He began with the comedy _Every Man in his Humour_, which was written in 1598; then followed _Every Man out of His Humour_ (1599), _Cynthia’s Revels_ (1600), and _The Poetaster_ (1601). These earliest comedies are rather tedious in their characters, for they emphasize unduly the “humor” or peculiar characteristic of each individual. They are, however, ingenious in plot, rich in rugged and not entirely displeasing fun, and full of vivacity and high spirits. The later group of comedies shows a decided advance. The characters are less angular, livelier, and much more convincing; the style is more matured and equable. Such comedies, perhaps the best of all Jonson’s dramatic work, are _Volpone, or The Fox_ (1605), _Epicene, or The Silent Woman_ (1609), and _The Alchemist_ (1610). His last comedies are lighter and more farcical, and show less care and forethought. They include _Bartholomew Fair_ (1614), _The Devil Is an Ass_ (1616), and _The Staple of News_ (1625). His last unfinished play, _The Sad Shepherd_, a pastoral comedy, is unapproached among his dramas for its combination of sober reflection, lightness of fancy, and delicacy of touch. In nearly all his comedies Jonson opened up a vein that was nearly new and was to be very freely worked by his successors--the comedy of London life and humors, reflecting the manners of the day. His two historical tragedies, _Sejanus his Fall_ (1603) and _Catiline his Conspiracy_ (1611), are too labored and mechanical to be reckoned as great tragedies, though their author would fain have had them so. They show immense learning, they have power, variety, and insight, but they lack the last creative touch necessary to stamp them with reality, and to give them a living appeal. As for his masques, they are abundant, graceful, and humorously ingenious. Into them Jonson introduced the device of the anti-masque, which parodied the principal theme. The best of them are _The Masque of Beauty_ (1608), _The Masque of Queens_ (1609), and _Oberon, the Fairy Prince_ (1611). The lyrics, which are freely introduced into his plays, and the elegies, epitaphs, and other occasional pieces, many of which appeared in a volume called _Underwoods_ (“consisting of divers poems”), represent Jonson’s work in its sweetest and most graceful phase. His song, a translation from Philostratus, beginning “Drink to me only with thine eyes,” is deservedly famous. We cannot resist quoting two brief but typical pieces: (1) Have you seen but a bright lillie grow, Before rude hands have touch’d it? Have you mark’d but the fall of the snow Before the soyle hath smutch’d it? Have you felt the wooll of the bever? Or swan’s downe ever? Or have smelt of the bud of the brier? Or the nard on the fire? Or have tasted the bag of the bee? O so white! O so soft! O so sweet is she! _The Triumph_