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:

    Hear me, O God!
    A broken heart,
    Is my best part:
    Use still thy rod,
    That I may prove
    Therein, thy Love.

    If thou hadst not
    Beene stern to mee.
    But left me free.
    I had forgot
    My selfe and thee.
    Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

    Thou art not, Penshurst, built to envious show,
    Of touch or marble; nor canst boast a row
    Of polished pillars, or a roof of gold;
    Thou hast no lantern whereof tales are told,
    Or stair, or courts; but stand’st an ancient pile,
    Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

    Thou art a monument without a tomb,
    And art alive still while thy book doth live
    And we have wits to read and praise to give.
    Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

    I now thinke, Love is rather deafe, than blind,
    For else it could not be,
    That she,
    Whom I adore so much, should so slight me,
    And cast my love behind:
    I’m sure my language to her, was as sweet,
    And every close did meet
    In sentence, of as subtile feet,
    As hath the youngest Hee,
    Ben Jonson (1572–1637)