Biography

Benjamin Jonson was born 1571 as the posthumous son of a Protestant minister. His mother then moved him to Westminster, where she married a bricklayer. He attended a free parish school as a boy, and thanks to the sponsorship of the headmaster, was able to attend Westminster Grammar School. Unofortunately, Ben lost his scholarship and was forced to take up bricklaying alongside his stepfather. This occupation did not appeal to him, and he left for military duty in Flanders and did not return to England until 1592. He married in 1594, and joined a touring acting company in 1597. Ben Jonson and another playwright then wrote a play called "Isle of Dogs" which was immediately banned on charges of sedition, and he and his friends found themselves in Fleet Prison. He was released after a few months and managed to restart his acting career. In December of 1598 he fought a duel with another actor named Gabriel Spencer; fortunately for Ben, he won, but unfortunately, he was imprisoned on charges of murder and given the death sentence. He managed to escape the gallows and returned to playwriting. He set out on foot in 1618 to visit Scotland and on his return began lecturing on rhetoric at colleges. He died in 1637 and was buried in Westminster Abbey; his epitaph reads: "O Rare Ben Jonson"
- IMDb mini biography by: Nichol

He was a personal friend of William Shakespeare, and wrote a sonnet praising him in the 1623 published edition of Shakespeare's complete works.

His most famous play, "Volpone", has been filmed several times in several languages, as well as used as the basis of several free adaptations, but oddly enough, it has yet to be filmed as Jonson actually wrote it - in Elizabethan blank verse; this despite the fact that Jonson was one of the most famous English dramatists of his time. It has, however, been presented as a videotaped performance on American television.

The quotation on his gravestone is ambiguous. It reads "O Rare Ben Jonson", which can be taken literally, but it can also be taken to be the Latin phrase "Orare Ben Jonson (Pray for Ben Jonson)".

He was buried standing up.

Art has an enemy called ignorance.