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:

    “The wheel of fortune guide you,
    The boy with the bow beside you
    Run aye in the way
    Till the bird of day
    And the luckier lot betide you.”
    —Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

    “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)

    “Weep with me, all you that read
    This little story;
    And know, for whom a tear you shed
    Death’s self is sorry.”
    —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)

    “Now, Penshurst, they that will proportion thee
    With other edifices, when they see
    Those proud, ambitious heaps, and nothing else,
    May say, their lords have built, but thy lord dwells.”
    —Ben Jonson (1572–1637)