Ben Jonson biography

 Ben(jamin) Jonson  1572-1637

LIFE

Born at or near Westminster and, after Westminster School, he was

apprenticed to his step-father's trade of bricklaying. Disliking this,

he ran away, joining the army to fight against the Spanish in the 

Low Countries.

He returned to England in about 1592, and took to the stage as an

unsuccessful actor and formidable dramatist. In 1598, having killed a

fellow actor in a duel, he was tried for murder but escaped by benefit

of clergy.

Through a hectic London literary-based life of a celebrated man of

letters run such events as travelling to France as the companion of

Sir Walter Ralegh's son (1613); journeying on foot to Scotland (1618);

receiving an honorary Oxford MA (1619); suffering the destruction of all

his books and manuscripts in a fire (1623); and, in 1628, being struck

down by a paralytic stroke - which didn't stop him from losing favour

at Court through his quarrel with Inigo Jones, the architect who

furnished the machinery for the Court masques (1631), and having to turn

again to the stage to write his last two plays.

PRINCIPAL WORKS

Plays:

Every Man in his Humour  1598

Every Man out of his Humour 1599

Cynthia's Revels  1600

The Poetaster  1601

Sejanus  1603

Eastward Hoe  (with Marston and Chapman)  1605  

Volpone, or The Fox  1605

Epicoene, or The Silent Woman  1609

The Alchemist  1610

Catiline  1611

Bartholomew Fayre  1614

The Devil is an Ass  1616

The Staple of News  1625

The Magnetic Lady  1632

The Tale of a Tub  1633

Poetry:

The Forrest  1616

Under-Woods  1640

THE POEM

IX. SONG: TO CELIA

To be found in The Forrest, published in 1616.

Typographical note: In the original the word "Nectar" is in italics.