The criticisms of Ben Jonson are too numerous for cataloguing here;
among those by eminent Englishmen should be specially mentioned John
Dryden's, particularly those in his _Essay on Dramatic Poësy_
(1667-1668; revised 1684), and in the preface to _An Evening's Love,
or the Mock Astrologer_ (1668), and A. C. Swinburne's _Study of Ben
Jonson_ (1889), in which, however, the significance of the
_Discoveries_ is misapprehended. See also F. G. Fleay, _Biographical
Chronicle of the English Drama_ (1891), i. 311-387, ii. 1-18; C. H.
Herford, "Ben Jonson" (art. in _Dict. Nat. Biog._, vol. xxx., 1802);
A. W. Ward, _History of English Dramatic Literature_, 2nd ed. (1899),
ii. 296-407; and for a list of early impressions, W. W. Greg, _List of
English Plays written before 1643 and printed before 1700_
(Bibliographical Society, 1900), pp. 55-58 and supplement 11-15. An
important French work on Ben Jonson, both biographical and critical,
and containing, besides many translations of scenes and passages, some
valuable appendices, to more than one of which reference has been made
above, is Maurice Castelain's _Ben Jonson, l'homme et l'oeuvre_
(1907). Among treatises or essays on particular aspects of his
literary work may be mentioned Emil Koeppel's _Quellenstudien zu den
Dramen Ben Jonson's_, &c. (1895); the same writer's "Ben Jonson's
Wirkung auf zeitgenössische Dramatiker," &c., in _Anglicistische
Forschungen_, 20 (1906); F. E. Schelling's _Ben Jonson and the
Classical School_ (1898); and as to his masques, A. Soergel, _Die
englischen Maskenspiele_ (1882) and J. Schmidt, "Über Ben Jonson's
Maskenspiele," in Herrig's _Archiv_, &c., xxvii. 51-91. See also H.
Reinsch, "Ben Jonson's Poetik und seine Beziehungen zu Horaz," in
_Münchener Beiträge_, 16 (1899). (A. W. W.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] His Christian name of Benjamin was usually abbreviated by himself
and his contemporaries; and thus, in accordance with his famous
epitaph, it will always continue to be abbreviated.
[2] With Inigo Jones, however, in quarrelling with whom, as Howell
reminds Jonson, the poet was virtually quarrelling with his bread and
butter, he seems to have found it impossible to live permanently at
peace; his satirical _Expostulation_ against the architect was
published as late as 1635. Chapman's satire against his old
associate, perhaps due to this quarrel, was left unfinished and
unpublished.
[3] Of _The Fall of Mortimer_ Jonson left only a few lines behind
him; but, as he also left the argument of the play, factious
ingenuity contrived to furbish up the relic into a libel against
Queen Caroline and Sir Robert Walpole in 1731, and to revive the
contrivance by way of an insult to the princess dowager of Wales and
Lord Bute in 1762.
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