Ben Jonson, the celebrated poet and play-writer, and a contemporary of Shakspeare, is buried in the Nave, and has a monument in Poets’ Corner. On the monument is the well-known inscription: “O rare Ben Jonson!” Ben Jonson was born near Westminster; he was educated at Westminster School, and during his last years he lived close to the Abbey. He died in 1637, in a little house in St. Margaret’s Churchyard. There are one or two famous stories about Ben Jonson asking for a grave in the Abbey. One story says that he begged for eighteen inches of square ground in the Abbey from Charles I. Another says that in a conversation with the Dean he said he was too poor to have a full-length grave. “No sir, six feet long by two feet wide is too much for me. Two feet by two feet will do all I want.” “You shall have it,” said the Dean, and thus the conversation ended. Whether these curious stories are true or not, it is the fact that Ben Jonson was buried standing up. This was discovered when Sir Robert Wilson’s grave was being made in 1849. Looking round Poets’ Corner, we find the names of the following poets:— Michael Drayton, author of the _Polyolbion_, who died in 1631. The beautiful epitaph is said to be by either Ben Jonson or Francis Quarles. [Illustration: [_D. Weller_. POETS’ CORNER. ] Abraham Cowley, who died in 1667. He had a very grand funeral in the Abbey, which was attended by many distinguished people. Cowley was educated at Westminster School, and he was a devoted Royalist. Sir William Davenant, the Cavalier, who succeeded Ben Jonson as Poet-Laureate in Charles I’s time. He died in 1668. John Dryden, Poet-Laureate to Charles II and James II. He was educated at Westminster School under the famous Headmaster, Dr. Busby. Dryden began by being a great admirer of Cromwell, but afterwards he became a strong Royalist and held several offices under the crown after the Restoration. He died in 1700, in great poverty, and is buried near Chaucer. His best known poems are perhaps the Ode on “Alexander’s Feast” and the “Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day.” His political satires “Absalom and Achitophel” and “The Hind and the Panther” were the works which made his fame in his own day. On the south wall of Poets’ Corner is a small monument to Samuel Butler, the author of a famous satire on the Puritans, called _Hudibras_. Samuel Butler lived from the reign of James I until after the Restoration, and died in 1680. Francis Beaumont, who wrote plays with John Fletcher, is buried close to Poets’ Corner with his brother, Sir John Beaumont, who was also a poet. He died in 1616. But, as we all know, far the greatest poet of those days was John Milton, whose monument is not far from the grave of Spenser.