Benjamin Jonson (1572–1637) was a British actor, poet, playwright, scholar, critic, and translator. In a literary career of more than 40 years (twice as long as his friend Shakespeare’s) that produced over 60 plays, Jonson was influential in Elizabethan and Stuart drama. Known for his biting social satire, brilliant plotting, a span of social panorama, and original language, Jonson is reckoned as one of English literature’s fountainhead figures.
Jonson was born in London. His formal education ended prematurely. Jonson was raised near Westminster Abbey, where he enrolled at the abbey’s celebrated Westminster School. It was here in annual performances mounted by the school’s scholars that he got introduced to drama.
Rather than going to college, Jonson apprenticed as a bricklayer, becoming a journeyman by 1598. He fought as a volunteer foot soldier against the Spanish in the Netherlands and began his career as a playwright after first acting in one of London’s theater companies.
Jonson’s first drama was The Case Is Altered (1598,) a comedy derived from two plays by the Roman playwright Plautus. It was followed by Everyman in His Humour (1598) and Everyman out of His Humour (1599,) performed by Shakespeare’s drama company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, which established Jonson as an emerging playwright.
Jonson’s undisputed masterpiece, Volpone (1606,) was performed to great acclaim at London’s Globe Theatre. His other notable works include The Alchemist (1610,) Bartholomew Fair (1614,) and The Devil Is an Ass (1616.) The Alchemist, more than any other of his dramas, established a new standard of dramatic construction and a realistic approach and subject for the theater.
Jonson was most admired for his comedies with contemporaneous audiences. He also wrote a series of court masques, which were simple plays in which the court’s lords and ladies acted. Even with his working-class background, Jonson showed a remarkable appreciation for the power of books and of print. His plays are full of erudite references, drawn from what must have been a substantial personal library.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Ben Jonson
The covetous man never has money; the prodigal will have none shortly.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Accomplishment, Money
Talking and eloquence are not the same.—To speak and to speak well are two things.—A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Communication
He knows not his own strength that hath not met adversity.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Difficulties, Adversity, Strength
No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Advice
In small proportions we just beauties see,
And in short measures life may perfect be.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Life
Men might go to heaven with half the labor they put forth to go to hell, if they would but venture their industry in the right way.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Hell
Very few men are wise by their own counsel, or learned by their own teaching; for he that was only taught by himself had a fool as his master.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Vision, Perception, Wisdom, Role models
He threatens many that hath injured one.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Crime
The soul of man is infinite in what it covets.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Desire
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