Life+-+Legacy



** Life & Legacy of    Ben __ Jonson __ ** Ben Jonson was a posthumous (after death) son of a clergy. He was educated in Westminister School by William Camden. He started his life by working as a bricklayer. Jonson was forced to quit after the business didn't went well, so he decided to join the army. He returned to England in 1592 and married with Anne Lewis two years after. Jonson was imprisoned in 1597 for the satire in his first play //The Isle of Dogs.// In 1598 Jonson killed Gabriel Spencer in a duel and was tried for murder. He escaped the gallows (hanging death sentence) by claiming the benefit of clergy. However, he was imprisoned and converted to Roman Catholic. He changed back to Anglican about a decade after.

Jonson's second play was known as //Every Man in His Humour// performed in 1598 at the Globe Theatre with William Shakespeare in cast. Jonson at the time was famous for satiric plays which include humor of humanity. His next play, //Every Man Out of His Humour// failed because of the overuse of humor. Another famous play in Jonson's life was //The Poetaster// which satirized Thomas Dekkar and John Marston (writers at that time). //Satiromastrix// was the response from Dekkar and Marston. Jonson, Dekkar, and Marston somehow ended up working together. //The King's Entertainment// was written by Dekker and Jonson. //Eastward Ho// was the cooperation between Marston, Jonson, and George Chapman. In 1603, these three were imprisoned for having a controversial view presented in //Eastward Ho//. Jonson was also charged by authority for his work //Sejanus, His Fall,// which was based on Roman history and also include a positive view of dictatorship.

// Jonson started to work on his new option, the masques. A masque is simply a plot which include speech, dance, and song which most of the times was used in a ball. The Satyr was one of his first masques. Jonson continued to write more masque for a few decades. His masque made him one of the best lyric poet writers. Inigo Jones made a great combination with Joson and created some good work for several years. Mask of Blacknesse in 1605, The Masque of Owles, Masque of Beauty// both in 1609//,// // and the Masque of Queens// in 1609//. Jonson and Jones did not last very long because of intense internal rivalry.

Jonson did not left his comedian writing behind during the years he worked on masque. One of his masterpieces is known as //Volpone //or// The Fox //which was performed performed in 1605 - 1606 and was first published in 1607. Jonson started to produce more plays few years later. Epicoene or The Silent Woman in 1609, The Alchemist in 1610, and Bortholomew in 1614. He produced another infamous comedy in 1616 called The Devil is an Ass which greatly discouraged him and made him stopped writing for 9 years. His next play was completed in 1625 called The Staple of News. The New Inn (1629) and A Tale of a Tub (1633) were not very successful plays. Ben Joson finally came to an end in August 6, 1637 and buried in Westminister Abbey under a slab carved "O rare Ben Jonson!" He suffered a severe stroke since 1628. A writing called Jonsonous virbius was published by his admirers and friends as a memorial. His last unfinished work, Sad Shepherd's Tale, was published in 41. //

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//Source: http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/jonson/benbio.htm // << Back