In turns a scholar, a bricklayer, a soldier, an actor, a playwright (a word first coined by Jonson), and a religious, Ben Jonson led a truly interesting life.
His father, a catholic priest, died before he was born and Ben was raised by his stepfather who made sure he had a good education including time at Westminster School, one of the best in England at the time. Although he followed a twisting career path he never lost his love of language both spoken (as an actor) and written (as poet and playwright). He was imprisoned once for voicing his opinions in the seditious play “The Isle of Dogs” and later for killing a man in a duel (he would have been executed had he not pleaded the ancient right of ‘benefit if clergy’ which involved reciting religious verses in latin). As a prominent, though newly converted, Catholic he was regarded with great suspicion after the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.
He was a contemporary of Shakespeare and wrote a fine tribute to the great man with the impressive title To the Memory of My Beloved, The Author, Mr. William Shakespeare, and What He Hath Left Us
http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/46512-Ben-Jonson-To-the-Memory-of-My-Beloved--The-Author--Mr--William-Shakespeare--wbr--and-What-He-Hath-Left-Us
Jonson married when he was about 20 and had at least 2 children who died in infancy. In 1593 Jonson had a daughter but she did not live long. His feelings may be judged by his poem “On My First Daughter” http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/46459-Ben-Jonson-On-My-First-Daughter .His first son Benjamin died in 1603 of the plague http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/4328-Ben-Jonson-On-my-First-Son
In later life he wooed, or tried to, several women but he was not always successful with the ladies as can be seen in the self-deprecating “My Picture Left in Scotland” http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/4314-Ben-Jonson-My-Picture-Left-in-Scotland
In his career Jonson had many prominent benefactors including Lady Elizabeth Sidney, a member of one of the most powerful families in England. He wrote on of his best poems for her “To Penshurst” http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/show/41381-Ben-Jonson-To-Penshurst
In later life Jonsons’s writing was not always greeted with the adulation of early years and some of his work received a very bad review from the critics of the day as can be judged by the Frontispiece of his play “New Inn” in 1631 which says
. . . . As it was never Acted, but most negligently Play'd by some,
the K I N G S S E R V A N T S.
And more squeamishly Beheld and Censured by others,
the K I N G S S U B J E C T S.
After one such review he wrote “Ode upon the censure of his New Inn” http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/show/4322-Ben-Jonson-Ode-upon-the-Censure-of-his-New-Inn
Although his writing lost some of its power in his later life Jonson was still highly regarded and a group of young poets influenced including, among others, Robert Herrick, Thomas Carew, Sir John Suckling and Richard Lovelace formed themselves into what we might call a Jonson appreciation society. They were the self-styled 'sons' or 'tribe' of Ben, later called the Cavalier poets. It was members of this group that ensured Jonson was buried in Westminster Abbey [but not in Poet’s Corner] unfortunately his name was mispelt on the tombstone (Ben Johnson)!
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