(1)

(3)The great poet Ben Jonson, sporting a tasteful shirt of the time period.
Life
Ben Jonson was born in 1572 in London. His father died a month before his birth. Jonson first became known in the mid 1610s as a dramatist and playwrite. Around this time he wrote his two most famous works, The Alchemist, and Volpone.He was sent to jail after he wrote the play Eastward Ho! which king James I found offensive.(14) In 1616 he became Poet Laureate of England, at position which he held till his death in 1637. His poetry, as well as his less popular play works, became more popular in the centuries after his death. (2)

Growing up Ben Jonson attended school at Westminster School and he worked in his stepfathers trade of bricklying. This trade was of no intrest to him so he joined the army, serving in Flanders. He came back to England in 1592 and married Anne Lewis on November 14, 1594. She gave birth to his son in 1596. Jonsosn called hime his best work of poetry. He died at age 7 of the plague(14)

Jonson's enduring reputation rests on the comedies written between 1605 and 1614. the first playu that made him famous was Every Man in his Humour.(14) The first of these, Volpone, or The Fox (performed in 1605-1606, first published in 1607) is often regarded as his masterpiece.
When Ben was about 45 years old he set off for his home land in Scotland, completly on foot.(6)

He grew up in a very religious background and society. His father was a devout Protestant and was imprisoned by Mary Tudor for his religion. He then became a member of the Protestant Hollanders and fought against teh Catholic rule and Spanish influence in England. (7)
He became a great fighter with the sword.
E P I G R A M S .

II. — TO MY BOOK.

It will be look'd for, BOOK, when some but see
Thy title, EPIGRAMS, and named of me,
Thou shouldst be bold, licentious, full of gall,
Wormwood, and sulphur, sharp, and tooth'd withal ;
Become a petulent thing, hurl ink, and wit,
As madmen stones ; not caring whom they hit.
Deceive their malice, who could wish it so ;
And by thy wiser temper, let men know
Thou art not so covetous of least self-fame,
Made from the hazard of another's shame ;
Much less, with lewd, profane, and beastly phrase,
To catch the world's loose laughter, or vain gaze.
He that departs with his own honesty
For vulgar praise, doth it too dearly buy.(4)

This poem was taken from the works of Ben Jonson, specifically from a book of poems called "Epigrams."

During the 17th century Benjamin Jonson had a tremendous influence on both literature and theater. The satirical style of his plays and his use of humor characters laid the blueprint for Restoration comedies. By the 18th century, Jonson's popularity began to decline while he was unfairly compared to Shakespeare as well as all writers of the Romantic era. (5)

Ben was arrested for killing Gabriel Spencer, an actor, in 1598 during a duel. He was tried at Old Bailey and avoided a hanging by pleading benefit of clergy. (12) This act usually prevented Christian clerics from receiving the death penalty. (13) It saved Ben. While inprisoned, he converted to Catholicism.


On My First Daughter
Here lies, to each her parents' ruth,
Mary, the daughter of their youth;
Yet all heaven's gifts being heaven's due,
It makes the father less to rue.
At six months' end, she parted hence
With safety of her innocence;
Whose soul heaven's queen, whose name she bears,
In comfort of her mother's tears,
Hath placed amongst her virgin-train:
Where, while that severed doth remain,
This grave partakes the fleshly birth;
Which cover lightly, gentle earth! (8)

This is of course about Ben Jonson's daughter, who died when she was only 6 months old in November of 1593 (9)

ON MY FIRST SON



Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;
My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy;
Seven years thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay,
Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.
Oh! could I lose all father, now! for why,
Will man lament the state he should envy?
To have so soon ' scaped world' s, and flesh' s rage,
And, if no other misery, yet age!
Rest in soft peace, and, asked, say here doth lie
Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry;
For whose sake, henceforth, all his vows be such,
As what he loves may never like too much. (16)

As seen with the poems on my first daughter and on my first son ben jonson wrote about somw of the most important events and people in his life. the death of a child , for a parent is almost a greater life altering change then having one to begin with.


THE FOREST

I. — WHY I WRITE NOT OF LOVE.

SOME act of LOVE'S bound to rehearse,
I thought to bind him in my verse :
Which when he felt, Away, quoth he,
Can poets hope to fetter me ?
It is enough, they once did get5
Mars and my mother, in their net :
I wear not these my wings in vain.
With which he fled me ;and again,
Into my rhymes could ne'er be got
By any art :then wonder not,10
That since, my numbers are so cold,
When Love is fled, and I grow cold. (10)

Followers
Ben Jonson's followers were a group of Cavalier Poets commonly referred to as the "Sons of Ben" or the "Tribe of Ben". They included, among others, Robert Herrick, Thomas Carew, Sir John Suckling, and Richard Lovelace.(11)
EPIGRAMS.


XVI.—TO BRAINHARDY.

HARDY, thy brain is valiant, 'tis confest,
Thou more ; That with it every day dar'st jest
Thy self into fresh brawls : when, call'd upon,
Scarce thy week's swearing brings thee off, of one.
So in short time, thou art in arrearage grown
Some hundred quarrels, yet dost thou fight none ;
Nor need'st thou : for those few, by oath releast,
Make good what thou dar'st do in all the rest.
Keep thy self there, and think thy valor right ;
He that dares damn himself, dares more than fight.(15)




(17) A portrait of Ben Jonson


LXXX. — OF LIFE AND DEATH.

The ports of death are sins ; of life, good deeds ;
Through which our merit leads us to our meeds.
How wilful blind is he, then, that would stray,
And hath it, in his powers, to make his way !
This world death's region is, the other life's ;
And here, it should be one of our first strifes,
So to front death, as men might judge us past it :
For good men but see death, the wicked taste it. (18)
























Ben Jonson. (19)


1.http://www.cabanonpress.com/News/news-1.BJ.htm
(2). http://www.answers.com/ben%20jonson
(3)Ben Jonson picture
(4) http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/jonson/tomybook.htm
(5)www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/jonson
(6)http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/jonson/benbio.htm
(7)http://www.longroad.ac.uk/accreditation/subject_english/jonson/authors_jonson.htm
(8)http://www.web-books.com/Classics/Poetry/anthology/Jonson/OnMy.htm
(9) http://www.nndb.com/people/168/000025093/
(10) http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/jonson/whynot.htm
11)http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/jonson/benbio.htm
(12) http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/jonson/benbio.htm
(13)http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/society/A0806992.html
(14) http://www.longroad.ac.uk/accreditation/subject_english/jonson/authors_jonson.htm
(15)poem
(16)http://www.everypoet.com/archive/poetry/Ben_Jonson/#onmyfirstdaughter
(17)http://ise.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/images/jonson2.jpg
(18)http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/jonson/epigram80.htm
(19) http://www.thebookofdays.com/months/aug/6.htm