Ben Jonson

Ben Jonson was granted a royal pension in 1616, which is often treated as the start of the English poet laureate tradition. He served under King James I and became a central literary figure of Jacobean England.

Jonson and William Shakespeare were contemporaries in the London theater world. Jonson wrote the famous tribute in the 1623 First Folio that calls Shakespeare not of an age, but for all time.

Jonson wrote epigrams, elegies, odes, masques, and satirical verse shaped by classical Roman models. His poems often prize clarity, discipline, wit, and moral judgment.

Jonson is best known on stage for comedies such as Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair. Those plays show the same satirical intelligence found in much of his verse.