JONSON, BEN, a distinguished English dramatist, born at Westminster, probably in 1574; died August 6, 1637. His father, a clergyman of Scottish descent, died before the birth of his son, and the widow married a master bricklayer, to whom the boy was apprenticed. But before he was out of his teens he enlisted in the army and saw some service in Flanders; after which he is said to have been entered at St. John's College, Cambridge, where his stay must have been short, for at twenty we find him upon the stage, but meeting with indifferent success as an actor. In 1596 appeared his Comedy of Humors, which was subsequently remodelled, and appeared under the title of Every Man in His Humor. Shakespeare, who was about ten years the senior of Jonson, and had already written some of his finest comedies, is said to have aided in the composition of this play, and to have taken a part in its representation upon the stage. In 1599 appeared Jonson's less successful comedy, Every Man Out of His Humor. He continued to write for the stage down to near the close of his life. The latest and apparently the most complete collection of his works, which appeared in 1853, contains seventeen plays, and more than thirty masques and interludes, besides many miscellaneous pieces in prose and verse. His two most important tragedies are Sejanus (1603) and Catiline (1611), both founded upon scenes in Roman history. His principal comedies, besides those already mentioned, are Volpone, or the Foxe (1605); Epicone, or the Silent Woman (1609), and The Alchemist (1610). Scattered through the masques and interludes, and among the miscellaneous pieces, are several exquisite poems. Jonson's personal history was marked by many vicissitudes. Shortly after the accession of James I., in 1603, Jonson, in conjunction with Chapman and Marston, produced the comedy of Eastward Hoe, which was supposed to reflect severely upon the Scottish nation; the authors were thrown into prison, and threatened with the loss of their ears and noses. Jonson, however, soon made his peace with the King, with whom he rose into high favor. In 1613 he went to the Continent as tutor to a son of Sir Walter Raleigh. In 1619 he was made Poet Laureate, with a salary of one hundred marks (about £70). In 1628 he had a stroke of palsy, whereupon King Charles I. increased his stipend to £100, to which was added an annual tierce of wine. Notwithstanding these beneficences, he was always involved in pecuniary difficulties. He was buried in Westminster Abbey; and his tombstone (since removed) contained by way of inscription only the words, "O rare Ben Jonson." In 1619 he made a pedestrian tour in Scotland, where he was for several weeks a guest of Drummond of Hawthornden, who wrote the following not overflattering characterization of the laureate: JONSON AS DESCRIBED BY DRUMMOND. "He is a great lover and praiser of himself; a contemner and scorner of others; given rather to lose a friend than a jest; jealous of every word and action of those about him, especially after a drink, which is one of the elements in which he liveth; a dissembler of ill parts which reign within him; a beggar of some good that he wanted; thinking nothing well but what either he himself or some of his countrymen hath said or done; he is passionately kind and angry; careless either to gain or keep; vindictive, but, if well answered, at himself; for any religion, as being versed in both; interpreteth best sayings and deeds often to the worst; oppressed with fantasy, which hath even mastered his reason—a general disease in many poets." The following scene from Every Man in His Humor is a favorable specimen of the comedy of Jonson. Captain Bobadil is a braggadocio, living in an obscure inn, where he is visited by Knowell, whom he is trying to make his dupe. HOW TO SAVE THE EXPENSE OF AN ARMY. Bobadil.-I will tell you, sir, by the way of private, and under seal, I am a gentleman, and live here obscure, and to myself; but were I known to her majesty and the lords (observe me), I would undertake, upon this poor head and life, for the public benefit of the state, not only to spare the entire lives of her subjects in general, but to save the one-half, nay three parts, of her yearly charge in holding war and against what enemy soever. And how would I do it, think you? Knowell.-Nay, I know not, nor can I conceive. Bobadil.-Why, thus, sir. I would select nineteen more, to myself, throughout the land; gentlemen they should be of good spirit, strong and able constitution; I would choose them by an instinct, a character that I have and I would teach these nineteen the special rules as your punto, your reverso, your stoccata, your imbroccato, your passado, your montanto- till they could all play very near, or altogether as well as my VOL. XIV.-20 |