Jonson, Ben

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

Ben (1573-1637), an eminent English dramatist. His father was a London clergyman who died shortly before the birth of his son. His stepfather called him home from Cambridge to set him at laying brick. He ran away and enlisted in the army. At nineteen he returned from the Netherlands, a roistering blade with holes in his pockets and an unlimited capacity for drink. His biographers represent him as a big, coarsely framed portly, athletic fellow with a square jaw, thick lips, and an ungainly walk--rather the portrait of a prize-fighter. He turned to the stage for a living. His life is full of quarreling, dueling, imprisonment, want and disease, failures and successes. Were it not for the fame of Shakespeare, whom he challenged to many a combat of wit, Ben Johnson would be a central figure in dramatic literature. Of his plays The Alchemist is read most frequently. Its nature is indicated by the title. The plot turns on the medieval superstition that lead could be turned into silver. The characters are sharpers and dupes. On the other hand The Silent Woman is in all respects the opposite of what the title implies. Wealthy old Morose, who desires quiet--absolute silence--in his house, supposes himself to be wedded to a dumb woman who suddenly becomes gifted with an admirable ability to speak, and fills his house on the wedding morn with a pandemonium of friends and strolling players come to the wedding feast. Morose is glad to buy peace and quiet at a price, which agreed to, his new wife admits that she is a youth in merry disguise. Every Man in His Own Humour is a braggart play proposing that twenty superlative swordsmen like the principal character, easily seen to be the author, go out in lieu of a regular army to challenge the enemy, squad by squad, to single combat till 40,000 are slain. Jonson's reputation for ability was deservedly high. His popularity lay in the fact that he had the courage to stand against court society. We cannot admire his taste nor commend his judgment in all matters, but the populace is always ready to cheer on courageous opposition. As is usually the case the democracy allowed its hero to die not simply in want, but in the poverty of a hovel. His remains were placed in the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey . A stonecutter was employed, it is said, at a cost of eighteen pence to carve on the slab over England's second dramatist the words: "O RARE BEN JONSON." SAYINGS. Hang sorrow! care 'll kill a cat. The old bald cheater, Time. He was not of an age, but for all time. For a good poet's made as well as born. That world knows only two,--that's Rome and I. Underneath this stone doth lie As much beauty as could die; Which in life did harbour give To more virtue than doth live. For a man to write well, there are required three necessaries: to read the best authors; observe the best speakers; and much exercise of his own style. SAID OF JONSON. He did a little too much Romanize our tongue.--John Dryden. Jonson possessed all the learning that was wanting to Shakespeare, and wanted all the genius which the other possessed.--David Hume. Many were the wit-combats betwixt him (Shakespeare) and Ben Jonson; which two I behold like a Spanish great galleon and an English man-of-war; Master Jonson, like the former, was built far higher in learning; solid, but slow in his performances. Shakespeare, with the English man-of-war, lesser in bulk but lighter in sailing, could turn with all tides, tack about, and take advantage of all winds by the quickness of his wit and invention.--Thomas Fuller, 1662. The most obvious qualities of his intellectual nature are weight and force; of his spiritual nature; earnestness and courage. In the classics, accurate and thorough; and on every subject, athirst. He is said to have carried books in his pocket while working at his trade, in order, during leisure moments, to refresh his memory upon favorite passages in the Latin and Greek poets. In method he was careful and precise.--Welsh.