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THE ALCHEMIST

BEN JONSON

"All that I am in arts all that I know;"

and dedicating his first dramatic success "Every Man in His
Humour" to him. It is doubtful whether Jonson ever went to either
university though Fuller says that he was "statutably admitted
into St. John's College Cambridge." He tells us that he took no
degree but was later "Master of Arts in both the universities by
their favour not his study." When a mere youth Jonson enlisted as
a soldier trailing his pike in Flanders in the protracted wars of
William the Silent against the Spanish. Jonson was a large and
raw-boned lad; he became by his own account in time exceedingly
bulky. In chat with his friend William Drummond of Hawthornden
Jonson told how "in his service in the Low Countries he had in the
face of both the camps killed an enemy and taken opima spolia
from him;" and how "since his coming to England being appealed to
the fields he had killed his adversary which had hurt him in the
arm and whose sword was ten inches longer than his." Jonson's
reach may have made up for the lack of his sword; certainly his
prowess lost nothing in the telling. Obviously Jonson was brave
combative and not averse to talking of himself and his doings.

In 1592 Jonson returned from abroad penniless. Soon after he
married almost as early and quite as imprudently as Shakespeare.
He told Drummond curtly that "his wife was a shrew yet honest";
for some years he lived apart from her in the household of Lord
Albany. Yet two touching epitaphs among Jonson's "Epigrams" "On
my first daughter" and "On my first son" attest the warmth of the
poet's family affections. The daughter died in infancy the son of
the plague; another son grew up to manhood little credit to his
father whom he survived. We know nothing beyond this of Jonson's
domestic life.

How soon Jonson drifted into what we now call grandly "the
theatrical profession" we do not know. In 1593 Marlowe made his
tragic exit from life and Greene Shakespeare's other rival on the
popular stage had preceded Marlowe in an equally miserable death
the year before. Shakespeare already had the running to himself.
Jonson appears first in the employment of Philip Henslowe the
exploiter of several troupes of players manager and father-in-law
of the famous actor Edward Alleyn. From entries in "Henslowe's
Diary" a species of theatrical account book which has been handed
down to us we know that Jonson was connected with the Admiral's
men; for he borrowed 4 pounds of Henslowe July 28 1597 paying
back 3s. 9d. on the same day on account of his "share" (in what is
not altogether clear); while later on December 3 of the same
year Henslowe advanced 20s. to him "upon a book which he showed
the plot unto the company which he promised to deliver unto the
company at Christmas next." In the next August Jonson was in
collaboration with Chettle and Porter in a play called "Hot Anger
Soon Cold." All this points to an association with Henslowe of
some duration as no mere tyro would be thus paid in advance upon
mere promise. From allusions in Dekker's play "Satiromastix" it
appears that Jonson like Shakespeare began life as an actor and
that he "ambled in a leather pitch by a play-wagon" taking at one
time the part of Hieronimo in Kyd's famous play "The Spanish
Tragedy." By the beginning of 1598 Jonson though still in needy
circumstances had begun to receive recognition. Francis Meres --
well known for his "Comparative Discourse of our English Poets with
the Greek Latin and Italian Poets" printed in 1598 and for his
mention therein of a dozen plays of Shakespeare by title -- accords
to Ben Jonson a place as one of "our best in tragedy" a matter of
some surprise as no known tragedy of Jonson from so early a date
has come down to us. That Jonson was at work on tragedy however
is proved by the entries in Henslowe of at least three tragedies
now lost in which he had a hand. These are "Page of Plymouth"
"King Robert II. of Scotland" and "Richard Crookback." But all of
these came later on his return to Henslowe and range from August
1599 to June 1602.

Returning to the autumn of 1598 an event now happened to sever for
a time Jonson's relations with Henslowe. In a letter to Alleyn
dated September 26 of that year Henslowe writes: "I have lost one
of my company that hurteth me greatly; that is Gabriel [Spencer]
for he is slain in Hogsden fields by the hands of Benjamin Jonson
bricklayer." The last word is perhaps Henslowe's thrust at Jonson
in his displeasure rather than a designation of his actual
continuance at his trade up to this time. It is fair to Jonson to
remark however that his adversary appears to have been a notorious
...

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  (approx 221 pages)

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  (approx 1107 pages)