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Ben Jonson

English playwright, poet, and actor (1572-1637)

14 dated entries naming Ben Jonson, drawn from 9 separate years between 1572 CE and 1637 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

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16th century

  • 1572June 11 – Ben Jonson, English dramatist (d. 1637)source
  • 1597July 28 – After the performance of the satirical play The Isle of Dogs, written by Thomas Nashe and Ben Jonson, at the Swan Theatre, the Privy Council of England concludes that the "lewd play" is full of seditious and slanderous matter. Jonson is arrested, along with two actors, Gabriel Spenser and Robert Shaa, and the three are sent to Marshalsea Prison. A raid on the home of Thomas Nashe seizes his papers, but Nashe is not found. The three prisoners are released later in the year and return to the stage. All copies of The Isle of Dogs script are destroyed.source
  • 1598July 10 – John Barrose, a Burgundian fencer who has challenged all comers and killed several, is hanged for murder. Barrose's story is dramatized by playwright Ben Jonson in Every Man in His Humour.source

17th century

  • 1602Ben Jonson's satirical comedy Poetaster.source
  • 1606July 24 – King Christian IV of Denmark, as the guest of his brother-in-law, King James of England, Scotland and Ireland, is welcomed at London, and the two monarchs are driven by coaches to a banquet at Theobalds House at Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. They are entertained by playwright Ben Jonson's play, The Entertainment of the Kings of Great Britain and Denmark.source
  • 1616"Drink to me only with thine eyes" comes from Ben Jonson's love poem, To Celia. Jonson's poetic lamentation On my first Sonne is also from this year.source
  • 1616December 25 – "Father Christmas" is a main character of Christmas, His Masque, written by Ben Jonson and presented at the court of King James I of England. Father Christmas is considered a papist symbol by Puritans, and later banished from England until the English Restoration. The traditional, comical costume for this jolly figure, as well as regional names, indicate that he is descended from the presenter of the medieval Feast of Fools.source
  • 1616February 1 – James I of England grants Ben Jonson an annual pension of 100 marks, making him de facto poet laureate.source
  • 1616January 1 – King James I of England attends the masque The Golden Age Restored, a satire by Ben Jonson on fallen court favorite the Earl of Somerset. The king asks for a repeat performance on January 6.source
  • 1616November 6–25 – Ben Jonson's works are published in a collected folio edition (the first of any English playwright).source
  • 1616October/November – Ben Jonson's satirical five-act comedy, The Devil is an Ass, is produced at the Blackfriars Theatre in London by the King's Men, poking fun at contemporary credence in witchcraft and Middlesex juries.source
  • 1618January 6 – Ben Jonson's play Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue is given its premiere performance, presented at the Palace of Whitehall in London.source
  • 1620January 7 – Ben Jonson's play News from the New World Discovered in the Moon is given its first performance, a presentation to King James VI and I. In addition to dialogue about actual observations made by telescope of the Moon, the play includes a fanciful discussion of a lunar civilisation, featuring a dance by the "Volatees", the lunar race.source
  • 1637August 6 – Ben Jonson, English writer (b. 1572)source

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