Playing companies.

Jonson's works

Plays

Masques

Other works

As with other English Renaissance dramatists, a portion of Ben Jonson's literary output has not survived. The term " elegy " was originally used for a type of poetic meter ( Elegiac metre but is also used for a Poem of mourning from the Greek In addition to The Isle of Dogs (1597), the records suggest these lost plays as wholly or partially Jonson's work: Richard Crookback (1602); Hot Anger Soon Cold (1598), with Porter and Henry Chettle; Page of Plymouth (1599), with Dekker; and Robert II, King of Scots (1599), with Chettle and Dekker. The Isle of Dogs is a play by Thomas Nashe and Ben Jonson which was performed in 1597. Henry Chettle (c 1564 &ndash c 1607 was an English Dramatist and miscellaneous writer of the Elizabethan era. Several of Jonson's masques and entertainments also are not extant: The Entertainment at Merchant Taylors (1607); The Entertainment at Salisbury House for James I (1608); The Entertainment at Britain's Burse for James I (1609); and The May Lord (1613-19).

Finally, there are questionable or borderline attributions. Jonson may have had a hand in Rollo, Duke of Normandy, or The Bloody Brother, a play in the canon of John Fletcher and his collaborators. Rollo Duke of Normandy also known as The Bloody Brother is a play written in collaboration by John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, The comedy The Widow was printed in 1652 as the work of Thomas Middleton, Fletcher and Jonson, though scholars have been intensely skeptical about Jonson's presence in the play. The Widow is a Jacobean stage play first published in 1652, but written decades earlier Thomas Middleton (1580 &ndash 1627 was an English Jacobean playwright and Poet. A few attributions of anonymous plays, like The London Prodigal, have been ventured by individual researchers, but have met with cool responses. The London Prodigal is a play in English Renaissance theatre, a City comedy set in London, in which a Prodigal son learns the error [9]

Notes

  1. ^ Notes of Ben Jonson's Conversations at Hawthornden, p.255
  2. ^ 1911 Encyclopedia biography
  3. ^ Maclean, 88.
  4. ^ a b Monuments & Gravestones: Ben Jonson. Westminster Abbey 1065 to today. Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey. Retrieved on 2008-05-26. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 451 - The Battle of Avarayr between Armenian rebels and the Sassanid Empire takes place
  5. ^ Adams, J. Q. The Jonson Allusion Book. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1922: 195-6.
  6. ^ Doran, 120ff.
  7. ^ Alexander Pope, ed. Works of Shakespeare (London, 1725), 1.
  8. ^ Quoted in Craig, D. H. , ed. Jonson: The Critical Heritage (London: Routledge, 1995): 499.
  9. ^ Logan and Smith, pp. 82-92.

Biographies of Ben Jonson

References

External links

http://www.helium.com/items/917911-outpouring-fathers-grief-death

Preceded by
Samuel Daniel		 British Poet Laureate
1619–1637		 Succeeded by
William Davenant


Persondata
NAME Jonson, Ben
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION English dramatist, poet and actor
DATE OF BIRTH c. June 11, 1572
PLACE OF BIRTH Westminster, London, England
DATE OF DEATH August 6, 1637
PLACE OF DEATH Westminster, London, England

Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to Digitize, archive and distribute Cultural works Samuel Daniel (1562 &ndash October 14, 1619) was an English poet and historian. A Poet Laureate is a Poet officially appointed by a government and is often expected to compose poems for State occasions and other government events Sir William Davenant (baptised 3 March, 1606 &ndash April 7, 1668) also spelled D'Avenant, was an English Poet A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or Drama. A poet is a person who writes Poetry. Etymology From the Ancient greek: ποιέω, poieō: "I make or compose" An actor, actress, player or thespian (see terminology) is a person who Acts in a Dramatic production and who works Events 1184 BC - Trojan War: Troy is sacked and burned according to the calculations of Eratosthenes. Westminster is an area of Central London, within the City of Westminster. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Events 1538 - Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada. Westminster is an area of Central London, within the City of Westminster. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland
© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
 Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic