Ben Jonson
Benjamin Jonson was born June 11 1572 in Westminster, London. Ben Jonson was married in 1594 but to whom is unknown. Jonsons oldest daughter name Mary died at only six months old in November 1593.Just ten years later his son who name is Benjamin died of the plague. On My First Sonne was written shortly after his son death. A second son of the same name died in 1635. In the summer of 1597 Jonson had begun to write some plays for Lord Admiral’s Men and around 1598 he was popularized by Francis Meres in his Palladis Tamia as one of the best tragedy writers. Jonson was a great playwrite and some of his works include the tragedies such as Catiline, Eastward Ho, Sejanus His Fall, and A Discourse of Love.
Jonson’s work for the public theatres was in comedies that include Volpone (1607), Epicoene, or the Silent Woman (1609), The Alchemist (1610), Bartholomew Fair (1614) and The Devil is an Ass (1616). Another early comedy of a different kind, The Case is Altered, is very similar to Shakespeare’s romantic comedies in its foreign setting, emphasis on wit, and romantic plot. Jonson was questioned by the Privy Council about Sejanus which was a play about Roman Empire corruption. Also a writer of masques for James’ court, some of his accomplishments include Oberon, the Faery Prince(1616), The Vision of Delight(1641), News from the New World Discovered in the Moon(1641) and Love’s Triumph Through Callipolis(1631).
Most of his poetry is still read today. Poetry such as To Celia, Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes, and Epigrams mark Jonsons place in history as a great poet. The renaissance dramatist, poet and actor had a certain rival by the name of William Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s company produced some of Jonsons plays. Thomas Fuller tells stories of Jonson and Shakespeare engaging in arguments at the Mermaid Tavern in the Cheapside in London. Aphra Behn was writing in defense of female playwrights when she pointed to Jonson as a writer whose learning did not make him popular and she also compares him unfavorably to Shakespeare. A slow decline for Jonson began in the 1620s.
Although well-known younger poets such as Robert Herrick, Richard Lovelace, and Sir John Suckling took his strength and hurt his reputation. Jonson continued writing some plays in the 1620s but they were only in the intrest ofthe study of the culture of Charles I’s England. Despite the strokes that he suffered in the 1620s, Jonson continued to write. Around the time of his death in 1637 he seems to have been working on another play entitled The Sad Shepherd. Jonson was buried at Westminster Abbey. He displays the eye for absurdity and hypocrisy that is seen his best-known plays. Benjamin Jonson was buried in an upright grave as an indication to his reduced circumstances at the time of his death.
