Ben Jonson

Benjamin Jonson (June 11, 1572 – August 6, 1637) was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. He is best known for his plays Volpone and The Alchemist, his lyrics, his influence on Jacobean and Caroline poets, his theory of humours, his contentious personality, and his friendship and rivalry with William Shakespeare.

Relationship with Shakespeare

There are many legends about Jonson's rivalry with Shakespeare, some of which may even be true. Most of our information comes from Jonson's conversation with Drummond of Hawthornden (see above), in which he scoffs at a nonsensical line in Julius Caesar, and at the setting of The Winter's Tale in the non-existent seacoast of Bohemia. Other legends tell of Jonson and Shakespeare having intellectual debates in the Mermaid Tavern, in which Shakespeare would run rings around the more learned but more ponderous Jonson. However, there must have been a complex friendship between the men, as Jonson wrote a preface for the First Folio publication of Shakespeare's plays in which he alternately praised and condemned his deceased rival. He is reported to have called Shakespeare the Swan of Avon.

Related Topics:
Shakespeare - Julius Caesar - The Winter's Tale - Mermaid Tavern - First Folio

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