{\b Benjamin Jonson}.

{\b Date of Birth}.: June 1572

{\b Date of Death}.: 6 August 1637

{\b Works}.

English dramatist and poet, perhaps still best known as the dramatic rival of his 
more famous contemporary, Shakespeare. His most renowned works are the two 
comedies Volpone (1605-6) and The Alchemist (1610) and the satirical tragedy 
Sejanus (1603). Other important works include the satirical The Devil is an Ass 
(1616), Epicone, or The Silent Woman (1609) and Bartholomew's Fair (1614). The 
first and perhaps most enduring of the famous comedies of humour, with which 
Jonson's name is chiefly associated today, was his Every Man in his Humour (1598).
Other dramatic works include Every Man Out of His Humour (1599), Cynthia's 
Revels (1600), The Poetaster (1601), Catiline (1611), The Staple of News (1625), 
The New Inn (1629) and The Magnetic Lady (1632). Perhaps the most important of 
his non-dramatic works is his collection of prose pieces Timber; or Discoveries 
Made Upon Men and Matters (1640). He also wrote non-dramatic poetry that 
influenced the form of the later lyric verse, in particular the verse of Andrew 
Marvell and of the Cavalier poets.

{\b Featured Works}.

'Volpone', 'Every Man in His Humour', 'Song to Diana', 'To Celia; Drink to Me 
Only', 'Song, from "The Silent Woman"', 'It is Not Growing Like a Tree', 'To the 
Memory of My Beloved, The Author, Mr William Shakespeare, and What He Hath Left 
Us', 'That Women are But Men's Shadows', "Have You Seen But a Bright Lily Grow", 
'A Hymn to God the Father', 'An Elegy', 'Come, my Celia', 'Epitaph on Elizabeth, L.H.',
'Epitaph on Salomon Pavy, a Child of Queen Elizabeth's Chapel', 'Inviting a 
Friend to Supper', 'An Ode to Himself', 'On Playwright', 'On English Monsieur', 
'On Gut', 'On My First Daughter', 'On Spies', 'On my First Son', 'Queen and 
Huntress', 'Slow, Slow, Fresh Fount', 'Still to Be Neat', 'The Triumph of Charis',
'Though I am Young and Cannot Tell', 'To Doctor Empirick', 'To Elizabeth, 
Countess of Rutland', 'To Fool or Knave', 'To John Donne', 'To Fine Lady Would-Be',
'To Penhurst', 'To Sir Henry Cary', 'To the Reader'.

{\b General Comment}.

Born in London of Border descent, Jonson was the son of a clergyman who died 
before his son's birth. He was educated at Westminster School and then, 
embarking upon a life that would be characterised throughout by great 
diversity and outlandish events, worked for a time as a bricklayer for his 
stepfather. This was followed by  military service in Flanders, some acting in a 
strolling company of actors, and marriage, in 1594, to Anne Lewis, prior to being 
imprisoned in 1597 for his involvement, as playwright and player, in a satire 
entitled The Isle of Dogs. One year later he killed another actor in a duel but 
escaped execution by pleading benefit of clergy. During his subsequent 
imprisonment he converted to Roman Catholicism only to convert back to Anglicism 
over a decade later in 1701.

In the same year his most important play, the comedy Every Man in His Humour, was 
performed by the Lord Chamberlain's Men. The cast included Shakespeare. His first 
court masque, of which he produced several in the following years, was produced 
in 1605 - the same year in which he was, once again, imprisoned for his part in a 
satire, this time entitled Edward Hoe , and also gave evidence concerning the 
infamous Gunpowder Plot. The period of his major plays followed with the 
publication and production of Volpone (1605-6), Epicene (1609) and Bartholomew's 
Fair (1614), by which time he had also worked as a personal tutor in France and 
had travelled to Scotland where he recorded his famous conversations with 
Drummond of Hawthornden. In 1616 he published his complete Works - poems, plays 
and masques - and received, in 1919, an honorary Master of Arts degree from 
Oxford University and began to lecture on rhetoric at Gresham College, London. 
Two disasters followed: a fire, in 1623, that destroyed many of his belongings , 
and a stroke in 1628 from which he never fully recovered.

Jonson was a massive man - he spoke of his "mountain belly" - and a massively 
prolific writer. As well as his many plays and non-dramatic verses, his numerous 
masques include The Masque of Queens (1609), Love Restored (1612), Mercury 
Vindicated From the Alchemists at Court (1616), Pleasure Recounted to Virtue (1618)
and Neptune's Triumph for the Return of Albion (1624). His friends - Shakespeare, 
Donne, Francis Bacon, George Chapman and so on - were, and those he influenced 
remain even today, numerous.  His tombstone in Westminster Abbey bears the 
apposite inscription "O rare Ben Jonson".