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
Let them call it mischief: When it is past and prospered t'will be virtue
I have been at my book, and am now past the craggy paths of study, and come to the flowery plains of honour and reputation.
I am now past the craggy paths of study, and come to the flowery plains of honor and reputation.
Let them call it mischief; when it is past and prospered, it will be virtue.
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.
It is not growing like a tree / In bulk, doth make men better be.
Such sweet neglect more taketh me, / Than all the adulteries of art; / They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.
And though thou hadst small Latin, and less Greek.
He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.
A woman, the more curious she is about her face, is commonly the more careless about her house.
He knows not his own strength that has not met adversity.
To speak and to speak well, are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.
They say Princes learn no art truly, but the art of horsemanship. The reason is, the brave beast is no flatterer. He will throw a prince as soon as his groom.
Talking and eloquence are not the same: to speak, and to speak well, are two things.