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
And though thou hadst small Latin, and less Greek.
This is the very womb and bed of enormity.
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.
Let them call it mischief: When it is past and prospered t'will be virtue
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.
I do honour the very flea of his dog.
'Tis the common disease of all your musicians that they know no mean, to be entreated, either to begin or end.
There was ever more in him to be praised than to be pardoned.
This is the danger, when vice becomes a precedent
Soul of the Age! / The applause! delight! the wonder of our stage! / My Shakespeare, rise; I will not lodge thee by / Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie / A little further, to make thee a room; / Thou art a monument without a tomb.