Jonson, Ben(jamin) 1572-1637
English dramatist

He was born in Westminster, London, probably of Border descent, and educated at Westminster School under William Camden. After working for a while with his stepfather, a bricklayer, he volunteered for military service in Flanders before joining Philip Henslowe's company of players. He killed a fellow player in a duel, became a Catholic in prison, but later returned to Anglicanism. His Every Man in his Humour, with Shakespeare in the cast, was performed at the Curtain in 1598 to be followed not so successfully by Every Man Out of His Humour in 1599. The equally unpopular Cynthia's Revels (1600), largely allegorical, was succeeded by The Poetaster (1600-01) which was helped by a personal attack on Thomas Dekker and John Marston. He then tried Roman tragedy, but his Sejanus (1603) and his later venture, Catiline (1611), are so padded with classical references as to be merely closet plays and poor imitations of Roman tragedy. His larger intent of discarding romantic comedy and writing realistically (though his theory of 'humours' was hardly comparable with genuine realism) helped to produce his four masterpieces - Volpone (1606), The Silent Woman (1609), The Alchemist (1610) and Bartholomew Fair (1614). Volpone is an unpleasant satire on senile sensuality and greedy legacy hunters. The Silent Woman is farcical comedy involving a heartless hoax. John Dryden praised it for its construction, but The Alchemist is better with its single plot and strict adherence to the unities. Bartholomew Fair is livelier, salted by his anti-Puritan prejudices, though the plot is lost in the motley of eccentrics. After the much poorer The Devil is an Ass (1616), Jonson turned again to the masque (he had already collaborated with Inigo Jones in The Masque of Blacknesse in 1605) - and produced a number of those glittering displays down to 1625 when James I's death terminated his period of court favour. His renewed attempt to attract theatre audiences left him in the angry mood of the ode 'Come leave the loathed stage' (1632). Only his unfinished pastoral play The Sad Shepherd survives of his declining years. He attracted and influenced the learned and courtly, to several of whom his superb verse letters are addressed. His lyric genius was second only to Shakespeare's. His Timber; or Discoveries, printed in the folio of 1640, proves him also a considerable critic. He is buried in Westminster Abbey, London, with the words 'O Rare Ben Jonson' inscribed on his tombstone.

Bibliography: D Riggs, Ben Jonson, a life (1989)