Benjonson 201220120444
Benjonson 201220120444
Benjonson 201220120444
BEN JONSON
FAMILY BACKGROUND
• Ben Jonson was born by the name of WESTMINSTER SCHOOL
‘Benjamin Jonson’ in London on June,
11th, 1572 (two months after his father
died.)
• Jonson had begun to write in 1597, perhaps with a play called The
Case is Altered.
• And during 1598 and 1599 he wrote Every Man In His Humour,
was performed in 1598 by The Lord Chamberlain’s Men at the
Globe with William Shakespeare in the cast. Jonson became a
celebrity, and there was a brief fashion for 'humours' comedy.
• His next play, Every Man Out Of His Humour (1599), was less The Lord Chamberlain’s Men
successful.
IMPRISONMENT
FLEET PRISON.
IN THE COURT
• At the beginning of the reign of King James I of England in 1603, Jonson
joined other poets and playwrights in welcoming the reign of the new king.
• In 1605, Jonson began to write masques for the entertainment of the court.
The earliest of his masques, The Satyr and The Masque of Blackness were
successful and Jonson seems to have been appointed Court Poet shortly after.
• He was granted a royal pension in 1616 and thus made, effectively, Poet
Laureate of England, the year in which Shakespeare died. Jonson became
one of the most successful writers of his era.
• After his personal library burned in 1623, Jonson hit a low point in his life. He fell
out of favor with the court and suffered several strokes, which made writing THE MERMAID TAVERN
extremely arduous.
• Despite these apparent failures, and in spite of his frequent feuds, Jonson was the
dean and the leading wit of the group of writers who gathered at the Mermaid
Tavern.
• His circle of admirers and friends, who called themselves the "Tribe of Ben," met
regularly at the Mermaid Tavern and later at the Devil's Head. Among his followers
were nobles such as the Duke and Duchess of Newcastle as well as writers
including Robert Herrick, Richard Lovelace, Sir John Suckling, James Howell, and
Thomas Carew.
BEN JONSON AND
HIS
CONTEMPORARIES
• Jonson was friends with many of the writers of his day, and many of his most well-known poems include
tributes to friends such as Shakespeare, John Donne, and Francis Bacon.
• Jonson made many jokes about other people and considered himself superior to others. Jonson's personal
characteristics partly explain why he placed himself in opposition to the spirit of the age. He was extremely
combative. It was almost a necessity for him to quarrel with some person or with some opinion.
• Jonson deliberately took his stand in opposition to “the romantic spirit of the age”. Marlowe and
Shakespeare had disregarded the classical unities and had developed the drama on romantic lines.
• He resolved to follow classical traditions and to stick to unity of time and place in the construction of his
plots.
DEATH
• Jonson was buried in Westminster Abbey, with the
inscription, "O Rare Ben Jonson," laid in the slab over
his grave. A tremendous crowd of mourners attended his
burial at Westminster Abbey. He is regarded as one of the
major dramatists and poets of the seventeenth century.