Mermaid Series - The Best Plays of Ben Jonson

The Best Plays of Ben Jonson

Notes by Brinsley Nicholson and C. H. Herford, three volumes

(Volume I) Every Man in His Humour - Every Man out of His Humour - The Poetaster

(Volume II) Bartholomew Fair - Cynthia's Revels; or, The Fountain of Self-Love - Sejanus His Fall

(Volume III) Volpone; or, The Fox - Epicœne; or, The Silent Woman - The Alchemist

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Famous quotes containing the words ben jonson, the best, plays, ben and/or jonson:

    Buz, quoth the blue fly,
    Hum, quoth the bee,
    Buz and hum they cry,
    And so do we:
    In his ear, in his nose, thus, do you see?
    He ate the dormouse, else it was he.
    Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

    I know some of my self-worth comes from tennis, and it’s hard to think of doing something else where you know you’ll never be the best. Tennis players are rare creatures: where else in the world can you know that you’re the best? The definitiveness of it is the beauty of it, but it’s not all there is to life and I’m ready to explore the alternatives.
    Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)

    Goodbye, boys; I’m under arrest. I may have to go to jail. I may not see you for a long time. Keep up the fight! Don’t surrender! Pay no attention to the injunction machine at Parkersburg. The Federal judge is a scab anyhow. While you starve he plays golf. While you serve humanity, he serves injunctions for the money powers.
    Mother Jones (1830–1930)

    Ye knowe eek, that in forme of speche is chaunge
    Withinne a thousand yeer, and wordes tho
    That hadden prys, now wonder nyce and straunge
    Us thinketh hem; and yet they spake hem so,
    And spedde as wel in love as men now do;
    Eek for to winne love in sondry ages,
    In sondry londes, sondry ben usages.
    Geoffrey Chaucer (1340–1400)

    Have you seen but a bright lily grow
    Before rude hands have touch’d it?
    Have you mark’d but the fall of the snow
    Before the soil hath smutch’d it?
    Have you felt the wool of the beaver,
    Or swan’s down ever?
    Or have smelt of the bud of the brier,
    Or the nard in the fire?
    Or have tasted the bag of the bee?
    O so white, O so soft, O so sweet is she!
    —Ben Jonson (1572–1637)