Ben Jonson
Also known as Benjamin Jonson, Ben: Ionſon
English playwright, poet, and actor (1572-1637)
AI overview
Ben Jonson was an English playwright, poet, and actor who lived from 1572 to 1637 and became one of the most important literary figures of his era. He is remembered for his influential plays and poetry that shaped English drama and literature during the Renaissance and early modern periods.
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Person · Open Library
- Born
- 11 June 1573
- Died
- 6 August 1637
- Works
- 895
Top works
- The Alchemist, 1612
- Epicoene, or The silent woman
- The masque of queenes
- Chloridia
- Execration against Vulcan
via Open Library + Wikidata
Film & TV
Writing
via TMDB
Works in European collections
9 objects attributed to Ben Jonson, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana
![Drink to me only with thine eyes: [old english song]/(Words, Ben Johnson)](https://api.europeana.eu/thumbnail/v2/url.json?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.slub-dresden.de%2Ffon%2Fsnp%2Fa%2F007730%2Ffon_snp_a_007730_01.jpg&type=IMAGE)
~40 min read
Article
Ben Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – 18 August [O.S. 6 August] 1637) was an English actor, poet and playwright. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence on English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for the satirical plays Every Man in His Humour (1598), Volpone, or The Fox (c. 1606), The Alchemist (1610), and Bartholomew Fair (1614), and for his lyric and epigrammatic poetry. He is regarded as "the second most important English dramatist, after William Shakespeare, during the reign of James I."
Jonson was a classically educated, well-read and cultured man of the English Renaissance with an appetite for controversy (personal and political, artistic and intellectual). His cultural influence was of unparalleled breadth upon the playwrights and the poets of the Jacobean era (1603–1625) and of the Caroline era (1625–1642).
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1572 births1637 deaths16th-century English dramatists and playwrights16th-century English male writers16th-century English poets17th-century English dramatists and playwrights17th-century English male writers17th-century English poetsAnglo-ScotsBritish poets laureateBritish satirical dramatists and playwrightsBurials at Westminster Abbey
