Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/311

* JONQUIL. 285 JONSON. are readily grown in forcing houses. The flowers are used in the manufacture of perfumes. All varieties are ordinarily increased by bulbels. New varieties are obtained from seeds. JON'SON, Bexjamin (Ben) (1573?-1637). An English dramatist, born probably at West- minster in 1573. His grandfather belonged to one of the Johnstone families of Annandale. His father, who was a 'minister,' died a month be- fore the dramatist's birth; and his mother soon married a 'master-bricklayer' living near Charing Cross. Ben was sent to Westminster School at the expense of William Camden, then second master there, and a famous scholar, to whom he was surely indebted for the beginnings of his solid learning. It is eommonl}' stated, on the authority of Fuller, that from Westminster he proceeded to Saint John's College, Cambridge. For the assertion there is, however, no real evi- dence. After he had won a name in letters, Jon- son received from each university the degree of JI.A., but — in his own words — "by their favour, not his studie." He was taken from school and put to the craft of his stepfather. Disliking this occupation, he went to the Low Countries, where he joined the English troops against Spam. While there he killed one of the enemy in view of both armies. He returned to England about 1.592, and "betook himself to Lis wonted studies." Near this time, he also married a "wife who was a shrew yet honest." Precisely' when he began writing for the stage is not known; but the date is probably not earlier than 1595. Two years later he was both actor and playwright in Hens- lowe's compan.v. In 1598 he wrote a tragedy for this company, and was mentioned by Jleres as one of "the best for tragedy." These plays are lost. His first extant play is the famous Every Man in His Humour, performed by Lord Chamberlain's servants, at the Globe Theatre, in September, 1598. Shakespeare himself played a part in this first noteworthy English comedy of character. While the play was on the stage, Jonson quar- reled with an actor in Henslowe's company named Gabriel Spenser, and killed him in a duel (Sep- tember 22d ). He was imprisoned for a short time; but by pleading benefit of clergy, he escaped ■with branding on the left thumb and loss of goods and chattels. The next year Jonson produced Every Man Out of Bis Humour, and perhaps had already written The Case is Altered, an adaptation of Plautus. During the next fifteen years he brought out Cynthia's Revels { 1000) ; The Poetaster (G0) ; Hejanus, a tragedy ( 1 003 ) ; Catiline, a tragedy (1011); and his greatest comedies: Yolpone (1005); Epieoene, or the Silent Woman, best of all (1609) ; The Alchemist (1610); and Bartholomeic Fair (16U). In 1616 came a poorer comedy. The Devil is an Ass. The regular stage Jonson now forsook for ten years: and his later comedies have little interest. At his death he left fragments of a beautiful pas- toral. The Sad Shepherd, or a Tale of Kobin Hood. With the accession of James he had begun for the Court a series of festive performances which lie classed as entertainments, barriers, and masques. They had respectively, as the centre of interest, a complimentary speech, a mock tourna- ment, and a masqued dance. They were presented with elaborate machinery furnished by Inigo Jones. But the general plan and the verse, often exquisite, were Jonson's. Besides masques, Jon- son also composed many poems. Scattered through his comedies, written mostly in prose, are well-known songs, as "Still to be neat, still to be drest." But his larger poetic fame rests upon his charming epigrams ( short poems em- bodying one idea ), and the collections entitled The Forest and Undericoods. Unsurpassed of their kind are the lines On Lucy, Countess of Bed- ford, and the Epitaph on the Countess of Pem- broke. And in a series of essays called Discov- eries, he displayed his solid character and ripe wisdom. During these years Jonson lived a varied life. His combatieness led to "many quarrels" with ilarston, one of his collaborators, whom he "beat," and satirized, in conjunction with Dekker, in the Poetaster. When, in 1004, Chapman and -Marston were sent to prison for certain passages in their £as# uYUfJiZo, offensive to the Court, Jon- son who had a slight hand in the play, volunta- rily joined them. The next year he was also im- prisoned with Chapman. But for the most part he enjoyed the favor of the King, whom he pleased by his masques and in other ways. In J 016 he was granted a royal pension of 100 marks, afterwards raised to £200, and might have been knighted, it is said, had he wished. In 1013 he was abroad with the son of Sir Walter Ralegh, to whose History of the World he con- tributed the account of the Punic wars. In the summer of 1018 he traveled on foot to Scotland, returning the next year. He visited the poet Drunnnond at Hawthornden, about 11 miles from Edinburgh, in conversations with whom he spoke very freely of his contemporaries, and of his own early life. His friends among the aristocracy were many, especially among the Sidneys. From the Earl of Pembroke he received every year £20 to buy books. Convivial by nature, he ruled as monarch at the hostelries where gathered poets and dramatists, first at the Mermaid and then at the Devil Tavern. Of Shakespeare, who no doubt was one of his early associates, he said late in life: "I loved the man and do honour his memory, on this side idolatry, as much as any." He died August 6, 1037, and was buried in Westminster Abbe}', where his tombstone bear; the inscription, "O rare Ben Jonson." Jonson's work is the best representation of classic ideals in the English drama, adapting to contemporary life the spirit of ancient comedy. His aim was to depict for ridicule and satire the "humours" of society, that is, affectations in conduct, dress, and speech. His comedies he aptly described as "comical satires." The first volume of the first folio edition of Jonson's Works, as revised by himself, was pub- lished in 1616. Every Man in His Humour, as published in 1601, was Italian in setting. In the folio of 1016 it first appeared as now generally known, with its scene shifted to London and the names of the characters in English. The second volume of the first folio appeared in instalments between 1630 and 1641. The only critical edi- tion in the nineteenth century was that of Gif- ford. 9 vols. (London, 1816: revised by Cun- ningham, 1875). It is not a careful piece of work. Selected plays, edited by B. Nicholson, with an introduction by C. H. Herford. were published in the Mermaid Series (London, 1894). BiuLiOGK.xPHT. The main source for Jonson's life is Conversations uith Drummond. ed. by Laing, Shakespeare Society (London, 1842). Con-