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:

    “This made you first to know the Why
    You liked, then after to apply
    That liking; and approach so one the tother,
    Till either grew a portion of the other;
    Each styled by his end,
    The copy of his friend.”
    —Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

    “Sweet Swan of Avon! what a sight it were
    To see thee in our waters yet appear,”
    —Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

    “‘Tis no sin love’s fruit to steal;
    But the sweet theft to reveal,
    To be taken, to be seen,
    These have crimes accounted been.”
    —Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

    “Come leave the loathed stage,
    And the more loathsome age,
    Where pride and impudence in faction knit
    Usurp the chair of wit:
    Indicting and arraigning every day,
    Something they call a play.
    Let their fastidious, vain
    Commission of the brain,
    Run on and rage, sweat, censure, and condemn:
    They were not made for thee, less thou for them.”
    —Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

    “The players have often mentioned it as an honour to Shakespeare, that in his writing, whatsoever he penned, he never blotted out [a] line. My answer hath been, ‘Would he had blotted a thousand.’”
    —Ben Jonson (c. 1572–1637)