1. Analysis | Critique | Overview Below
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From my own personal point of view other than the ones whose understanding is better than mine, “A Song to
Celia” is a poem that conveys none but an intense affection of a man to a woman whose name is Celia… The
author uses wine metaphorically to suggest that he is falling madly, deeply in love with Celia. Wine is used to
compare his deep love with Celia suggesting the overall tone that when a man is heavily drank, the more the
taste of the wine gets sweeter and sweeter until everything else unknowingly slipped away in a moment. Like
love, it’s getting more intense day by day making it immeasurable through times… Furthermore, the man in
the poem exudes optimism, perseverance and persistence that he became courageous and bold with his
feelings, though at the end Celia did not dare pay him attention at all (taking her sending the roses back to the
courting man as a proof of dislike and distaste). The author even used Jove’s nectar to compare Celia’s
sweetness as a woman… but he says, he won’t dare give in taking goddess sweetness over Celia’s...for the
latter is incomparable and no other woman can equate the feelings that he has for her… In the end the
courting man found himself hopelessly devoted to Celia but he promised that his love will still grow eternally
like the lovely roses that propagate and do not perish. (by recaphe)
| Posted on 2011-11-21 | by a guest
hey guys,, i think this poem is so close to sixthenth poem.the lady acts just like she does in courtly love
poetry.she is creul because she hurts the speaker whi
ch really loves her.and if it is not like 16thC. then she doesn't love the speaker because it is about love and i
think we simply forgive the one we love.
Aneta kurdi
To Celia is a love poem with a simple four line rhyme scheme (abcbabcb), written in first person. The over all
tone of the poem is dreamy, optimistic, persistent, and gullibly innocent. The rhythm is smooth, and pensive,
and seems to fall into an iambic pentameter. The poem gives the reader an intimate sense of this man’s
love, and obsession for the woman of his desire, Celia. I interpreted this poem as having a theme of lost love. I
imagined that Celia is his ex-lover, he still is in love with her, and wants her to come back to him.
In the first stanza, the strong feelings he has for her are expressed metaphorically by comparing his love to
drinking wine, and Jove’s Nectar, an elixir for immortality. He is intoxicated by her, and can’t live
without her. In the first line â€oeDrink to me, only with thine eyes And I will pledge with mine―, he is asking
Celia to look at him with her eyes, and tell him she still loves him, he will in turn promise himself to her.
â€oeOr leave a kiss but in the cup And I'll not look for wine― meaning If that is too much to ask, at least
show him in some way that she still cares for him, and that will as least satisfy him. â€oeThe thirst that from
the soul doth rise Doth ask a drink divine―, the desire and love he has for her is burning deep inside of him,
and he needs her. â€oeBut might I of Jove's nectar sup I would not change for thine―, meaning he cannot
live without her. If he were given the gift of immortality, he would not take it just to be with her.
A wreath is a symbol of eternity, in the second stanza, he expresses eternal love for her by metaphorically
comparing it to the rosy wreath. I believe the wreath also may represent an apology. In the first line of the
second stanza, â€oeI sent thee late a rosy wreath Not so much honoring thee―, I believe he is talking about
the mistakes he made. He used the word late, implying that he was too late showing her his eternal love for
her, and is now not able to have her, honoring being another word for having. â€oeAs giving it a hope that
there It could not withered be―, he is telling her he loves her hoping their love is not lost. â€oeBut thou
thereon didst only breath And sent'st it back to me―, she doesn’t want to listen to him anymore, takes
a deep breath or sigh, and does not accept his apology. â€oeSince, when it grows and smells, I swear, Not of
itself but thee―, No matter what happens, I will always love you, and a piece of you will always be with me.
Some techniques used in this poem are Alliteration, the use of metaphors, personification, irony, hyperbole,
and possibly allegory. Alliteration can be identified in this poem by the words that are stressed such as
2. (highlighted in green above) in the first stanza, stresses are placed on Drink, cup, kiss, and divine. Metaphors
were used to describe his love for Celia, such as drinking the wine, the elixir of eternal life, and the rosy
wreath. Personification is used in personifying Celia’s eyes, as if they could speak, and the thirst takes on a
human quality of rising, and asking for a drink. I thought irony was present when Celia sent the wreath back,
or denied his apology. The man disregarded this action, and continued with his protest of love for her. I think
hyperbole was used a lot in this poem. For example the entire poem seems to be a hyperbole. It is extremely
exaggerated, and in particular, the lines â€oeBut might I of Jove's nectar sup I would not change for thine―,
and â€oeSince, when it grows and smells, I swear, Not of itself but thee.― The images are unrealistic, and
cannot be taken literally. I thought allegory can be identified in this poem, because if you read through the
poem once, you may just interpret a man courting a woman, and the woman literally returning his gift to him,
not acknowledging him. However I felt that these two people were at once very close. They loved each other,
and the man did something that caused them to break up. He still is madly in love with her, and would do
anything to get her back. He apologizes to her, but it is not enough. The literal meaning is obvious, but the
symbolic meaning of the poets word choices lead to my interpretation. I believe three main important
concepts that influence the entire poems message would be word choice, tone, and symbols.
Word choice is important in this poem, because the words used give the reader a detailed understanding of
what the poet is trying to say. The words also create the imagery of the poem, and set up the meaning of the
symbols used throughout. For example the whole first stanza is surrounded by words that are related to
drinking wine, such as drink, cup, wine, thirst, and nectar. The words make it easy for the reader to determine
that he is comparing the love he has for Celia to drinking wine, and the nectar of Jove’s. Her love is
intoxicating, and worth more than anything to him. In the second stanza, the word choice I noticed was more
important. The words late, rosy wreath, honouring, withered, breath, grows, smell, and swear, to me all had in
depth meaning. For example late lead me to believe he had made a mistake. Rosy wreath suggested eternal
love, and an apology. Honouring took on the meaning of having. Withered reminded me of dyeing, and lost
love. Breath implied her presence, and disapproval. Grows, tells the reader that his love for her has only
gotten stronger. Smell implies a sense of lingering, as if her essence is still all around him. Swear implies a
promise to oneself, and he promises to always love her.
The tone of the poem I described as dreamy, optimistic, persistent, and gullibly innocent. I think this tone is
important in getting the poets mood across to the reader. The rhythm of the poem contributes to the tone
because it is smooth and pensive. The poem is read in a smooth whimsical way, and slightly imploring. I
thought it was dreamy because of the flowery language used, and the whimsical way it read through.
Optimistic because he is hopeful that Celia still loves him, persistent, because he goes into length describing
his love, and gullibly innocent, because even though it is clear Celia wants nothing to do with him anymore, he
still holds onto the love he has for her.
The symbols I thought were interesting, and really led me to discovering an underlying meaning to this poem.
Examples of the symbol used in this poem are the eyes, Jove’s Nectar, the rosy wreath, and Celia’s
breath. When the poet opens with mentioning thine eyes, it symbolizes that they are close, and he knows
what she is feeling without her speaking. The eyes create intimacy in the poem. Jove’s Nectar symbolizes
immortality, and his love. His love will never die for her. The rosy wreath symbolizes eternity, on how he will
love her forever, and also I believe the wreath serves as a symbol for the apology he is giving her. Celia’s
breath symbolizes her release from him. She does not take him in, but exhales. This symbolizes her rejecting
him. I think these symbols were very influential in the way I interpreted this poem.
In conclusion, I really enjoyed this poem, and digging into its underlying meaning. At first I found the language
very hard to follow, and read it so many times I now have it memorized. I researched other people’s
thoughts online, and realized that I had taken a different perspective on the poem compared to other reviews.
I always find it interesting to see how differently people think, and how the meanings of these poems take life
in the individual depending on their own experiences.
By Cathy Zapata
3. Hi! we cannot say that one's analysis is wrong,,because you cannot define its meaning in one package. The
meaning of any literary piece, be it a poem or anything, depends on the reader's perception and present
mood or emotion.. I'll say based on my own understanding, that this is about a man so captivated by a
woman's beauty.That his passion for her will last for a long time, i just don't know for sure until when. When
the woman sent the flower back, who (aside from the writer himself that had been long buried and lying down
the earth for 3 centuries)can tell what it means? There are numerous reasons and nobody can guess, like
when will Jesus would go down here and wipe out all bad dudes..See? there are no definite answer to "what
does it means?" It depends on the reader's perception and there are no wrong answers. -To the one who
posted saying- "Obviously,you are all wrong!"-- please, stop actin' like a real smart-assed!!!
song to celia is about a man courting a lady where in he give roses but celia reject it so the man plant the rose
and celia appreaciate the rose
(If you have not read the post below this one, then please do in order to understand this clarification). Sorry,
but I forgot to clarify two things. First, I meant to add that there is a progression from his focus on the
woman's body parts, from romantic to sexual. This focus on her body can be seen by the Jove's nector and
how he would GIVE UP IMMORTALITY, obviously expressing something sneaky is going on. Also with cavalier
poetry can be the reference to quickly enjoying the short life that humans live, which can be seen by the
speaker giving up on living eternally by the nector which brings a light of realism that humans don't live
forever, so enjoy it while you can.
The second part that needs clarifying is the wreath of roses. Remember, the poets audience is women, and a
rose is extremely desireful in a relationship. However, men's desire is something with a hole in it similar to the
hole in the wreath. This suggests how he is trying to give her sex (offering the roses). However, she rejects
them, giving this womanly hole only her scent (the refusal is basically keeping her virginity, the poet's main
message).
Obviously, you are all wrong (except the Jove guy). If you notice the structure of the poem, you can see that
he goes from just the eyes, to the mouth, and then eventually (with the reference to Jove's nector) her body
which he describes as more beautiful then a goddess. Also to note are the constant stresses of action imagery,
as he does not go into detailed descriptions of the parts of her body expressing a very general statement.
These "general descriptions" and specific actions (which anyone can perform such as looking dreamily into
one's eyes or choosing the girl over the nector) along with a lack of even stating Celia in the poem show's how
the Speaker (not the Poet) may have used this poem to more than one woman. Yes, he is trying to express
how he wants to madly love her (in the sense of sex), as is the main conflict of many cavalier poetry. However,
this is not the authorial intent that cavalier poets desire. The poets authorial intent is actually a message to
women in general, to watch out for sly men, which can be seen in this poem by the rejection of his rosy
wreaths (any symbolic references to a hole that permanently has her scent on it?), which suggests that she did
not want to have sex with a guy who truly did not love her. Many cavalier poets write with this intent to try to
warn women against such fluffy language, as can best be seen in the poem "To His Coy Mistress". To prove
how powerful and fluffy such language actually is can be seen by many of the earlier comments on how "I
think it's a very sweet poem" or "what a beautiful love poem", expressing how women even in this modern
age are fooled by man's true intent!
Also, this was analyzed by a 16 year old AP English Student. (All of these ideas confirmed by my english
teacher and many other cavalier poetry lessons, which I got an A on).
what does "drink" and
"pledge" with eyes mean
in this poem
4. this is a good poem i like it but not so much on the part when she sends him back the flowers she should of
kept them i would if i was her;]
by:melissa aka molly dolly
this is a good poem i like it but not so much on the part when she sends him back the flowers she should of
kept them i would if i was her;]
by:melissa aka molly dolly
I see this poem in a different sense. I do not see it as romantic or compassionate but slightly psychotic. He
talks about committing to her, and yet he has only just set eyes upon her across the room. She sends the
flower back, relaying the fact that she is not interested and yet all he notices is it now has her breath on it. She
may not have even intended to breathe on it but he looks past this and sees it as a clear sign his feelings are
reciprocated back to him from her. As the courtly tradition she is probably already married which could back
up why she sent the gift back. When i read this poem i just get the image of a man trying to hold the attention
of a woman he is attracted to across the room, and she is politely declining his offers. He never states anything
she does back to him. I just fail to see the romantic side to it.
This is a very sweet poem and it is my favourite too
In this poenm speaker is expressing his deep feelings and love for Celia,He wants the faithful love from his
frind tht's why he said" Drink to me with thine eyes and i will pledge with mine"He does not want to exchange
his glass of wine with jove's nector cup i.e the roman god (Jupitor) Jove's nector or the drink of god,Speaker
would give up the drink of the god for a drink from a cup which her lips merely have touched, but it’s not wine
he searches for. He simply wishes for his lovers love.
Then He sends her “a rosy wreath.He send them to devote her that they would not withered their and
remains fresh, but she send it back to him after breathing and since than roses are giving the smell of his
friend.Such a nice poem.charming tribute of love that age of love poems.
speaker has deep and compelling love for his love celia that he is willing to give up anything in particular in
exchange for Celia's compassion and love
This is a very sweet poem and it is my favourite too
In this poenm speaker is expressing his deep feelings and love for Celia,He wants the faithful love from his
frind tht's why he said" Drink to me with thine eyes and i will pledge with mine"He does not want to exchange
his glass of wine with jove's nector cup i.e the roman god (Jupitor) Jove's nector or the drink of god,Speaker
would give up the drink of the god for a drink from a cup which her lips merely have touched, but it’s not wine
he searches for. He simply wishes for his lovers love.
Then He sends her “a rosy wreath.He send them to devote her that they would not withered their and
remains fresh, but she send it back to him after breathing and since than roses are giving the smell of his
friend.Such a nice poem.charming tribute of love that age of love poems.
speaker has deep and compelling love for his love celia that he is willing to give up anything in particular in
exchange for Celia's compassion and love
my analysis for this poem is that the speaker has deep and compelling love for Celia that he is willing to give
up anything in particular in exchange for Celia's compassion and love. He had attempted to court her by
sending her roses but unfortunately Celia declines his offer and sent it back to him. But when the roses was
returnde, it no longer smell like it did but now it posess the fragrance and smell of thy beloved Celia. This love
5. poem gives an overview to men that feels and experiences exactly the same way to the speaker. In this case,
the speaker failed in his ever-flaming love for Celia. Just like most men do. No offense guyz..but it is a fact..
-cezenne japson
Love is foolishness, logic defied.
For you, Tales 'f two cities 's a whine ?
Pierre ppplll
Has anyone thought that this could have been a woman? Maybe that is why the wreath was sent back? What
is masculine about the writing? Wine? Considering that most poems give of some context clues about gender,
this one is a little different. It is very sappy, and unlike other love poems.
I hope everyone knows that person is completely WRONG. The speaker is not choosing the woman over WINE.
He is choosing her over the gift of immortality. Jove (also called Jupiter)is the chief god in Roman mythology.
"Jove's nectar," or the drink of the gods, gave immortality to those who drank it. So, either the speaker is
choosing his love over immortalit or the implication could be that his love gives him immortality. Okay, I'm
glad I'm 16 years old and have to explain this to you.
“Song: To Celia,” by Ben Johnson (1573-1637) is a simple love song from a man to a woman. He is totally
captivated by her and would give up anything just to drink from the same cup as her. He sent Celia a bouquet
of roses, but she returns them. However when he receives them back, the roses smell of her.
This literary work has been written if first person. The speaker refers to himself multiple times as he speaks of
actions that he will carry out. His tone is dreamy with a wisp of yearning. The speaker is caught up in his
emotions and is unable to clearly see reality. He can’t clearly show how he feels, so he speaks with symbols
that are metaphors to the way he truly feels. The whole first stanza represents his feelings for Celia through
the simple task of drinking wine. The thirst is the same for every man. The lust for a woman and calming the
fear of being alone. The structure of the poem is lyrical, with couplets that have the second line rhyming with
a -ine in the first stance and a -e in the second. This adds to the rhythm and helps organize the speakers
thoughts, giving the poem structure.
In the first line the speaker personifies Celia’s eyes like telling her to “Drink only to me with thine eyes”
continuing the personification by saying he “will pledge with mine.” The speaker wants Celia to give in to him
and his wants, but he promises to be faithful to her. The man is madly in love and speaks in enigmatize. His
words don’t make sense to a logical mind, but love is not of the mind. It is from the heart. . He “ask a drink
divine” to quench the “thirst that from the soul doth rise.” Continuing with his riddle, he explains his flow of
thoughts rather cryptically when he states “might I of Jove’s nectar sup, I would not change for thine.” Simply
through this allusion to the Roman gods, this man would give up the drink of the for a drink from a cup her lips
merely have touched, but it’s not wine he searches for. He simply wishes for Celia’s love. The author illustrates
the man’s situation through a hyperbole. It has been greatly over exaggerated, and this man’s emotions are
obviously not grounded and rational. The second stanza begins with an attempt to court the beloved Celia. He
sends her “a rosy wreath.” He doesn’t devote it to her because it can’t compare with her. Even when she
6. returns it, his passion doesn’t allow him to see reality. He swears that the rose smells “not of itself, but thee.”
This analogy creates a paradox. The rose, which the man previously stated could not compare with Celia, now
smells of her. This man has become another victim of the love bug.
While reading this poem, I couldn’t help but feel slightly disgusted. This man has allowed himself to become
consumed with his passion. He has abandoned the logic, and even though he has been rejected, he holds on
to a lost cause. I also felt slightly envious. The feelings this man must be feeling must be strong and
compelling. He is stubborn and determined, but, overall, he still disappoints me. He shows weakness in
character by not simply confronting her. Women did not, and still do not approve of men who cannot follow
the proper courting rituals. This man still has some growing up to do, and he needs to do it fast before he gets
his heart destroyed.
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NOTES
Ben Johnson wrote numerous songs. "Song to Celia" is an example of carpe diem poetry, as it reminds the
reader to live and love since time and youth are fleeting. This concept can be traced to Roman classics, as in
Horace's line, "Seize the day, trust tomorrow as little as possible."
Jonson's classical form in "Song to Celia" owes much to the classic poets of Rome and Greece. For example,
the rhyme scheme is the classical abcbabcb.
Also note that "Song to Celia" is a very skillful poetic treatment of quotations from the love letters of the
Greek writer, Philostratus.
7. Compare the opening lines of the first stanza of "Song to Celia" with Philostratus's Letter XXIV, "Drink to me
with thine eyes only. Or, if thou wilt, putting the cup to thy lips, fill it with kisses, and so bestow it upon me."
Compare the opening lines of the second stanza with Letter XXX, "I sent thee a rosy wreath, not so much
honouring thee (though this also is in my thoughts) as bestowing favour upon the roses, that so they might not
be withered."
The poet Lady Mary Wroth is probably the Celia to whom "Song to Celia" is dedicated.
Ben Jonson was born about 1573 and died in 1637. He was England's third Poet Laureate from 1619 to 1637.
Although Ben Jonson is best known for his plays, his poetry had a significant impact on seventeenth-century
poets and has come to be as highly regarded as that of his contemporary William Shakespeare. Edmund
Gosse, in The Jacobean Poets, concludes that Jonson was "rewarded by the passionate devotion of a tribe of
wits and scholars . . . and he enjoys the perennial respect of all close students of poetry." Jonson's lyric ballad
"Song: To Celia" is his most beloved and anthologized poem. Soon after its publication, it was put to music by
an anonymous composer, after which it became a popular song in public houses. "Song: To Celia" was
included in the book The Forest, published in 1616. It appears in the sixth edition of The Norton Anthology of
English Literature (1993).
Jonson's "Song: To Celia" is a short monologue in which a lover addresses his lady in an effort to encourage
her to express her love for him. Jonson includes conventional imagery, such as eyes, roses, and wine, but
employs them in inventive ways. As a result, the poem becomes a lively, expressive song extolling the
immortality of love. John Addington Symonds, in his 1886 study of Jonson, calls the poem a masterpiece in its
"purely lyric composition" and individuality. He concludes that Jonson's lyrics "struck the key-note of the
seventeenth century."
Song: To Celia Summary
Lines 1–4
The speaker in "Song: To Celia" opens with a plea for his lady to express her love by gazing upon him. His plea
is assertive, in the form of a command to drink to him with her eyes. He wants more than an expression of her
love, however; he wants a pledge. He notes this in the second line when he declares that he will return the
pledge with his own eyes. The reference to the cup that is commonly filled with wine becomes an apt
metaphor for what he is asking from his lady. One usually makes a toast, a pledge of some sort, when first
sipping a cup of wine. The speaker wants his lady to make a pledge to him with her eyes rather than while
drinking from a cup of wine. This pledge would be more personal and so more meaningful to him.
By suggesting that his lady could convey such a pledge through her gaze, he pays tribute to her expressive
eyes. He suggests that their connection is so intimate that they do not need the words of a speech to
communicate their feelings for each other. This act reflects medieval love conventions, which propose that
love is received through the eyes.
When the speaker gives his lady an alternative way to express her love, he suggests that she may be reluctant
to do so. Leaving a kiss in the cup would allow her to respond to him in a more modest manner. This
alternative, he states, would be just as pleasing to him. When he insists that he will "not look for wine," he
9. expressing our emotions. It's like powerful emotions are almost spiritual, and the soul just doesn't play by the
rules of vocabulary.
That doesn't mean you should give it a shot, though. Go ahead. You know you want to write a poem called "To
Fries with Mayo." But be sure to check out "To Celia" first. You might learn a thing or two from Ben Jonson on
how to express your passion in words.
Benjamin Sinclair "Ben" Johnson, CM OOnt (born December 30, 1961 in Falmouth, Jamaica), is a former
sprinter from Canada, who enjoyed a high-profile career during most of the 1980s, winning two Olympic
bronze medals and an Olympic gold, which was subsequently rescinded. He set consecutive 100 metres world
records at the 1987 World Championships in Athletics and the 1988 Summer Olympics, but he was disqualified
for doping, losing the Olympic title and both records.
Biography
Career background
Born in Falmouth, Jamaica, Johnson emigrated to Canada in 1976, residing in Scarborough, Ontario.
Johnson met coach Charlie Francis and joined the Scarborough Optimists track and field club, training at York
University. Francis was a Canadian 100 metres sprint champion himself (1970, 1971 and 1973) and a member
of the Canadian team for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Francis was also Canada's national sprint
coach for nine years.
Johnson's first international success came when he won two silver medals at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in
Brisbane, Australia. He finished behind Allan Wells of Scotland in the 100 m with a time of 10.05 seconds and
was a member of the Canadian 4x100 m relay team. This success was not repeated at the 1983 World
Championships in Helsinki, where he was eliminated in the semi-finals, finishing 6th with a time of 10.44.
At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, he reached the 100 m final; after false starting, he won the
bronze medal behind Carl Lewis and Sam Graddy with a time of 10.22. He also won a bronze medal with the
Canadian 4x100 m relay team of Johnson, Tony Sharpe, Desai Williams and Sterling Hinds, who ran a time of
38.70. By the end of the 1984 season, Johnson had established himself as Canada's top sprinter, and on August
22 in Zurich, Switzerland, he bettered Williams' Canadian record of 10.17 by running 10.12.
In 1985, after eight consecutive losses, Johnson finally beat Carl Lewis. Other success against Lewis included
the 1986 Goodwill Games, where Johnson beat Lewis, running 9.95 for first place, against Lewis' third-place
time of 10.06. He broke Houston McTear's seven-year old world record in the 60 metres in 1986, with a time of
6.50 seconds.[1] He also won Commonwealth gold at the 1986 games in Edinburgh, beating Linford Christie for
the 100 m title with a time of 10.07. Johnson also led the Canadian 4x100 m relay team to gold, and won a
bronze in the 200 m.
On April 29, 1987, Johnson was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada. "World record holder for the
indoor 60-meter run, this Ontarian has proved himself to be the world's fastest human being and has broken
Canadian, Commonwealth and World Cup 100-meter records," it read. "Recipient of the Norton Crowe Award
for Male Athlete of the Year for 1985, 'Big Ben' was the winner of the 1986 Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada's top
athlete."
By the time of the 1987 World Championships, Johnson had won his four previous races with Lewis and had
established himself as the best 100 m sprinter. At Rome, Johnson gained instant world fame and confirmed this
10. status when he beat Lewis for the title, setting a new world record of 9.83 seconds as well, beating Calvin
Smith's former record by a full tenth of a second.
After Rome, Johnson became a lucrative marketing celebrity. According to coach Charlie Francis, after
breaking the world record, Johnson earned about $480,000 a month in endorsements.[2] Johnson won both the
Lou Marsh Trophy and Lionel Conacher Award, and was named the Associated Press Athlete of the Year for
1987.
Following Johnson's defeat of Lewis in Rome, Lewis started trying to explain away his defeat. He first claimed
that Johnson had false-started, then he alluded to a stomach virus which had weakened him. Finally, without
naming names, Lewis said "There are a lot of people coming out of nowhere. I don’t think they are doing it
without drugs." This was the start of Lewis’ calling on the sport of track and field to be cleaned up in terms of
the illegal use of performance-enhancing drugs. While cynics noted that the problem had been in the sport for
many years, they pointed out that it didn’t become a cause for Lewis until he was actually defeated, with some
also pointing to Lewis's egotistical attitude and lack of humility. During a controversial interview with the BBC,
Lewis said:[3]
There are gold medallists at this meet who are on drugs, that [100 metres] race will be looked at for many years,
for more reasons than one.
Johnson's response was:
When Carl Lewis was winning everything, I never said a word against him. And when the next guy comes
along and beats me, I won’t complain about that either.
This set up the rivalry leading into the 1988 Olympic Games.
In 1988, Johnson experienced a number of setbacks to his running career. In February of that year he pulled a
hamstring, and in May he aggravated the same injury. Meanwhile in Paris in June, Lewis ran a 9.99. Then in
Zurich, Switzerland on August 17, the two faced each other for the first time since the 1987 World
Championships, Lewis won in 9.93, while Johnson finished third in 10.00. "The gold medal for the (Olympic)
100 meters is mine," Carl Lewis said. "I will never again lose to Johnson."[3]
Olympic win and subsequent disqualification
On September 24, 1988, Johnson beat Lewis in the 100m final at the Olympics, lowering his own world record
to 9.79 seconds. Johnson would later remark that he would have been even faster had he not raised his hand in
the air just before he finished the race.[4] However, Johnson's urine samples were found to contain stanozolol,
and he was disqualified three days later. He later admitted having used steroids when he ran his 1987 world
record, which caused the IAAF to rescind that record as well. Johnson and coach Francis complained that they
used doping in order to remain on an equal footing with the other top athletes on drugs they had to compete
against. In testimony before the Dubin inquiry into drug use, Francis charged that Johnson was only one of
many cheaters, and he just happened to get caught. Later, five of the finalists of the 100-meter race tested
positive for banned drugs or were implicated in a drug scandal at some point in their careers: Carl Lewis, who
was given the gold medal, Linford Christie, who was moved up to the silver medal and who went on to win
gold at the next Games, Dennis Mitchell, who was moved up to fourth place and finished third to Christie in
1992, and Desai Williams, Johnson's countryman who won a bronze medal at the Los Angeles Games in
1984.[5]
Johnson's coach, Charlie Francis, a vocal critic of the IOC testing procedures, is the author of Speed Trap,
which features Johnson heavily. In the book, he freely admits that his athletes were taking anabolic steroids, as
11. he claims all top athletes at the time were, and also claims that Johnson could not possibly have tested positive
for that particular steroid since Johnson actually preferred furazabol. He thought stanozolol made his body "feel
tight".[6]
The Canadian reaction to 9.79 seconds
Canadians rejoiced in the reflected glory of winning the gold medal and breaking the world record.
Newspapers covered the occasion by concocting words such as "Benfastic" (Toronto Star, September 25, 1988)
to describe it. Two days later, Canadians witnessed the downfall of Johnson, when he was stripped of his gold
medal and world record. In the first week following the dethroning, Canadian newspapers devoted between five
to eight pages a day to the story. Some squarely placed the blame on Johnson, such as one headline right after
the exposure suggests: "Why, Ben?" (Toronto Sun, September 26, 1988).
Because of the Olympic scandal, The Canadian news agency, Canadian Press, named Johnson "Newsmaker of
the Year" for 1988.
The Dubin Inquiry
After the Seoul test, he initially denied doping, but, testifying before the 1989 Dubin Inquiry, a Canadian
government investigation into drug abuse, Johnson admitted that he had lied. Charlie Francis, his coach, told the
inquiry that Johnson had been using steroids since 1981.
In Canada, the federal government established the Commission of Inquiry Into the Use of Drugs and Banned
Practices Intended to Increase Athletic Performance, headed by Ontario Appeal Court Chief Justice Charles
Dubin. The Dubin Inquiry (as it became known), which was televised live, heard hundreds of hours of
testimony about the widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs among athletes. The inquiry began in
January 1989 and lasted 91 days, with 122 witnesses called, including athletes, coaches, sport administrators,
IOC representatives, doctors and government officials.
Comeback
In 1991, after his suspension ended, he attempted a comeback. He returned to the track for the Hamilton Indoor
Games in 1991 and was greeted by the largest crowd to ever attend an indoor Canadian track and field event.
More than 17,000 people saw him finish second in the 50 metres in 5.77 seconds.
He failed to qualify for the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo but made the Canadian Olympic team again in
1992 in Barcelona, Spain after finishing second at the Canadian Olympic trials to Bruny Surin.[7] He missed the
100 metre finals at the Olympics however, finishing last in his semi-final heat after stumbling out of the blocks.
In 1993, he won the 50 metres on February 7 in Grenoble, France, in 5.65 seconds, just 0.04 seconds shy of the
world record. However in January 1993, he was found guilty of doping at a race in Montreal - this time for
excess testosterone - and was subsequently banned for life by the IAAF. Federal amateur sport minister Pierre
Cadieux called Johnson a national disgrace, and suggested he consider moving back to Jamaica. Johnson
commented that it was "by far the most disgusting comment [he had] ever heard."[8] In April 1999, a Canadian
adjudicator ruled that there were procedural errors in Johnson's lifetime ban and allowed him to appeal. The
decision meant Johnson could technically run in Canada but nobody would compete against him. They would
be considered "contaminated" by the IAAF and could also face sanctions. On June 12, 1999, Johnson entered a
track meet in Kitchener, Ontario, and was forced to run alone, against the clock. He posted a time of 11.0
seconds. In late 1999, Johnson failed a drug test for the third time by testing positive for hydrochlorothiazide, a
12. banned diuretic that can be used to mask the presence of other drugs. Johnson had not competed since 1993 and
had arranged the test himself as part of his efforts to be reinstated.
Al-Saadi Gaddafi training stint
In 1999, Johnson made headlines again when it was revealed that he had been hired by Libyan leader Muammar
Gaddafi to act as a football coach for his son, Al-Saadi Gaddafi, who aspired to join an Italian football club. Al-
Saadi ultimately did join an Italian team but was sacked after one game when he failed a drug test. Johnson's
publicist in Canada had predicted in The Globe and Mail that his training of the young Gaddafi would earn
Johnson a Nobel Peace Prize.
Late 1990s and beyond
Johnson briefly acted as trainer for Argentine football legend Diego Maradona in 1997. This occurred at York
University, Toronto.[9]
In 1998, Johnson appeared in a charity race in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, where he raced against a
thoroughbred race horse, a harness racing horse and a stock car.[10] Johnson finished third in the race.
According to a 1998 article in Outside magazine, Johnson spent much of the latter part of the 1990s living
downstairs in the house he shared with his mother Gloria. He spent his leisure time reading, watching movies
and Roadrunner cartoons, and taking his mother to church. He lived in a spacious home in Newmarket,
Ontario's Stonehaven neighborhood. He claims to have lost his Ferrari when he used it as collateral for a loan
from an acquaintance in order to make a house payment.[11] Gloria died of cancer in 2004 and Johnson lived
with his sister afterwards.
Shortly after his leaving Libya, it was reported that Johnson had been robbed of $7,300 by a Romany gang in
Rome. His wallet was taken, containing $7,300 in cash, the proceeds of his pay for training Gaddafi. Johnson
gave chase, but was unable to catch them after they vanished into a subway station.[12]
In May 2005, Johnson launched a clothing and sports supplement line, the Ben Johnson Collection. The motto
for Johnson's clothing line was "Catch Me"; however, the clothing line never took off.[13]
In a January 1, 2006 interview, [14] Johnson claimed that he was sabotaged by a "Mystery Man"[15] inside the
doping-control room immediately following the 100m final in Seoul. He also stated that 40% of people in the
sports world are still taking drugs to improve their performance.
In March 2006, television spots featuring Johnson advertising an energy drink, "Cheetah Power Surge", started
to receive some airtime. Some pundits questioned whether Johnson was an appropriate spokesperson for an all
natural energy drink considering his history of steroid use.[16][17] One ad is a mock interview between Johnson
and Frank D'Angelo, the president and chief executive of D'Angelo Brands, which makes the drink, in which he
asks Johnson: "Ben, when you run, do you Cheetah?". "Absolutely," says Johnson. "I Cheetah all the time."[18]
The other commercial includes Johnson and a cheetah, the world's fastest land animal, and encourages viewers
to "go ahead and Cheetah."[18]
In August 2008, Johnson filed a $37 million lawsuit against the estate of his former lawyer Ed Futerman,
claiming Futerman made unauthorized payments from his trust account to pay bills and 20 percent commissions
to a hairdresser recruited by the lawyer to act as the sprinter's sports agent.
At present, Johnson lives in Markham, Ontario and spends much of his time with his daughter and
granddaughter. He also continues to coach. In 2010, he released his autobiography entitled Seoul to Soul.[13] In
13. the self-published book, Johnson reviews his childhood in Jamaica, and his early bout with malaria. A Canadian
Press article described the book as "an unconventional sports autobiography."[19]
Ben Jonson was born around June 11, 1572, the posthumous son of a clergyman. He
was educated at Westminster School by the great classical scholar William Camden and
worked in his stepfather's trade, bricklaying. The trade did not please him in the least,
and he joined the army, serving in Flanders. He returned to England about 1592 and
married Anne Lewis on November 14, 1594.
Jonson joined the theatrical company of Philip Henslowe in London as an actor and
playwright on or before 1597, when he is identified in the papers of Henslowe. In 1597
he was imprisoned in the Fleet Prison for his involvement in a satire entitled The Isle of
Dogs, declared seditious by the authorities. The following year Jonson killed a fellow
actor, Gabriel Spencer, in a duel in the Fields at Shoreditch and was tried at Old Bailey
for murder. He escaped the gallows only by pleading benefit of clergy. During his
subsequent imprisonment he converted to Roman Catholicism only to convert back to
Anglicism over a decade later, in 1610. He was released forfeit of all his possessions,
and with a felon's brand on his thumb.
Jonson's second known play, Every Man in His Humour, was performed in 1598 by the Lord Chamberlain's Men at the
Globe with William Shakespeare in the cast. Jonson became a celebrity, and there was a brief fashion for 'humours'
comedy, a kind of topical comedy involving eccentric characters, each of whom represented a temperament, or humor, of
humanity. His next play, Every Man Out of His Humour (1599), was less successful. Every Man Out of His Humour and
Cynthia's Revels (1600) were satirical comedies displaying Jonson's classical learning and his interest in formal
experiment.
Jonson's explosive temperament and conviction of his superior talent gave rise to "War of the Theatres". In The Poetaster
(1601), he satirized other writers, chiefly the English dramatists Thomas Dekker and John Marston. Dekker and Marston
retaliated by attacking Jonson in their Satiromastix (1601). The plot of Satiromastix was mainly overshadowed by its
abuse of Jonson. Jonson had portrayed himself as Horace in The Poetaster, and in Satiromastix Marston and Dekker, as
Demetrius and Crispinus ridicule Horace, presenting Jonson as a vain fool. Eventually, the writers patched their feuding;
in 1604 Jonson collaborated with Dekker on The King's Entertainment and with Marston and George Chapman on
Eastward Ho.
Jonson's next play, the classical tragedy Sejanus, His Fall (1603), based on Roman history and offering an astute view of
dictatorship, again got Jonson into trouble with the authorities. Jonson was called before the Privy Council on charges of
'popery and treason'. Jonson did not, however, learn a lesson, and was again briefly imprisoned, with Marston and
Chapman, for controversial views ("something against the Scots") espoused in Eastward Ho (1604). These two incidents
jeopardized his emerging role as court poet to King James I. Having converted to Catholicism, Jonson was also the object
of deep suspicion after the Gunpowder Plot of Guy Fawkes (1605).
In 1605, Jonson began to write masques for the entertainment of the court. The earliest of his masques, The Satyr was
given at Althorpe, and Jonson seems to have been appointed Court Poet shortly after. The masques displayed his
erudition, wit, and versatility and contained some of his best lyric poetry. Masque of Blacknesse (1605) was the first in a
series of collaborations with Inigo Jones, noted English architect and set designer. This collaboration produced masques
such as The Masque of Owles, Masque of Beauty (1608), and Masque of Queens (1609), which were performed in Inigo
Jones' elaborate and exotic settings. These masques ascertained Jonson's standing as foremost writer of masques in the
Jacobean era. The collaboration with Jones was finally destroyed by intense personal rivalry.
Jonson's enduring reputation rests on the comedies written between 1605 and 1614. The first of these, Volpone, or The
Fox (performed in 1605-1606, first published in 1607) is often regarded as his masterpiece. The play, though set in Venice,
directs its scrutiny on the rising merchant classes of Jacobean London. The following plays, Epicoene: or, The Silent
Woman (1609), The Alchemist (1610), and Bartholomew Fair (1614) are all peopled with dupes and those who deceive
them. Jonson's keen sense of his own stature as author is represented by the unprecedented publication of his Works, in
folio, in 1616. He was appointed as poet laureate and rewarded a substantial pension in the same year.
14. In 1618, when he was about forty-five years old, Jonson set out for Scotland, the home of his ancestors. He made the
journey entirely by foot, in spite of dissuasion from Bacon, who "said to him he loved not to see poesy go on other feet than
poetical dactyls and spondæus." Jonson's prose style is v ividly sketched in the notes of William Drummond of
Hawthornden, who recorded their conversations during Jonson's visit to Scotland 1618-1619. Jonson himself was sketched
by Hawthornden: " He is a great lover and praiser of himself ; a contemner and scorner of others ; given rather to lose a
friend than a jest ; . . . he is passionately kind and angry ; careless either to gain or keep ; vindictive, but, if he be we ll
answered, at himself . . . ; oppressed with fantasy, which hath ever mastered his reason."1 After his return, Jonson received
an honorary Master of Arts degree from Oxford University and lectured on rhetoric at Gresham College, London.
The comedy The Devil is an Ass (1616) had turned out to be a comparative flop. This may have discouraged Jonson, for it
was nine years before his next play, The Staple of News (1625), was produced. Instead, Jonson turned his attention to
writing masques. Jonson's later plays The New Inn (1629) and A Tale of a Tub (1633) were not great successes, described
harshly, but perhaps justly by Dryden as his "dotages."
Despite these apparent failures, and in spite of his frequent feuds, Jonson was the dean and the leading wit of the group of
writers who gathered at the Mermaid Tavern in the Cheapside district of London. The young poets influenced by Jonson
were the self-styled 'sons' or 'tribe' of Ben, later called the Cavalier poets, a group which included, among others, Robert
Herrick, Thomas Carew, Sir John Suckling, and Richard Lovelace.
Jonson was appointed City Chronologer of London in 1628, the same year in which he suffere d a severe stroke. His loyal
friends kept him company in his final years and attended the King provided him some financial comfort. Jonson died on
August 6, 1637 and was buried in Westminster Abbey under a plain slab on which was later carved the words, "O Rare Ben
Jonson!" His admirers and friends contributed to the collection of memorial elegies, Jonsonus virbius, published in 1638.
Jonson's last play, Sad Shepherd's Tale, was left unfinished at his death and published posthumously in 1641.
1. English Literature: An Illustrated Record. Vol II, part II.
Richard Garnett and Edmund Gosse, Eds.
New York: The MacMillan Company, 1904.
Bibliography:
Bamborough, J. B. Ben Jonson (1970)
Barish, J. A.,Ben Jonson and the Language of Prose Comedy (1970)
Barish, J. A., ed.,Ben Jonson: A Collection of Critical Essays (1963)
Chute, Marchette. Ben Jonson of Westminster. (1953)
Craig, D. H.,Ben Jonson: The Critical Heritage (1990)
Davis, Joe Lee. The Sons of Ben: Jonsonian Comedy in Caroline England (1967)
Hereford, C. H., et al., Eds. Ben Jonson: The Man and His Work, 11 vols. (1925-52)
Jackson, Gabriele Bernhard. Vision and judgment in Ben Jonson's drama (1968)
MacLean, Hugh, Ed. Ben Jonson And The Cavalier Poets (1974)
Miles, Rosalind.Ben Jonson: His Life and Work (1986)
Miles, Rosalind.Ben Jonson: His Craft and Art (1990)
Nichols, J. G. Poetry of Ben Jonson (1969)
Orgel, S. The Jonsonian Masque (1965; repr. 1981)
Partridge, E. B. The Broken Compass: A Study of the Major Comedies of Ben Jonson (1958; repr. 1976)
Riggs, David. Ben Jonson: A Life (1989)
Trimpi, Wesley. A Study of Ben Jonson's Poems (1962)
Watson, R. N.,Ben Jonson's Parodic Strategy (1987)
Wolf, William Dennis. Reform of the fallen world : The "virtuous prince" in Jonsonian tragedy and comedy. (1973)
From his Poetical Works
15. Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
And I'll not look for wine.
The Forest. To Celia.
That for which all virtue now is sold,
And almost every vice — almighty gold.
The Forest. Epistle to Elizabeth, Countess of Rutland.
For he that once is good, is ever great.
The Forest. Epistle to Katherine, Lady Aubigny.
Soul of the age,
The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage,
My Shakespeare, rise!
Underwood. To the Memory of My Beloved the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare.
Though thou hadst small Latin and less Greek.
Underwood. To the Memory of My Beloved the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare.
He was not of an age, but for all time!
Underwood. To the Memory of My Beloved the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare.
For a good poet's made as well as born.
Underwood. To the Memory of My Beloved the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare.
Sweet Swan of Avon!
Underwood. To the Memory of My Beloved the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare.
Those that merely talk and never think,
That live in the wild anarchy of drink.
Underwood. To One that asked to be sealed of the Tribe of Ben.
In small proportions we just beauties see,
And in short measures life may perfect be.
Underwood. A Pindaric Ode.
From his Dramatic Works
Where it concerns himself,
Who's angry at a slander, makes it true.
Catiline. Act III. Sc. 1.
Bad men excuse their faults, good men will leave them.
Catiline. Act III. Sc. 2.
16. As crimes do grow, justice should rouse itself.
Catiline. Act III. Sc. 5.
The burnt child dreads the fire.
The Devil is an Ass. Act I. Sc. 2.
The Devil is an ass, I do acknowledge it.
The Devil is an Ass. Act IV. Sc. 1.
If he were to be made honest by an act of parliament
I should not alter in my faith of him.
The Devil is an Ass. Act IV. Sc. 1.
Give me a look, give me a face,
That makes simplicity a grace;
Robes loosely flowing, hair as free,—
Such sweet neglect more taketh me
Than all the adulteries of art:
They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.
Epicoene. Act I. Sc. 1.
Hang sorrow! care'll kill a cat.
Every Man in his Humour. Act I. Sc. 3.
As he brews, so shall he drink.
Every Man in his Humour. Act II. Sc. 1.
Art hath an enemy called ignorance.
Every Man Out of his Humour. Act I. Sc. 1.
But I do hate him as I hate the devil.
Every Man Out of his Humour. Act I. Sc. 1.
There shall be no love lost.
Every Man Out of his Humour. Act II. Sc. 1.
To the old, long life and treasure;
To the young, all health and pleasure.
The Gypsies Metamorphosed. Third Song.
That old bald cheater, Time.
The Poetaster. Act I. Sc. 1.
17. Apes are apes though clothed in scarlet.
The Poetaster. Act V. Sc. 3.
Cut men's throats with whisperings.
Sejanus. Act I.
Of all wild beasts preserve me from a tyrant;
and of all tame, a flatterer.
Sejanus. Act I.
From his Prose Works
For he that was only taught by himself
had a fool to his master.
Timber: Or, Discoveries.
Whom the disease of talking still once possesseth,
he can never hold his peace.
Timber: Or, Discoveries.
Talking and eloquence are not the same thing:
to speak, and to speak well, are two things.
A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.
Timber: Or, Discoveries.
A prince without letters is a pilot without eyes.
All his government is groping.
Timber: Or, Discoveries.
I remember, the players have often mentioned it
as an honour to Shakespeare, that in his writing
(whatsoever he penned) he never blotted out a line.
My answer hath been, would he had blotted a thousand.
Timber: Or, Discoveries.
18. I: To The Reader
II: To My Book
III: To My Bookseller
IV: To King James
V: On the Union
VI: To Alchemists
VII: On the New Hot-House
VIII: On a Robbery
IX: To All, To Whom I Write
X: To My Lord Ignorant
XI: On Something That Walks Somewhere
XII: On Lieutenant Shift
XIII: To Doctor Empiric
XIV: To William Camden
XV: On Court-Worm
XVI: To Brainhardy
XVII: To the Learned Critic
XVIII: To My Mere English Censurer
XIX: On Sir Cod the Perfumed
XX: To the Same. [Sir Cod the Perfumed]
XXI: On Reformed Gam'ster
XXII: On My First Daughter
XXIII: To John Donne
XXIV: To the Parliament
XXV: On Sir Voluptuous Beast
XXVI: On the Same
XXVII: On Sir John Roe
XXVIII: On Don Surly
XXIX: To Sir Annual Tilter
XXX: To Person Guilty
XXXI: On Banks the Usurer
XXXII: On Sir John Roe (II)
XXXIII: To the Same
XXXIV: Of Death
XXXV: To King James (II)
XXXVI: To the Ghost of Martial
XXXVII: On Cheveril the Lawyer
XXXVIII: On Person Guilty
XXXIX: On Old Colt
XL: On Margaret Ratcliffe
XLI: On Gipsy
XLII: On Giles and Joan
XLIII: To Robert Earl of Salisbury
XLIV: On Chuffe, Banks the Usurer's Kinsman
XLV: On my First Son
XLVI: To Sir Luckless Woo-All
XLVII: To the Same
XLVIII: On Mungril Esquire
19. XLIX: To Playwright
L: To Sir Cod
LI: To King James
LII: To Censorious Courtling
LIII: To Oldend Gatherer
LIV: On Cheveril
LV: To Francis Beaumont
LVI: On Poet-Ape
LVII: On Bawds and Usurers
LVIII: To Groom Idiot
LIX: On Spies
LX: To William Lord Mounteagle
LXI: To Fool, or Knave
LXII: To Fine Lady Would-Be
LXIII: To Robert Earl of Salisbury
LXIV: To the Same. Upon the Accession of the Treasurership to him. [Robt E. Salisbury]
LXV: To my Muse
LXVI: To Sir Henry Cary
LXVII: To Thomas Earl of Suffolk
LXVIII: On Playwright
LXIX: To Pertinax Cob
LXX: To William Roe
LXXI: On Court Parrot
LXXII: To Courtling
LXXIII: To Fine Grand
LXXIV: To Thomas Lord Chancellor
LXXV: On Lippe the Teacher
LXXVI: To Lucy Countess of Bedford
LXXVII: To One that Desired Me Not to Name Him
LXXVIII: To Hornet
LXXIX: To Elizabeth, Countess of Rutland
LXXX: Of Life and Death
LXXXVI: To the Same. [H. Goodyere]
LXXXIX: To Edward Allen (Alleyne)
XCIV: To Lucy, Countess of Bedford, with John Donne's Satires
CI: Inviting a Friend to Supper
CV: To Mary Lady Wroth
CXVIII: On Gut
CXX: An Epitaph on S [alathiel] P [avy]
CXXIV: Epitaph on Elizabeth, L.H.
CXXVIII: To William Roe
Complete - Luminarium Editions
I: Why I Write Not Of Love
II: To Penshurst
III: To Sir Robert Wroth
IV: To the World: A Farewell for a Gentlewoman, Virtuous and Noble
20. V: Song To Celia ("Come my Celia, let us prove")
VI: To the Same ("Kiss me, Sweet")
VII: Song. That Women Are But Men's Shadows
VIII: Song. To Sickness
IX: To Celia ("Drink to me only with thine eyes")
X: Præludium ("And must I sing?")
XI: Epode ("Not to know vice at all")
XII: Epistle to Elizabeth, Countess of Rutland
XIII: Epistle to Katherine, Lady Aubigny
XIV: Ode to Sir William Sidney, on His Birthday
XV: To Heaven
Poems of Devotion
2. An Hymn to God the Father
3. An Hymn on the Nativity of My Savior
I: His Excuse for Loving Audio
II: How he saw Her
III: What he Suffered
IV: Her Triumph
V: His Discourse with Cupid
VI: Claiming a Second Kiss by Desert
VII: Begging Another
VIII: Urging her of a Promise
IX: Her Man described by her own Dictamen
X: Another Lady's Exception, present at the Hearing
Miscellaneous Poems
1. The Musical Strife. A Pastoral Dialogue
2. A Song [Oh, do not wanton with those eyes]
3. In the Person of Womankind. A Song Apologetic.
5. A Nymph's Passion
6. The Hour-Glass
7. My Picture Left in Scotland Audio
8. Against Jealousy
9. The Dream
10. An Epitaph on Master Vincent Corbet
11. On the Portrait of Shakspeare
12. To the Memory of My Beloved the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare
14. To Mr. John Fletcher, Upon His "Faithful Shepherdess"
15. Epitaph on the Countess of Pembroke
17. Epitaph on Michael Drayton
19. To His Much and Worthily Esteemed Friend, the Author
20. To My Worthy and Honored Friend, Master George Chapman
21. 23. Epigram. In Authorem. [re: Nicholas Breton]
25. To the Author [re: Thomas Wright]
26. To the Author [re: T. Warre]
36. An Elegy [By those bright eyes]
39. An Elegy [Though beauty be the mark of praise]
41. An Ode to Himself [Where dost Thou careless lie]
42. The Mind of the Frontispiece to a Book
44. An Ode [High-spirited friend]
46. A Sonnet, to the Noble Lady, the Lady Mary Worth [I that have been a lover]
47. A Fit of Rhyme against Rhyme
57. An Elegy [To make the doubt clear]
59. An Elegy [Since you must go]
60. An Elegy [Let me be what I am]
68. An Epigram, to the Honored Countess of * * *
69. On Lord Bacon's Birthday
77. An Epitaph on Henry Lord La-ware
87. A Pindaric Ode [To the Immortal Memory and Friendship of that Noble Pair....]
92. To the Right Honorable Hierome, Lord Weston
93. Epithalamion ; Or, A Song
100. An Elegy on the Lady Jane Pawlet, Marchioness of Winton
To the Memory of My Beloved the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare
Ode to Himself upon the Censure of his "New Inn"
"This is Mab, the mistress-fairy" (The Particular Entertainment of the Queen and Prince at Althrope)
"Of Pan we sing" (Pan's Anniversary)
"Slow, slow, fresh fount" (Cynthia's Revels)
"Oh, that joy so soon should waste" (Cynthia's Revels)
"Queen, and huntress, chaste and fair" (Cynthia's Revels)
"If I freely may discover" (The Poetaster)
"Swell me a bowl" (The Poetaster)
"Still to Be Neat" (Epicoene, or the Silent Woman)
22. "Though I Am Young and Cannot Tell" (The Sad Shepherd)
"The faery beam upon you" (The Gypsies Metamorphosed)
"To the old, long life and treasure" (The Gypsies Metamorphosed)
"So breaks the sun earth's rugged chains" (The Irish Masque)
Plays
The Alchemist - Project Gutenberg
Bartholomew Fair - UMichigan
The Case is Altered - Holloway Pages
Catiline - Holloway Pages
Cynthia's Revels - Project Gutenberg
The Devil is an Ass - Holloway Pages
Eastward Ho - Holloway Pages
Epicoene - Project Gutenberg
Every Man in His Humour - Project Gutenberg
Every Man Out of His Humor - Luminarium Editions
The Magnetic Lady - Holloway Pages
Mortimer his Fall (Fragment) - Holloway Pages
New Inn - Holloway Pages
The Poetaster - Project Gutenberg
The Sad Shepherd, or a Tale of Robin Hood - Univ. of Rochester
Sejanus - Project Gutenberg
The Staple of News - Holloway Pages
A Tale of a Tub - Holloway Pages
Volpone, or The Fox - Project Gutenberg
Volpone, or The Fox - Full Manuscript Image Facsimile at SCETI
Masques
A Challenge at Tilt - Holloway Pages
The Fortunate Isles, and Their Union - GB
The Golden Age Restored (1616) - Luminarium Editions
Gypsies Metamorphosed - Google Books
The Irish Masque - Holloway Pages
Love Freed from Ignorance and Folly - Holloway Pages
Love Restored (1612) - Luminarium Editions
Masque of Augurs - Google Books
The Masque of Hymen (aka Hymenæ) (1606) - Luminarium Editions
The Masque of Owls - Google Books
[Excerpt]
Masque of Queens (1609) - Holloway Pages
Mercury Vindicated from the Alchemists (1615) - Luminarium Editions
Neptune's Triumph for the Return of Albion - Google Books
News from the New World - Dartmouth
24. The Alchemist
Thesis: Counterpoint: Its Use in Ben Jonson's The Alchemist - Gary Nored [.pdf]
Thesis: "There's Magic in the Web of It": White and Black Magic in Jonson, Marlowe and Shakespeare - Marnie Findlater [.pdf]
Suspense is Believing: The Reality of Ben Jonson's The Alchemist - Donald Beecher
Jonson's Satire of Puritanism in The Alchemist - Jeanette D. Ferreira-Ross [.pdf]
The Repudiation of the Marvelous: Jonson's The Alchemist and the Limits of Satire - Ian McAdam [.pdf]
From Costiveness to Comic Relief: Purgation in The Alchemist - Tony Perrello
The Alchemist and the Emerging Adult Private Playhouse - Anthony J. Ouellette
Explication of the Opening of The Alchemist - Nathan Cervo
Erasmus's 'Beggar Talk' and Jonson's Alchemist - Eric Sterling and Robert C. Evans
Imagining Alchemists and Magicians in New Atlantis, The Tempest, and The Alchemist - David Hurley
Dynamic Linguistic and Artistic Patterns in Jonson's The Alchemist - Amra Raza [.pdf]
Bartholomew Fair
'A more familiar straine': Puppetry and Burlesque, or, Translation as Debasement in Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair - Rui
Carvalho Homem [.pdf]
The Use of Booths in the Original Staging of Jonson's Bartholomew Fair - Gabriel Egan [.pdf]
The Puritan Dialectic of Law and Grace in Bartholomew Fair - Ian McAdam
Bartholomew Fair and Jonsonian Tolerance - G.M. Pinciss
The Law versus the Marketplace: Spontaneous Order in Jonson's Bartholomew Fair - Paul A. Cantor [.pdf]
The (Self)-Fashioning of Ezekiel Edgworth in Jonson's Bartholomew Fair - Jean MacIntyre
Ben Jonson's 'Civil Savages' - Rebecca Ann Bach
Jonson at the Fair: A Playwright's Career in Review - David Reinheimer
Ben Jonson Unmasked - Kathleen A. Prendergast
The Widow Hunt on the Tudor-Stuart Stage - Ira Clark
Epicoene
Thesis: Men Disguised as Women in Elizabethan Drama - Marion S. Karr [.pdf]
Dumb Reading: The Noise of the Mute in Jonson's Epicene - Adrian Curtin
Jonson's Gossips and the Stuart Family Drama - Kristen McDermott
"Things like truths, well feigned": Mimesis and Secrecy in Jonson's Epicoene - Reuben Sanchez
"On forfeit of your selves, think nothing true": Self-Deception in Ben Jonson's Epicoene - J. A. Jackson
Masculine Silence: 'Epicoene' and Jonsonian Stylistics - Douglas Lanier
Refashioning Society in Ben Jonson's Epicoene - Marjorie Swann
The Classical Context of Ben Jonson's "other youth" - Bruce Boehrer
Cross Dressing with a Difference: The Roaring Girl and Epicoene - David Cope
Epicoene's Cosmetic Contingencies - Mary E. Brooks and Jenna H. Sharp
Every Man Out of His Humour
Jonson's Every Man Out and Commentators on Terence - Matthew Steggle
New Inn
'Wardrobe Stuffe': Clothes, Costume and the Politics of Dress in Ben Jonson's The New Inn - Julie Sanders
Some Uses for Romance: Shakespeare's Cymbeline and Jonson's The New Inn - Andrew Stewart
Ben Jonson's 'Civil Savages' - Rebecca Ann Bach
The Poetaster
25. Undergrad Thesis: Gallimaufray and Hellebore: Spenser and Jonson in Dialogue with the Past - Ruth M. McAdams [.pdf]
The Pleasures of Restraint: The Mean of Coyness in Cavalier Poetry - Joshua Scodel
Ben Jonson Unmasked - Kathleen A. Prendergast
Sejanus
Thesis: Complexity of Character in Jonson's Sejanus - Jennifer D. Jones [.pdf]
Censorship and Representation in The Stuart Era: Three Roman Plays - David Cope [.pdf]
Jonson and the Neo-Classical Rules in Sejanus and Volpone - David Faley-Hills
Volpone
The Intertextualities of Ben Jonson's Volpone - James Tulip [.pdf]
Instances of Verbal Fraud in Jonson's Volpone - Elsa Simões Lucas Freitas [.pdf]
Volpone and the Ends of Comedy - Ian Donaldson [.pdf]
The Circle Pattern in Ben Jonson's Volpone - Jesús Cora Alonso [.pdf]
Volpone as a Non–Comedy - Farida Chishti [.pdf]
The Progress of Trickster in Ben Jonson's "Volpone" - Don Beecher
"In his gold I shine": Jacobean Comedy and the Art of the Mediating Trickster - Alizon Brunning
Jonson's Volpone and Dante - Christopher Baker and Richard Hart
Ben Jonson's Beastly Comedy: Outfoxing the Critics, Gulling the Audience in Volpone - Clifford Davis
In Changèd Shapes: The Two Jonsons' Volpones and Textual Editing - Karen Pirnie
The Setting of "Volpone" - Ralph A. Cohen
"Volpone"and the Old Comedy - P. H. Davison
Jonson and the Neo-Classical Rules in Sejanus and Volpone - David Faley-Hills
Unity of Theme in Volpone - Dorothy E. Litt
Volpone's "Sport" and the Structure of Jonson's Volpone - James D. Redwine, Jr.
Volpone: The Art of Deception - Miranda Johnson-Haddad
Jonson's Romish Foxe: Anti-Catholic Discourse in Volpone - Alizon Brunning
Ben Jonson Unmasked - Kathleen A. Prendergast
Volpone and Stage Androgyny in the English Renaissance - Celeste Collins
Volpone: Jonson's Experimentation with Comedy - Michael Williams
Antitheatricalism in Light of Ben Jonson's Volpone - Joel Culpepper
Shakespeare's Othello Compared to Jonson's Volpone - Jason
Other Plays
"Away, Stand off, I say": Women's Appropriations of Restraint and Constraint in
The Birth of Merlin and The Devil is an Ass - Sarah E. Johnson
'The top of woman! All her sex in abstract!': Ben Jonson
Directs the Boy Actor in The Devil is an Ass - Regina Buccola
The Appropriation of Pleasure in The Magnetic Lady - Helen Ostovich
MASQUES & ENTERTAINMENTS:
26. "The English Masque" - Felix E. Schelling mus t
Dissertation: Courtly Psychosis: The Rhetoric of Preferment in the Court Masque - Moira E. Phillips [.pdf]
Jonson's Masque Markets and Problems of Literary Ownership - Alison V. Scott
"But why do I describe what all must see?": Verbal Explication in the Stuart Masque - Agnieszka
Kolodziejska [.pdf]
Performing Love in Ben Jonson's Masques - Chris Hill [.pdf]
"Native Dyes": Race and Politics in the Jacobean Masque - Weidner & Walravens
Beyond the Emblem: Alchemical Albedo in Ben Jonson's The Masque of Blackness - Rafael Vélez Núñez
Emblems of Darkness: Othello (1604) and the Masque of Blackness (1605) - Manuel José Gómez Lara
Performing Devotion in The Masque of Blacknesse - Molly Murray
Beauty and the Beast: Images of Whiteness and Blackness from Jonson's The Masque of Blackness (1605) to
Richard Brome's The English Moor, or The Mock-Marriage (1637) - Athéna Efstathiou-Lavabre
Jonson's Gossips and the Stuart Family Drama - Kristen McDermott
The Three Faces of the Goddess in Ben Jonson's Masque of Queens - Maria Salomé Figueirôa Navarro
Machado
Amazon Reflections in the Jacobean Queen's Masque - Kathryn Schwarz
Culture de cour et idéologie: de l'usage de la pastorale dans le masque Pans Anniversarie de Ben Jonson -
Guillaume Forain [.pdf]
The Performing Heir in Jonson's Jacobean Masques - Jean E. Graham
The Problem in the Middle: Liminality in the Jonsonian Masque - Gregory A. Wilson
The Rhetoric of Place in Ben Jonson's 'Chorographical' Entertainments and Masques - Thomas Worden
Restoring Astraea: Jonson's Masque for the Fall of Somerset - Martin Butler and David Lindley
Marketing Luxury at the New Exchange: Jonson's Entertainment at Britain's Burse and the Rhetoric of Wonder
- Alison V. Scott
THE POETRY:
The Poetry of Ben Jonson - G. A. E. Parfitt
The Tone of Ben Jonson's Poetry - Geoffrey Walton
Ben Jonson's Poetry: Pastoral, Georgic, Epigram - Harris Friedberg
Ben Jonson and the Story of Charis - Ian Donaldson [.pdf]
Troping prostitution: Jonson and "The Court Pucell" - Victoria E. Price
'This truest glass': Ben Jonson's Verse Epistles and the Construction of the Ideal Patron - Colleen Shea
Literature as Equipment for Living: Ben Jonson and the Poetics of Patronage - Robert C. Evans
Stoicism and Plain Style in Ben Jonson: An Analysis of Some of His Verse Epistles - José María Pérez
Fernández
Liberty and History in Jonson's Invitation to Supper - Robert Cummings
A Case for the Epigram: Ben Jonson's "Inviting a Friend to Supper" - Meredith Goulding [.pdf]
"On the Famous Voyage": Ben Jonson and Civic Space - Andrew McRae
Horatian satire in Jonson's "On the Famous Voyage" - Bruce Boehrer
In the Person of Womankind: Female Persona Poems by Campion, Donne, Jonson - Pamela Coren
Ben Jonson and the 'Traditio Basiorum': Catullan imitation in 'The Forrest' 5 and 6 - Bruce Boehrer
Ben Jonson's 'On My First Son' and the Common Prayer Catechism - Jonquil Bevan
27. Microhistory and Cultural Geography: Ben Jonson's "To Sir Robert Wroth" and the Absorption of Local
Community in the Commonwealth - Martin Elsky
Pirating Spain: Jonson's Commendatory Poetry and the Translation of Empire - Barbara Fuchs
"Man to man": Self-fashioning in Jonson's "To William Pembroke" - William Kolbrener
Ben Jonson's Poems: Notes on the Ordered Society - Hugh MacLean
"There are no accidents": Ben Jonson's construction of "Poet" - Joshua Messer
"To Penshurst"
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? Reinterpreting Formalism and the Country House Poem - Heather Dubrow
Appropriating and Attributing the Supernatural in the Early Modern Country House Poem - A. D. Cousins and
R. J. Webb
From Common Wealth to Commonwealth: the Alchemy of "To Penshurst" - Hugh Jenkins
Sacramental Dwelling with Nature: Jonson's "To Penshurst" and Heidegger's "Building Dwelling
Thinking" - William E. Rogers [.pdf]
Landscape and Property in Seventeenth-Century Poetry - Andrew McRae [.pdf]
Poetry and Place in Drayton and Jonson - Canice J. Egan, S. J. [.pdf]
Ben Jonson and the Good Society - Jeffrey Hart [.pdf]
THE PROSE:
The Prose of Poets: Ben Jonson - Francis Thompson
JONSON & SHAKESPEARE:
Jonson's Ode to Shakespeare: What Was He Actually Saying? - Stephanie Hopkins Hughes[.pdf]
Afterlife: Jonson's "To the Memory... of Shakespeare" - Crystal Bartolovich
Mildmay Fane on Jonson and Shakespeare - Joseph T. Roy, Jr., and Robert C. Evans
Some Uses for Romance: Shakespeare's Cymbeline and Jonson's The New Inn - Andrew Stewart
Emblems of Darkness: Othello (1604) and the Masque of Blackness (1605) - Manuel José Gómez Lara
Disorder in the House of God: Disrupted Worship in Shakespeare and Others - Bruce Boehrer
Ben Jonson and The First Folio - W. Lansdown Goldsworthy
JONSON & THE CLASSICS:
Dissertation: Ben Jonson's Horatian Theory and Plautine Practice - D. Audell Shelburne [.pdf]
Jonson and the Classics - Stephen Dailly
Jonson's Stoic Politics: Lipsius, the Greeks, and the "Speach According to Horace" - Robert C. Evans
Horatian satire in Jonson's "On the Famous Voyage" - Bruce Boehrer
28. Jonson, Translation, and Horatian Lyric - Daniel Hooley
Ben Jonson and the 'Traditio Basiorum': Catullan imitation in 'The Forrest' 5 and 6 - Bruce Boehrer
Jonson's Every Man Out and Commentators on Terence - Matthew Steggle
Stoicism and Plain Style in Ben Jonson: An Analysis of Some of His Verse Epistles - José María Pérez
Fernández
"Powdered with Golden Rain": The Myth of Danae in Early Modern Drama - Julie Sanders
Jonson's Volpone and Dante - Christopher Baker and Richard Hart
The Classical Context of Ben Jonson's "other youth" - Bruce Boehrer
JONSON & OTHER AUTHORS:
Erasmus's 'Beggar Talk' and Jonson's Alchemist - Eric Sterling and Robert C. Evans
Jonson, Marlowe, and Epigram 77 - John Baker
Poetry and Place in Drayton and Jonson - Canice J. Egan, S. J. [.pdf]
Writing in Service: Sexual Politics and Class Position in the Poetry of Aemilia Lanyer and Ben Jonson - Ann
Baynes Coiro
'I Exscribe Your Sonnets': Jonson and Lady Mary Wroth - R.E. Pritchard
"But Worth pretends": Discovering Jonsonian Masque in Lady Mary Wroth's Pamphilia to Amphilanthus -
Anita M. Hagerman
"The strangest pageant, fashion'd like a court": John Donne and Ben Jonson to 1600 -- Parallel Lives - William
F. Blissett
Poetomachia and The Early Jonson: The Aesthetics of Topical Satire - David Cope
"Honesty and vulgar praise": The Poet's War and the Literary Field - Edward Gieskes
In the Person of Womankind: Female Persona Poems by Campion, Donne, Jonson - Pamela Coren
Jonson and Carew on Donne: Censure into Praise - John Lyon
Carew's response to Jonson and Donne - Scott Nixon
"By Lucan driv'n about": A Jonsonian Marvell's Lucanic Milton - Andrew Shifflett
'A silenc'st bricke-layer': An Allusion to Ben Jonson in Thomas Middleton's 'Masque.' - Jerzy Limon
Thomas Hobbes in Ben Jonson's 'The King's Entertainment at Welbeck' - A. P. Martinich
A "Double Portion of his Father's Art": Congreve, Dryden, Jonson and
The Drama of Theatrical Succession - Harold Weber
Collaborating with the Forebear: Dryden's Reception of Ben Jonson - Jennifer Brady
The Spanish Match Through the Texts: Jonson, Middleton, and Howell - F. Javier Sánchez Escribano
The Court Drama of Ben Jonson and Calderón - José Manuel González Fernández de Sevilla
Ben Jonson y Cervantes - Yumiko Yamada
Ben Jonson and Cervantes - Yumiko Yamada
GENERAL & MISCELLANEOUS:
T. S. Eliot's 1920 Essay on Ben Jonson
A Study of Ben Jonson - Algernon Charles Swinburne
29. Revaluating Ben Jonson - Laurence Raw
Jonson the Master: Stones Well Squared - Fred Inglis
Tradition and Ben Jonson - L. C. Knights
Thesis: The Influence of Ben Jonson upon Ben Jonson - Leona F. Dale [.pdf]
Chapter 1 of Ben Jonson and Possessive Authorship - Joseph Loewenstein [.pdf]
Marking his Place: Ben Jonson's Punctuation - Sara van den Berg
The Poet of Labor: Authorship and Property in the Work of Ben Jonson - Bruce Thomas Boehrer
'Ut Pictura Poesis': Jonson and the Painted Subject - Gary Ettari [.pdf]
Invading Interpreters and Politic Picklocks: Reading Jonson Historically - Ian Donaldson [.pdf]
Ben Jonson and the Jonsonian Afterglow: Imagemes, Avatars, and Literary Reception - Anthony W.
Johnson [.pdf]
Ben Jonson's 1616 Folio: A Revolution in Print? - Lynn S. Meskill [.pdf]
Ben Jonson and His Folio - Clifford Stetner
Jonson and the Motives of Print - Richmond Barbour
Ben Jonson's Head - Jeffrey Masten
Biographical
Biography - Encyclopedia Britannica
Biography - Matt Steggle, Literary Encyclopedia
Biography - Theatre Database
Biography - The Columbia Encyclopedia
Biography - Theatrehistory.com
Biography - Britain Express
Biography - UVictoria
The Cambridge History of English and American Literature
in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Ben Jonson - Ashley H. Thorndike
Ben Jonson’s character and friendships
Early life
Production of Every Man in His Humour
Maturity; Prosperity
Later years
Eminence in letters
Epigrams; The Forest
Underwoods
The Sad Shepherd
Early Plays
30. His Programme of Reform; Every Man in His Humour
Every Man out of His Humour
His Tragedies
Volpone; Epicoene
The Alchemist
Bartholomew Fayre
His later Comedies
His place in Literature
Marston's quarrel with Jonson: Assaults and Counter-assaults - W. Macneile Dixon
End of the quarrel - W. Macneile Dixon
Massinger's literary models: Shakespeare, Fletcher, Jonson - Emil Koeppel
General characteristics of the Jacobean and
Caroline Drama: the central position of Jonson - Rev. Ronald Bayne
The Pupils of Jonson: Nathaniel Field - Rev. Ronald Bayne
Field’s debt to Jonson - Rev. Ronald Bayne
Masque and Pastoral - Rev. Ronald Bayne
Ben Jonson’s Masques - Rev. Ronald Bayne
Rapid increase of dramatic elements in Jonson’s Masques - Rev. Ronald Bayne
Jonson’s later work in this field - Rev. Ronald Bayne
Ben Jonson’s The Sad Shepherd - Rev. Ronald Bayne
Ben Jonson’s Timber - Harold V. Routh
Jacobean and Caroline Criticism. Ben Jonson - J. E. Spingarn
Jonson’s literary“portraits” - J. E. Spingarn
Cavalier Lyrists. Influence of Jonson. - F. W. Moorman
Miscellaneous Metric: Jonson and Others - George Saintsbury
Perceptive Prosody: Jonson and Dryden - George Saintsbury
Images
Title-page of "Eastward Ho" (1605) - Columbia University
Title-page of The Workes of Beniamin Jonson, 1616. [114k]
Title-page of Jonson's Workes, 1640 - University of Sydney
Jonson miniature - Folger Library
Jonson's Signature - Folger Library
Engraving of Jonson from the 1692 Workes - Holloway Pages
Portrait of Jonson - Britannica
Jonson portrait - SAC LitWeb
The Grave of Ben Jonson
The Robert Vaughan portrait of Ben Jonson with an epithet by Dryden [91k]
Title-page of Every Man Out of His Humour, 1600. [54k]
Beardsley's illustration for Volpone,1898. [36k]
Pages from "Every Man Out of his Humour" (1616) - Columbia University
Actor List from "Sejanus, his Fall" - Columbia University
Title-page of Tragedies and Comedies (1633) [33k]
Inigo Jones: House of Fame Set Drawing [51k]
Oberon's Palace from "The Masque of Oberon"
Oberon's Palace from "The Masque of Oberon" (image 2) [231k]
Inigo Jones: Oberon from "The Masque of Oberon" [69k]
Satyrs and Fays from "The Masque of Oberon" [164k]
Inigo Jones: Female masquer [203k]
Inigo Jones: Male masquer [138k]
31. Inigo Jones Costume Plate from "Masque of Queens" [96k]
Inigo Jones: Daughter of Niger from "Masque of Blackness" (1605) [91k]
On Volpone
Study Questions forVolpone - Prof. Philip Mitchell
Study guide to Volpone - Prof. Theresa M. DiPasquale
Notes on Volpone - Prof. Arnie Sanders
Monstrous Characters in Volpone - Dr. Desmet, UGA
Discussion of Monsters in Volpone - English 434/ Dr. Desmet, UGA
Venice in Volpone - Jason
Miscellaneous
List of Jonson's Works - David Lewis
The Ben Jonson Journal
Study guide to Masque of Blacknesse - Theresa M. DiPasquale
Money Jonson - Jennifer W. Spirko
SAC LitWeb Jonson Page - Roger Blackwell Bailey
The Ben Jonson page - Matt Steggle
Oberon: Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones - UVictoria
Indigo "To Penshurst" - Prof. Clare Kinney
The Alchemy of Human Relations in Ben Jonson's The Alchemist - Dr. Desmet, UGA
The Alchemy of Human Relations in Ben Jonson's The Alchemist (PartII) - Dr. Desmet, UGA
On Jonson and Bacon - Martin Pares
On the presentation of The Masque of Beauty
Information on the Vaughan portrait
Herrick's poems on Ben Jonson
Carew's To Ben Jonson Upon Occasion of His Ode of Defiance
Frank's Creative Quotations from Ben Jonson
The Ben Jonson Journal
First Volume of "The Ben Jonson Journal" Published
A Digital Catalogue of Watermarks and Type Ornaments Used by WilliamStansby
in the Printing of THE WORKES OF BENIAMIN JONSON (London, 1616)
A Student's Bibliography for Jonson - Southwest Texas Community College
To buy a book from Amazon.com (US) just click on the title.
To buy a book from Amazon.co.uk (UK) use link under description (if available).
Biographical
Ben Jonson : A Life
by David Riggs
Paperback Reprint edition
32. Harvard University Press, Sept 1989
"Riggs (English, Stanford) provides a thorough
account, synthesizing six decades of scholar-ship
and new historical evidence. An essential
description not only of Jonson, but of the
English Renaissance as well." —Book News, Inc.
Order it from Amazon.co.uk
Ben Jonson : A Literary Life
by W. David Kay
Hardcover
St Martins Pr (Short); March 1995
"A concise biography of Jonson's career, placed in
the context of Jacobean politics, court patronage, and
his many literary rivalries. Stressing his wit and
inventiveness, Kay explores the strategies by which
Jonson attempted to maintain his independence and
introduces new evidence concerning his appropriation
of other English writers' work." —Book News, Inc.
Order it from Amazon.co.uk
Ben Jonson
(English Dramatists)
by Richard Allen Cave
Hardcover
St. Martin's Press, March 1991
An excellent critical biography.
Poetry
Ben Jonson and the Cavalier Poets
(A Norton Critical Edition)
Selected and Edited by Hugh MacLean
Published by W W Norton & Co, January 1,1975
This Norton Critical edition has a thorough
selection of poetry by Ben Jonson. The poetry is
accompanied by excellent annotations. A treasure!
Visit the website.
Order it from Amazon.co.uk
Ben Jonson
(Oxford Authors)
by Ian Donaldson
Oxford Univ Pr, December 1985
An extraordinary representative collection
33. of Jonson's works with poetry and excerpts
from the masques and plays.
Table of Contents
Order it from Amazon.co.uk
Plays and Masques
Ben Jonson's Plays and Masques
(Second Edition)
by Ben Jonson, Richard Harp (Editor)
Paperback 2nd edition
W.W. Norton & Company; September 2000
3 plays: Volpone, Epicoene, and The Alchemist. Also
3 masques: Mercury Vindicated from the Alchemist at Court,
Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue, and Jonson's first
Masque, The Masque of Blackness. Extensive
annotations, and critical materials. Superb!
Order it from Amazon.co.uk
The Alchemist and Other Plays
Ben Jonson, Gordon Campbell(Editor)
Oxford University Press, July 1995
"Volpone, Epicene, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew
Fair. The texts of these plays have all been newly
edited for this volume, and are presented with
modernized spelling.... the introduction, notes,
and glossary further bring to life these timeless
comedies." —The Publisher
Order it from Amazon.co.uk
Three Comedies
by Ben Jonson, Michael Jamieson(Editor)
Penguin Books, June 1972
Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew
Fair.
Order it from Amazon.co.uk
The Complete Masques
(Ben Jonson Series : No 4)
by Ben Jonson, Graham Hood, Francis P. Garvan
Hardcover
Yale Univ Pr, July 1986
"The masques contain some of Jonson's most
magnificent verse, and introduce the modern
reader to an extravagant theatrical form
long since vanished from the stage."
34. —The Reader's Catalog
Every Man in His Humour
by Ben Jonson, Martin Seymour-Smith
W. W. Norton & Company, June 1976
Norton's excellent edition of Jonson's comedy
The New Inn
(Swan Theatre Plays)
by Ben Jonson, Simon Trussler
Methuen, January 1988
The Selected Plays of Ben Jonson Vol. 1
by Johanna Procter, Ben Jonson
Cambridge Univ Pr, September 1989
"The author's highly individualized treatment of
names, verb forms and punctuation is preserved in
this volume of three of his greatest plays—
Sejanus (1603), Volpone (1606)
and Epicoene, or The Silent Woman (1609)."
—The Publisher
Order it from Amazon.co.uk
The Selected Plays of Ben Jonson Vol. 2
by Martin Butler (Editor), Ben Jonson
Hardcover
Paperback
Cambridge Univ Pr, January 1989
"Four of Ben Jonson's plays are examined in
this second volume of criticism: two are his
major works and two from his later oeuvre.
They include The Alchemist, Bartholomew
Fair, The New Inn and A Tale of a Tub. "
—The Publisher
Order it from Amazon.co.uk
Ben Jonson: Four Comedies
(Longman Annotated Texts)
by Ben Jonson, Helen Ostovich
Longman Group, October 1996
"This edition of Ben Jonson's four middle
comedies [Volpone, or the Fox, Epicoene,
or the silent woman, The Alchemist, and
Bartholomew Fair places the works in the
popular history and culture of the times,
1605-1614, and surveys the influences, both
35. classical and contemporary, on Jonson as
a playwright." —The Publisher.
Full Description and TOC
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Jonson and Contemporaries
Erotic Beasts and Social Monsters :
Shakespeare, Jonson, and Comic Androgyny
by Grace Tiffany
Hardcover
Univ of Delaware Pr, Feb 1995
"argues that the differing Renaissance views
of androgyny have their roots in the conflict-ing
classical traditions of satire and myth."
—UDelaware Press
Order it from Amazon.co.uk
Rival Playwrights : Marlowe, Jonson, Shakespeare
by James S. Shapiro
Hardcover
Columbia Univ Pr, May 1991
Order it from Amazon.co.uk
Self-Crowned Laureates : Spenser, Jonson,
Milton and the Literary System
by Richard Helgerson
Hardcover
Univ of California Pr, June 1983
Shakespeare, Jonson, and the Myth of Venice
by David C. McPherson
Hardcover
Univ of Delaware Pr, July 1991
Order it from Amazon.co.uk
The Politics of Mirth : Jonson, Herrick,
Milton, Marvell and the Defense of Old
Holiday Pastimes
by Leah S. Marcus
Paperback Reprint edition
University of Chicago Press, May 1989
Order it from Amazon.co.uk
36. Bibliographical
Ben Jonson : A Quadricentennial Bibliography,
Nineteen Hundred and Forty-Seven Thru Nineteen
Hundred and Seventy-Two
by Dewey Heyward Brock
Hardcover
Scarecrow Pr, July 1974
Other
Critical Essays on Ben Jonson
(Critical Essays on British Literature)
by Robert N. Watson (Editor)
Hardcover
G K Hall, November 1997
"The essays are written by distinguished
commentators at both ends of the chrono-logical
range, from the 16th to the 20th
centuries. Together they provide the best
early case study of English literary
criticism." —Amazon.com
Full Description
Ben Jonson's Antimasques : A History of Growth and Decline
by Lesley Mickel
Hardcover
Ashgate Publishing Company; March 1999
"[D]iscusses in detail those court entertainments which
contributed significantly to the genre's evolution and
development. Her approach is innovative in that she
examines these works in relation to Jonson's poetry
and dramatic works. This reveals some idea of the way
in which Jonson perceived the relationship between
satire and panegyric, as well as highlighting the related,
if oppositional, views of state power which he expresses
in the Roman plays and in the masques."
—Amazon.co.uk
Full Description
Table of Contents
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Jonson and the Contexts of His Time
by Robert C. Evans
Hardcover
Bucknell Univ Pr, May 1994
"By examining specific works, particular
historical circumstances, and complex
37. relations with various individuals, author
Robert C. Evans tries to locate Jonson's
writings in the contexts that helped shape
their artistry." —Card Catalog.
Full Description
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Jonson's Magic Houses : Essays in Interpretation
by Ian Donaldson
Hardcover
Clarendon Pr, April 1997
"In this new collection of biographical,
critical, and historical essays, Ian
Donaldson challenges many long-held and
recent assumptions about the nature of
Jonson's personality and creative
achievement, offering fresh readings of
his life and art." —The Publisher
Full Description
Order it from Amazon.co.uk
Ben Jonson: Authority, Criticism
by Richard Dutton
Hardcover
St Martins P, July 1996
"Looks at how Jonson's criticism attempts
to define himself and his writings in
relation to his contemporaries and to
writers of the classical past, and how
his model for the profession of letters
impacted generations to come in England."
—Book News, Inc.
Order it from Amazon.co.uk
Jonsonian Discriminations : The Humanist Poet
and the Praise of True Nobility
by Michael McCanles
Hardcover
Univ of Toronto Pr, January 1992
At the heart of all Ben Jonson's nondramatic
poetry, argues Michael McCanles, lies the
concept of true nobility.... In this survey
of all Jonson's non-dramatic poetry, McCanles
identifies a range of dialectical and contrastive
forms through which this concern was rendered
poetically.
Full Description
38. Order it from Amazon.co.uk
Ben Jonson and the Art of Secrecy
by William W.E. Slights
$50.00
Hardcover
Univ of Toronto Pr, December 1994
A study of the theme of secrecy, conspiracy,
and deception in Jonson's works.
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Ben Jonson and Self-Love :
The Subtlest Maze of All
by Robert Edward Wiltenburg
Hardcover
Univ of Missouri Pr, February 1990
"Through a perceptive analysis of Cynthias
Revels, Volpone, Epigrammes, and The Forrest,
Robert Wiltenburg has made an important
contribution to Jonson scholarship by
establishing that Jonson's growing
artistic mastery went hand in hand with
his maturing treatment of self-love."
—The Publisher
"This book is well written, full of complex
and perceptive close readings, and raises
two ... interesting propositions about Ben
Jonson's works: that the plays and nondramatic
poems need to be read together, and that in
both genres Jonson represents 'one of our
great poets of love.'"—Renaissance Quarterly
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39. Introduction | English Masque | John Heywood | Nicholas Udall | John Skelton | Thomas Sackville
Thomas Kyd | George Peele | Robert Greene | George Gascoigne | John Bale | Anthony Munday
John Lyly | Christopher Marlowe | William Shakespeare | Ben Jonson | John Marston | John Webster
Thomas Dekker | Francis Beaumont | John Fletcher | Thomas Middleton | William Rowley
John Ford | Philip Massinger | James Shirley | Margaret Cavendish | Thomas Heywood
42. It is enough, they once did get 5
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.
II. — TO PENSHURST.
Thou art not, PENSHURST, built to envious show
Of touch, or marble ; nor canst boast a row
Of polish'd pillars, or a roof of gold :
Thou hast no lantern whereof tales are told ;
Or stair, or courts ; but stand'st an ancient pile,
And these grudg'd at, art reverenced the while.
Thou joy'st in better marks, of soil, of air,
Of wood, of water ; therein thou art fair.
Thou hast thy walks for health, as well as sport :
Thy mount, to which thy Dryads do resort, 10
Where Pan and Bacchus their high feasts have made,
Beneath the broad beech, and the chestnut shade ;
That taller tree, which of a nut was set,
At his great birth, where all the Muses met.
There, in the writhed bark, are cut the names
Of many a sylvan, taken with his flames ;
And thence the ruddy satyrs oft provoke
The lighter fauns, to reach thy lady's oak.
Thy copse too, named of Gamage, thou hast there,
That never fails to serve thee season'd deer, 20
When thou wouldst feast or exercise thy friends.
The lower land, that to the river bends,
Thy sheep, thy bullocks, kine, and calves do feed ;
The middle grounds thy mares and horses breed.
Each bank doth yield thee conies ; and the tops
Fertile of wood, Ashore and Sydneys copp's,
To crown thy open table, doth provide
The purpled pheasant, with the speckled side :
The painted partridge lies in ev'ry field,
And for thy mess is willing to be kill'd. 30
And if the high-swoln Medway fail thy dish,
Thou hast thy ponds, that pay thee tribute fish,
Fat aged carps that run into thy net,
And pikes, now weary their own kind to eat,
As loth the second draught or cast to stay,
Officiously at first themselves betray.
Bright eels that emulate them, and leap on land,
Before the fisher, or into his hand,
Then hath thy orchard fruit, thy garden flowers, 40
