Ben Jonson

Ben Jonson

Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – 6 August 1637) was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems. A man of vast reading and a seemingly insatiable appetite for controversy, Jonson had an unparalleled breadth of influence on Jacobean and Caroline playwrights and poets.

Read more about Ben Jonson:  Relationship With Shakespeare, Reception and Influence, Biographies of Ben Jonson

Famous quotes by ben jonson:

    “Follow a shaddow, it still flies you;
    Seeme to flye it, it will pursue:
    So court a mistris, shee denyes you;
    Let her alone, shee will court you.
    Say, are not women truely, then,
    Stil’d but the shaddowes of us men?
    At morne, and even, shades are longest;
    At noone, they are or short, or none:
    So men at weakest, they are strongest,
    But grant us perfect, they’re not knowne.
    Say, are not women truely, then,
    Stil’d but the shaddowes of us men?”
    —Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

    “He stood, a soldier, to the last right end,
    A perfect patriot and a noble friend,
    But most a virtuous son.
    All offices were done
    By him, so ample, full, and round
    In weight in measure, number, sound,
    As, though his age imperfect might appear,
    His life was of humanity the sphere.”
    —Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

    “It is not growing like a tree
    In bulk, doth make man better be,
    Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,
    To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere:
    A lily of a day
    Is fairer far in May
    Although it fall and die that night;
    It was the plant and flower of light.
    In small proportions we just beauties see,
    And in short measures life may perfect be.”
    —Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

    “The faery beam upon you,
    The stars to glisten on you,
    A moon of light
    In the noon of night
    Till the firedrake hath o’er gone you.”
    —Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

    “We are persons of quality, I assure you, and women of fashion, and come to see and to be seen.”
    —Ben Jonson (c. 1572–1637)