BEN JONSON

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

Hello, I am Emisha Ravani. Doing my master degree at department of English of maharaja krishnakumarsinhji bhavnagar university. Here this blog is relieving information about a prominent figure of jacobean era and elizabethan era. This is the thinking activity given by professor Dilip Barad sir and it is very interesting task to be done.

Firstly we will get the information about Ben Jonson. the Great benjamin jonson. He was english Stuart dramatist, poet, literary critic, playwright. In English literature people are considering him as very second of william Shakespeare by the Fame and own contribution in the english literature. He was in the time of the reign of james 1. He was born in London 11 june 1572 and died at london 6 August 1637. He used to write by using the genre of satirical comedy. Major works Likewise,

Every Man in His Humour (1598),

Volpone (1605),

Epicoene,

The Silent Woman (1609),

The Alchemist (1610),

Bartholomew Fair (1614)

He got his formal education from west Minister School.ended early, and he at first followed his stepfather’s trade, He was working as bricklayer then he joined army and he performed well there too.fought with some success with the English forces in the Netherlands. In 1597 he wrote 'The isles of the dog' collaborate with Thomas Nashe. This work got baned at that time. All the copies were burned. then in 5098 he killed Gabrial Spencer. He got himself into the jail for this too. His life is quite interesting to see.On returning to England, he became an actor and playwright, experiencing the life of a strolling player.

Jonson apparently wrote tragedies as well as comedies.but his extant writings include only two tragedies, Sejanus (1603) and Catiline (1611).

His plays and notable achievements

Protestant England’s first poet laureate. His major comedies express a strong distaste for the world in which he lived and a delight in exposing its follies and vices.He was easily the most learned dramatist of his time, and he was also a master of theatrical plot, language, and characterization.

Major reputation is for in the field of drama and as well as plays. Still people like to read his works like volpone and everyman in his humour. In this work he tried to portrayed humours from latin comic. Afterwards he influenced so many other writers to use Jonsonian 'type' or 'humours'.

ORIGINAL cover page of his work

Volpone is a comedy play by English playwright Ben Jonson first produced in 1605–1606, drawing on elements of city comedy and beast fable.A merciless satire of greed and lust, it remains Jonson's most-performed play, and it is ranked among the finest Jacobean era comedies.

Every Man in His Humour is a 1598 play by the English playwright Ben Jonson. The play belongs to the subgenre of the "humours comedy," in which each major character is dominated by an over-riding humour or obsession.

Speciality of Ben Jonson

James 1 was too pleasant for Ben Jonson causewhen Jones provided increasingly magnificent costumes and scenic effects for masques at court. The few spoken words that the masque had demanded in Elizabethan days expanded into a “text” of a few hundred lines and a number of set songs. Thus the author became important as well as the designer: he was to provide not only the necessary words but also a special “allegorical” meaning underlying the whole entertainment. It was Jonson, in collaboration with Jones, who gave the Jacobean masque its characteristic shape and style. He did this primarily by introducing the suggestion of a “dramatic” action. It was thus the poet who provided the informing idea and dictated the fashion of the whole night’s assembly. Jonson’s early masques were clearly successful, for during the following years he was repeatedly called upon to function as poet at court. Among his masques were Hymenaei (1606), Hue and Cry After Cupid (1608), The Masque of Beauty (1608), and The Masque of Queens (1609).

Jonson was a renowned in his unique style of masques.

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