Ben Jonson
Ben Jonson
Benjamin "Ben" Jonsonwas an English playwright, poet, actor and literary critic of the 17th century, whose artistry exerted a lasting impact upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours. He is best known for the satirical plays Every Man in His Humour, Volpone, or The Foxe, The Alchemistand Bartholomew Fayre: A Comedyand for his lyric poetry; he is generally regarded as the second most important English dramatist, after William Shakespeare, during the reign of James I...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth11 June 1572
Fortune, thou hadst no deity, if men Had wisdom.
There is no doctrine will do good where nature is wanting.
Force works on servile natures, not the free.
The voice so sweet, the words so fair, As some soft chime had stroked the air; And though the sound had parted thence, Still left an echo in the sense.
If you be sick, your own thoughts make you sick
Many might go to heaven with half the labour they go to hell, if they would venture their industry the right way.
Words borrowed of Antiquity do lend a kind of Majesty to style, and are not without their delight sometimes. For they have the authority of years, and out of their intermission do win to themselves a kind of grace-like newness. But the eldest of the present, and newest of the past Language, is the best.
Neither do thou lust after that tawny weed tobacco.
Language most shows a man, speak that I may see thee.
In small proportions we just beauties see; And in short measures, life may perfect be.
Good men are the stars, the planets of the ages wherein they live, and illustrate the times.
The man that is once hated, both his good and his evil deeds oppress him.
Mischiefs feed / Like beasts, till they be fat, and then they bleed.
Indeed there's a woundy luck in names.