Ben johnson brief biography sample
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Jonson, Ben
Ben Jonson was a poet and playwright who was a contemporary of William Shakespeare. In fact, some argue that if there had been no Shakespeare, we would consider Jonson as our national bard. However, Jonson’s rise to fame and notability was not without struggle and controversy. His gritty determination and refusal to settle for second best saw him rise from obscurity to become the first poet laureate under patronage from King James.
Ben Jonson was born on 11th June 1572 in poverty. His father had been a minister but died two months before his birth. His mother remarried a bricklayer and they lived in Westminster, London. Ben was a studious child and read whenever he could. He won a scholarship from his local parish to the prestigious Westminster School where his teacher William Camden spotted his potential and encouraged his love of classical learning.
On leaving school Jonson was apprenticed to his stepfather’s trade but hated it. He joined the army and saw action in
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Ben Jonson
The poet, essayist, and playwright Ben Jonson was born on June 11, 1572 in London, England. His father, a minister, died shortly before his birth and his mother remarried a bricklayer.
Jonson was raised in Westminster and attended St. Martin’s parish school and Westminster School, where he came under the influence of the classical scholar William Camden. He left the Westminster school in 1589, worked briefly in his stepfather’s trade as a bricklayer, then served in the military at Flanders, before working as an actor and playwright for Philip Henslowe’s theater company.
In 1594, Jonson married Anne Lewis and began to work as an actor and playwright. Jonson and Lewis had at least two children, but little else is known of their marriage.
In 1598, Jonson wrote what is considered his first great play, Every Man in His Humor. In a 1616 production, William Shakespeare acted in one of the lead roles. Shortly after the play opened, Jonson killed Gabriel Spencer in a duel
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Life of Ben Jonson
Birth
Benjamin Jonson was born on 11 June 1572, probably in or near London. He was of Scottish descent, and retained a keen interest in the country of his forebears. ‘His grandfather came from Carlisle, and he thought from Annandale to it; he served King Henry VIII, and was a gentleman’, noted the Scottish poet William Drummond of Hawthornden, after meeting Jonson on his travels north of the border in 1618–19 (Informations, 177–8). The Johnstones or Johnstouns - the name is spelt in thirteen different ways in Scotland in this period, but always with a ‘t’ – were a powerful family of brigands and aristocratic warlords who had played a major part in skirmishes in Annandale and along the Scottish borders over several centuries. Jonson was sufficiently impressed by their reputation to have adopted their armorial bearings of ‘three spindles or rhombi’ (Informations, 466–7). Jonson's grandfather may have been one of the Scottish prisoners seized by the English