Ben Jonson (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: David Riggs
- First Published: 1989
- Type of Work: Literary biography
- Time of Work: 1572-1637
- Setting: England, primarily London
- Principal Characters: Ben Jonson, Robert Brett, William Camden, Ann (Lewis) Jonson, Esme Stuart, John Marston, George Chapman, Thomas Dekker, William Cavendish, William Drummond, James I
- Genres: Nonfiction, History
- Subjects: Murder or homicide, Literature, Poetry or poets, Writing, Novelists, Seventeenth century, London, Sixteenth century, Drama or dramatists, Theater, Comedy, Shakespeare, William, or Shakespearean plays
- Locales: London, England
Ben Jonson’s literary career began in the final years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, encompassed that of her Scottish cousin James I, and extended well into the time of Charles I. Certain contradictory aspects of his character have long been recognized. Here was a man who assaulted and killed an actor named Gabriel Spencer but whose poetic theory recommended rationality, moderation, and restraint; who admitted to such excesses as drunkenness, adultery, and raging quarrels, and was jailed on several occasions for presumably seditious passages in his plays, but who also earned a...
[The entire page is 2442 words long]
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