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.
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I’ll give anything for a good copy now, be it true or false, so it be news.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: News
Language most shows a man; speak that I may see thee; it springs out of the most retired and inmost part of us.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Language
When a virtuous man is raised, it brings gladness to his friends, grief to his enemies, and glory to his posterity.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Honor
Art hath an enemy called ignorance
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Enemy, Arts, Artists, Art
The gods Grow angry with your patience. ‘Tis their care, And must be yours, that guilty men escape not: As crimes do grow, justice should rouse itself.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Guilt
Blueness doth express trueness.
—Ben Jonson
The way to rise is to obey and please.
—Ben Jonson
In small proportions we just beauties see,
And in short measures life may perfect be.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Life
The covetous man never has money; the prodigal will have none shortly.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Money, Accomplishment
Of all wild beasts preserve me from a tyrant; and of all tame, from a flatterer.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Flattery
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
We are persons of quality, I assure you, and women of fashion, and come to see and to be seen.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Socialism, Communism
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
In sovereignty it is a most happy thing not to be compelled, but so it is a most miserable thing not to be counselled.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Kings
Drink today, and drown all sorrow; You shall perhaps not do it tomorrow; Best, while you have it, use your breath; There is no drinking after death
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Drinking
Nay, if he take you in hand, sir, with an argument, He’ll bray you in a mortar.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Arguments
A soft lip would tempt you to eternity of kissing.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Kisses
Who falls for the love of God, shall rise a star.
—Ben Jonson
Success produces confidence; confidence relaxes industry, and negligence ruins the reputation which accuracy had raised.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Success
O, for an engine, to keep back all clocks, or make the sun forget his motion!
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Time Management, Time
Silence in woman is like speech in men; deny it who can.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Silence
Fear to do base and unworthy things is valor; if they be done to us, to suffer them is also valor.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Valor
Force works on servile natures, not the free.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Power
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, Speakers, Speaking, Eloquence
To struggle when hope is banished.
To live when life’s salt is gone!
To dwell in a dream that’s vanished –
To endure, and go calmly on.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Endurance, Resolve, Perseverance
There is no greater hell than to be a prisoner of fear.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Hell
He was a man versed in the world, as pilot in his compass; the needle pointed ever to that interest which was his loadstar; and he spread his sails with vantage to the gale of others’ passions.
—Ben Jonson
Leave but a kiss in the cup, and I’ll not look for wine.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Kiss, Kisses
A new disease? I know not, new or old, but it may well be called poor mortals plague for, like a pestilence, it doth infect the houses of the brain till not a thought, or motion, in the mind, be free from the black poison of suspect.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Doubt
He threatens many that hath injured one.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Crime, Criminals
O, for an engine to keep back all clocks.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Value of Time, Time Management
Guilt’s a terrible thing.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Guilt
If you be sick, your own thoughts make you sick
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Sickness, Disease
The difference between the covetous man and the prodigal, is, that the former never has money, and the latter will have none shortly.
—Ben Jonson
The soul of man is infinite in what it covets.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Desire
Great honours are great burdens, but on whom They are cast with envy, he doth bear two loads. His cares must still be double to his joys, In any dignity.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Honor
‘Tis no shame to follow the better precedent.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Imitation, Role models
They that know no evil will suspect none.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Evil, Innocence
It is the highest of earthly honors to be descended from the great and good.—They alone cry out against a noble ancestry who have none of their own.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Ancestry
Ambition makes more trusty slaves than need
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Ambition
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