![]() Ben Jonson further related that he was born a month after the death of his father, who, after suffering in estate and person under Queen Mary, had in the end "turned minister." Ģ years after the birth of her son the widow married again she may be supposed to have loved him in a passionate way peculiar to herself, since on an occasion we find her revealing an almost ferocious determination to save his honor at the cost of both his life and her own. His arms, “three spindles or rhombi,” are the family device of the Johnstoues of Annandale, a fact which confirms his assertion of Border descent. By the poet's account his grandfather was a gentleman who “came from” Carlisle, and originally, the grandson thought, from Annandale. Jonson was born, probably in Westminster, in the beginning of the year 1573 (or possibly 1572). An admirer caused a mason to cut on the slab over his grave the well-known inscription, "O Rare Ben Jonson." His works include a number of epigrams and translations, collections of poems ( Underwoods and The Forest) in prose a book of short essays and notes on various subjects, Discoveries. In 1637, after some years of gradually failing health, he died, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. The older poets were his friends, the younger were proud to call themselves, and be called by him, his sons. Town and court favour, however, turned again, and he received a pension of £100 that of the best poets and lovers of literature he had always kept. A quarrel with Inigo Jones, the architect, who furnished the machinery for the court masques, lost him court favor, and he was obliged, with failing powers, to turn again to the stage, for which his last plays, The Magnetic Lady and The Tale of a Tub, were written in 16. His next play, The New Inn, was driven from the stage, for which in its rapid degeneracy he had become too learned and too moral. His last successful play, The Staple of Newes, was produced in 1625, and in the same year he had his first stroke of palsy, from which he never entirely recovered. ![]() In 1618 he journeyed on foot to Scotland, where he was received with much honor, and paid his famous visit to Drummond at Hawthornden. In the same year he collected his writings - plays, poems, and epigrams - in a folio entitled his Works. 2 years later he was in France as companion to the son of Sir Walter Raleigh, and on his return he held up hypocritical Puritanism to scorn in Bartholomew Fair, which was followed in 1616 by a comedy, The Devil is an Ass. His 2nd and last tragedy, Catiline, was produced in 1611. įrom the beginning of the new reign Jonson devoted himself largely to the writing of Court masques, in which he excelled all his contemporaries, and about the same time entered upon the production of the 3 great plays in which his full strength is shown: Volpone or, The fox, appeared in 1605 Epicæne or, The silent woman in 1609 and The Alchemist in 1610. ![]() Certain reflections on Scotland gave offence to James I, and the authors were imprisoned, but soon released. It was followed by Eastward Ho, in which he collaborated with Marston and Chapman. His first work in this kind was Sejanus (1603), which was not very favourably received. The last called forth several replies, the most notable of which was the Satiromastix (Whip for the Satirist) of Dekker, a severe, though not altogether unfriendly, retort, which Jonson took in good part, announcing his intention of leaving off satire and trying tragedy. Every Man out of his Humour (1599), Cynthia's Revels (1600), and The Poetaster (1601), satirising the citizens, the courtiers, and the poets respectively, followed. It was in 1598 also that his 1st successful play, Every Man in his Humour, was produced, with Shakespeare as one of the players. About the same time he joined the Roman Catholic Church, in which he remained for 12 years. In 1598, having killed a fellow-actor in a duel, he was tried for murder, but escaped by benefit of clergy. In the former capacity he was unsuccessful. Returning to England about 1592 he took to the stage, both as an actor and as a playwright. His mother, meanwhile, had married a bricklayer, and he was for a time put to that trade, but disliking it, he ran away and joined the army, fighting against the Spaniards in the Low Countries. He was sent to Westminster School, for which he seems to have been indebted to the kindness of W. His father, who died before Ben was 4, seems to have come from Carlisle, and the family to have originally belonged to Annandale. 4.7 Missing works and borderline attributions.A man of vast reading and a seemingly insatiable appetite for controversy, he had an unparalleled influence on Jacobean and Caroline playwrights and poets. Benjamin Jonson (?11 June 1572 - 6 August 1637), always referred to as " Ben", was an English poet, playwright, and actor, best known for his satirical plays and his lyric poems.
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